in nuce

Latin

Etymology

From in +‎ nuce, the ablative singular of nux (“nut”): literally, “in a nut”.

Adverb

in nuce (not comparable)

1. in a nutshell; briefly stated
   • c. 77 [1669], Pliny the Elder, translated by Harris Rackham, William Henry Samuel Jones, David Edward Eichholz, Naturalis Historia [Natural History], book 7, published 1938:

     in nuce inclusam Iliadem Homeri carmem in membrana scriptum tradit Cicero.

     Cicero records that a parchment copy of Homer's poem The Iliad was enclosed in a nutshell.

2. in the embryonic phase; said of something which is just developing or being developed