germinate

English

Etymology

Latin germinātus, past participle of germināre (“to sprout”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɜː(ɹ)mɪneɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

germinate (third-person singular simple present germinates, present participle germinating, simple past and past participle germinated)

1. (intransitive, botany, horticulture) Of a seed, to begin to grow, to sprout roots and leaves.
   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     the Chalcites, which hath a Spirit that will put forth and germinate

   • 2014 April 5, “Quite interesting: A quietly intriguing column from the brains behind QI, the BBC quiz show. This week; QI orchids you not”, in The Daily Telegraph (Weekend), page W22:

     Orchids rely on fungi to reproduce. Their tiny seeds don't have any on-board nutrients (like beans and apples) and will not germinate until they are infected by a symbiotic fungus which supplies them with food. Known as a protocorm, this tiny orchid-fungus ball grows, turns green and eventually starts to photosynthesise.

   • 2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season [print version: Under the hemiparasite, International New York Times, 24–25 December 2014, page 7]”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 23 December 2014:

     […] The flesh [of the mistletoe berry] is sticky, and forms strings and ribbons between my thumb and forefinger. For the mistletoe, this viscous goop – and by the way, viscous comes to English from viscum – is crucial. The stickiness means that, after eating the berries, birds often regurgitate the seeds and then wipe their bills on twigs – leading to the seeds' getting glued to the tree, where they can germinate and begin the cycle anew.

2. (transitive) To cause to grow; to produce.
   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 5, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎^[2]:

     These were business hours, and a feeling of loneliness crept over him, perhaps germinated by his sight of the illustrated papers, and accentuated by an attempted perusal of them.

Synonyms

• ackerspyre (Chester)

Translations

sprout or produce buds

• Azerbaijani: cücərmək
• Bulgarian: покълвам (pokǎlvam), пониквам (bg) (ponikvam)
• Catalan: germinar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 發芽／发芽 (zh) (fāyá)

• Finnish: itää (fi)
• French: germer (fr)
• Galician: xerminar, xermolar (gl)
• Georgian: ამოსვლა (amosvla), აღმოცენება (aɣmoceneba), გაღივება (gaɣiveba)
• German: keimen (de)
• Gothic: 𐌺𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌽 (keinan)
• Greek: βλαστάνω (el) (vlastáno), φυτρώνω (el) (fytróno)
• Hungarian: csírázik (hu)
• Icelandic: spíra, skjóta frjóöngum
• Ido: jermifar (io)
• Latin: germinō
• Maori: kahu, tinaku
• Norwegian: spire (no)
• Romanian: germina (ro), încolți (ro)
• Russian: прорастать (ru) (prorastatʹ), прорасти́ (ru) pf (prorastí)
• Spanish: germinar (es)
• Swedish: gro (sv)
• Turkish: bitmek (tr), filizlenmek (tr)
• Ukrainian: пророста́ти impf (prorostáty), прорости́ pf (prorostý)
• Welsh: egino (cy)

cause to grow

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 產生／产生 (zh) (chǎnshēng), 形成 (zh) (xíngchéng)

• Finnish: idättää (fi)
• Hungarian: csíráztat (hu)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: egino (cy)

Anagrams

• germanite, reteaming

Italian

Verb

germinate

1. inflection of germinare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Anagrams

• emigrante, meringate, regimante, regimenta, remigante, tergemina

Latin

Participle

germināte

1. vocative masculine singular of germinātus

Spanish

Verb

germinate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of germinar combined with te