germino

Forms

germinō (present infinitive germināre, perfect active germināvī, supine germinātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin germen (“shoot, sprout”) with the first-conjugation verbal suffix -ō.^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives germen from an older *gen-men, formed on the root of gignō (“to beget”) and reflecting Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁-mn- (“germ, seed”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest citation in the OLD is in Horace's Epodes, where the shoot of the never-failing olive sprouts: germinat ... numquam fallentis termes olivae.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant to put out shoots or bud, and in Pliny the Elder also of buds and fruit forming;^[2][5] Apuleius has seeds germinating.^[2] Pliny also used it transitively, of putting forth feathers or hair, and Statius of places growing plants.^[2][5] The TLL notes syncopated forms such as germinasse in Pliny and the Vulgate.^[3]

Ecclesiastical Latin used it for bringing forth, budding and springing up.^[6] English borrowed it as germynen in the mid-15th century, and germinate appeared about 1600.^[7]

Timeline

• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of an olive tree putting out shoots.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of buds and of putting forth hair.^[2][5][8]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of places growing plants.^[2][8]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of seeds germinating.^[2][8]
• c. 1600 – Germinate appears in English.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put out shoots, sprout, bud.^[2][5]
2. Of seeds: to germinate.^[2]
3. (transitive) To put forth, grow (feathers, hair, plants).^[2][5]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To bring forth, spring up.^[6]

Word family

• congerminō
• ēgerminō
• germinascō
• germinātiō
• germinātus
• praegerminō
• prōgerminō
• regerminō

Related words

• germen

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de