Embryons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Developing stages of an organism before birth, particularly in the early stages of growth
2. Early forms or beginnings of something in a conceptual or developmental sense
3. The initial state of biological development that precedes more advanced growth stages

Etymology: "Embryons" is simply the plural of "embryon", an older form of "embryo" that English borrowed from Medieval Latin, which had itself taken the word from Ancient Greek. The plural form, which keeps the Latin "-on" ending, is the one a reader will meet in older texts. In Greek, "émbruon" meant "newborn animal" or "embryo", built from "en" ("in") and "bruein" ("to swell, teem, be full of"). The sense was of something swelling or growing inside, a creature still forming within the womb or egg. Medieval Latin scholars adopted the term for the developing young of animals and humans, and the word passed into English in this learned form.

Synonyms: embryos