germen

Forms

germen n (genitive germinis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *genamen, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁mn̥ (“offspring, seed”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget”).^[1] De Vaan, who lists it among the derivatives of gignō, gives the noun as *ǵenh₁-mn- (“germ, seed”).^[2] The ⟨r⟩ comes by dissimilation from an older *genmen;^[1] the OLD and the TLL compare carmen beside canō.^[3][4] Etymonline calls the origin uncertain and the link with the root only possible.^[5] Isidore of Seville connected it with gerō “to bear”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it first in Lucretius,^[2][6] who uses it figuratively of the “germs” from which the madness of love springs (rabiēs unde illaec germina surgunt).^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is a shoot or sprout, chiefly in poetry and in prose after Augustus.^[7] Virgil uses it of a bud from another tree set into a graft,^[3][7][8] Statius of flower buds and even of the balsam that oozes from its shrubs,^[3] and Pliny the Elder of the sprouting of trees.^[3][8]

From plants it passed to living offspring: Ovid uses it of the child in the womb, Claudian of a god's daughters, Justin of a slave stock, and Nemesianus of puppies.^[7][8] Claudian also calls jewels the germina of the sea and horns the germina of the brow.^[7][8] In Prudentius it means origin or descent.^[7][8] Ecclesiastical Latin uses it of shoots, fruit and produce.^[9]

British medieval writers used it for shoots and, figuratively, for the seeds of virtue or of a quarrel, and of persons for a family line.^[10] It survives in Italian germe and French germe;^[8][5] English germ came through French, first as “bud, sprout” in the mid-15th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it figuratively for the seeds of a passion.^[2][7][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a grafted bud.^[3][7][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of an unborn child.^[7][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of sprouting.^[3][6]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of flower buds.^[3][6]
• mid-15th century – English borrows it, through French, as germ.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shoot, sprout or bud; also a flower bud.^[3][7][8]
2. Sprouting, germination.^[3][8]
3. (poetic) A resinous exudation (of the balsam shrub).^[3]
4. (figurative) Offspring; an embryo or child; of animals, young.^[7][8]
5. (figurative) A germ, source, origin.^[7][8]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Fruit, produce.^[9]
7. (Medieval Latin) A family line, race.^[10]

Word family

• germānus
• germinō
• germināscō

Related words

• germinātiō
• germinātus
• English germ

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press