Germとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /d͡ʒɜːm/
• (General American) enPR: jûrm, IPA: /d͡ʒɝm/
• 韻: -ɜː(ɹ)m

名詞

germ (plural germs)

1. (biology) The small mass of cells from which a new organism develops; a seed, bud, spore, or zygote.
   1. The embryo of a seed, especially of a seed used as a cereal or grain. See Wikipedia article on cereal germ.
   2. (biology) The small mass of cells from which a part of an organism develops, or a macroscopic but immature form of that part; a bud.

      Coordinate term: vesicle

      Derived terms: germectomy

      surgical removal of germs of wisdom teeth

2. A pathogen: a pathogenic microorganism, such as a bacterium or virus.
   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Stolen Bacillus:

     'This again,' said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the microscope, 'is a preparation of the celebrated Bacillus of cholera - the cholera germ.'

3. (figurative) The origin or earliest version of an idea or project.

   the germ of civil liberty

   • 1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities:

     Now all his ponderings, however excursive, wheeled round Isabel as their center; and back to her they came again from every excursion; and again derived some new, small germs for wonderment.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 194:

     What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth? - the dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires.

4. (mathematics) An equivalence class that includes a specified function defined in an open neighborhood.

派生語

関連する語

派生した語

• → Tok Pisin: jem

動詞

germ (third-person singular simple present germs, present participle germing, simple past and past participle germed)

1. To germinate.
   • 1909, Thomas Hardy, The Flirt's Tragedy:

     Thus tempted, the lust to avenge me / Germed inly and grew.

2. (slang) To grow, as if parasitic.
   • 2011, Black Eyed Peas, Just Can't Get Enough:

     I’m addicted, want to germ inside your love

参考

• bacteria
• microbe
• parasite
• virus

Further reading

• “germ”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “germ”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.