germ

Etymology

From Middle French germe, from Latin germen (“bud, seed, embryo”). Doublet of germen.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɜːm/
• (General American) enPR: jûrm, IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɝm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)m

Noun

germ (plural germs)

2. (biology) The small mass of cells from which a new organism develops; a seed, bud, spore, or zygote.
   1. The embryo of a seed, especially of a seed used as a cereal or grain. See Wikipedia article on cereal germ.
   2. (biology) The small mass of cells from which a part of an organism develops, or a macroscopic but immature form of that part; a bud.

      Coordinate term: vesicle

      Derived terms: germectomy

      surgical removal of germs of wisdom teeth

4. A pathogen: a pathogenic microorganism, such as a bacterium or virus.
   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Stolen Bacillus:

     'This again,' said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope, 'is a preparation of the celebrated Bacillus of cholera - the cholera germ.'

6. (figurative) The origin or earliest version of an idea or project.

   the germ of civil liberty

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 194:

     What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth? - the dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires.

8. (mathematics) An equivalence class that includes a specified function defined in an open neighborhood.

Verb

germ (third-person singular simple present germs, present participle germing, simple past and past participle germed)

1. To germinate.
   • 1909, Thomas Hardy, The Flirt's Tragedy:

     Thus tempted, the lust to avenge me / Germed inly and grew.

2. (slang) To grow, as if parasitic.
   • 2011, Black Eyed Peas, Just Can't Get Enough:

     I’m addicted, want to germ inside your love

Etymology

From Proto-Iranian *garmáh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *gʰarmás, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰor-mó-s. Cognate with Persian گرم (garm) and English warm.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛɾm

Adjective

germ (comparative germtir, superlative germtirîn)

1. warm

Etymology

From Proto-Iranian *garmáh, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *gʰarmás, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰor-mó-s. Cognate with Persian گرم (garm) and English warm.

Adjective

germ

1. warm