Meanings
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1
noun
historical botany: the ovary of a flower, containing the ovules and developing into the fruit after fertilization
Pollen from the other species caused the germen to swell even though no mature seed formed.
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2
noun
biology, archaic: a germ, seed, bud, or earliest rudiment from which an organism develops
The naturalist described the minute germen from which the new structure arose.
Thesaurus
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin germen, 'sprout, bud, seed, or offspring,' related to gignere, 'to beget.' Germen and germ are doublets. Linnaean botanists used germen specifically for the flower part now called the ovary.