Other forms: germinated, germinating, germinates
To germinate is to begin to grow out of a seed. The seeds germinated, germinate in a week, fail to germinate.
Water, warmth and air are what start it, and light matters only for some species. The figurative use is common and gentle, so an idea germinates before anybody says it aloud.
1verbgerminateTo begin to grow out of a seed.
“Keep the pots warm and damp, and the tomato seeds should germinate within a week.”
germinate is a sprouting.
Latin germinare comes from germen, a shoot or sprout.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵenh₁-
Latin
germen — shoot, sprout, bud
English, today
germinate
Built from
From oblique stem of Latin germen (“shoot, sprout, bud”) -ate, from germinātus (“sprouted, budded, grown”), past participle of germinō (“to sprout, bud, grow”), from germen (“shoot, sprout, bud”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA