Neuroblast

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An immature embryonic cell that has the capacity to divide and mature into a nerve cell in the developing nervous system
2. A primitive precursor cell in the early embryo that will eventually differentiate into one of the brain's or spinal cord's neurons
3. A undifferentiated germ cell found in developing nervous tissue, able to give rise to mature nerve cells during growth

Etymology: Neuroblast is built from two Greek-derived elements. "Neuro-" comes from Greek "neuron", meaning sinew, tendon or nerve, a sense that the ancient Greeks used for the fibrous cords of the body before the nervous system was understood as a distinct structure. "-blast" comes from Greek "blastos", meaning bud, shoot or germ, and it appears in English words for cells or structures in an early stage of development. Put together, the compound describes a cell that is a germ of a nerve cell: a young, not yet fully formed cell that will later mature into a neuron. The "-blast" element follows the same pattern as "osteoblast", a bone-forming precursor, and "fibroblast", a connective-tissue precursor. Each names an immature cell by the tissue it will become.