English → Latin
“germ” in Latin
germenshoot, sprout, bud; germ, seed, origin; embryo, fetusasparagusasparagus; shoot, sprout-like asparagus, samphirecȳmayoung sprout or spring shoot of cabbage; hollow sphere; spherical layer, stratumsēmenseed (of plants); semen; graftignisfire; beacon, signal by fireinitiumbeginning, start; a going in, entrance; rites, mysteriesmalusunpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad; unpleasant to the senses, sight, smell, taste, touch; bad, evil, wicked, mdiscordiadisagreement, dissension, variance, discordvirtūsmanhood, manliness, virility; courage, valor, resoluteness, gallantry; virtue, goodness
The English word germ itself goes back to Latin germen.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
germ
PROPR., germen: asparagus (the asparagus-like germ of several plants; ☞ Plin., 23, 1, 17; 21, 15, 54): cyma (young, tender germ, especially of the cabbage tribe). To destroy the germ of a plant, fetum reprimere (☞ Cic., Brut., 4, 16, Meyer).
IMPROPR., semen (the seed; e.g., malorum, discordiarum): igniculus, especially in plur., igniculi (the first sparks; e.g., virtutum): initium (general term for beginning of anything): ☞ germen, in this sense, is without good ancient authority, except poetically, Lucr., 4, 1079. To destroy or crush the first germ of anything, aliquid primo tempore opprimere et exstinguere: things apparently unimportant often contain the germ of great events, ex rebus primo aspectu levibus magnarum saepe rerum motus oriuntur.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for germ?
- The usual Latin words for “germ” are germen, asparagus, cȳma; also sēmen, ignis, initium. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.