English
germ
Germ comes from Middle French germe ‘seed’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- ‘to produce’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵenh₁-‘to produce’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵénh₁mn̥‘offspring”, “seed’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*genamenreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgermen‘bud, seed, embryo’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600germe‘seed’
- Englishearliest quotation 1852germ
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵenh₁-‘to produce’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵénh₁mn̥‘offspring”, “seed’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*genamenreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEgermen‘bud, seed, embryo’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600germe‘seed’
- Englishearliest quotation 1852germ
Earliest quotation: 1852, Herman Melville: “Now all his ponderings, however excursive, wheeled round Isabel…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- ‘to produce’
kind, king, nature, general, nation, engine, native, pregnant, generation, ken, genuine, genetic, genius, gender, gene, indigenous, oxygen, gentle, genre, naive, hydrogen, genocide, kin, noel, innate, natal, genus, nee, genital, nativity, nada, ingenious, nascent, naïve, janata, puny, gentile, cognate, glycogen, jaunty, 115 more
Today it means
noun The embryo of a seed, especially of a seed used as a cereal or grain. See Wikipedia article on cereal germ.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- / germ