germination
nounEtymology From oblique stem of Latin germen, germinis (“shoot, sprout, bud”) + -ation, from Latin germinātiō, germinātiōnem (“sprouting, budding, growing”), from germinātus (“sprouted, budded, grown”), past participle of germinō (“to sprout, bud, grow”), from germen, germinis (“shoot, sprout, bud”). By surface analysis, germinate + -ion.
1
The process of germinating; the beginning of vegetation or growth from a seed or spore; the first development of germs, either animal or vegetable.
- Both groups, also, have already evolved precocious (intracapsular) spore germination.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 5:
- Derived terms
- nongermination, postgermination, pregermination