▪ I. embryo, n. and a.
(ˈɛmbrɪəʊ)
Also 6–7 embrio.
[med.L. corruption of embryon; the transliterated Gr. word was ignorantly regarded as of the third declension (genit. -ōnis), and the nom. case was assimilated to the normal Latin type. Cf. Ger. embryo, It. embrione.]
A. n.
1. The offspring of an animal before its birth (or its emergence from the egg): a. of man. In mod. technical language restricted to ‘the fœtus in utero before the fourth month of pregnancy’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.) (now, before the third month).
| [c 1350 Glanvil De Propr. Rer. vi. iii, Hec materia est pellicula embryonis.] 1590 Swinburn Treat. Test. 284 An vnperfect creature, or confused embrio. c 1645 Howell Lett. I. iii. xxix, The ripening of the Embryo in the womb. 1777 Phil. Trans. LXVII. 23, I found this liquor absorbed into the embrio. 1841 Emerson Meth. Nature Wks. (Bohn) II. 225 The embryo does not more strive to be a man, than..a nebula tends to be a ring. |
| fig. 1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. vii. 293 Lay undeveloped within the embryo of a single monosyllable. |
b. of animals.
| 1638 Chillingw. Relig. Prot. i. ii. §101. 91 Some yet are Embrio's, yet hatching, and in the shell. 1866 Tate Brit. Mollusks ii. 18 The embryos have a triangular shell. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit., Courage Wks. (Bohn) III. 105 The little embryo [of the snapping-turtle]..bites fiercely. |
| transf. 1874 Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. ii. §59 (1879) The larva..may be regarded as a mere active embryo. |
2. Bot. ‘The rudimentary plant contained in the seed’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex.).
| 1728 Thomson Spring 99 The promised fruit Lies yet a little Embryo..Within its crimson folds. 1842 Gray Struct. Bot. ii. (1880) 9 The Embryo is the initial plant, originated in the seed. |
† 3. Chem. A metal or other chemical substance not disengaged from its native state of combination. Also
attrib. Obs.| 1652 French Yorksh. Spa vi. 55 Metals and Minerals..in their..Embrioes. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Embryonatum Sulphur, Sulphur united to metals..in an embryo state. |
4. fig. A thing in its rudimentary stage or first beginning; a germ; that which is still in idea as opposed to what has become actual in fact.
| 1601 Sir J. Ogle in Sir F. Vere Comm. 146 The project itself was but an Embryo. a 1628 F. Greville Sidney (1652) 20 He bequeathed no other legacie but the fire, to this unpolished Embrio. a 1714 Burnet Own Time (1766) II. 218 Embrio's of things, that were never like to have any effect. 1863 Kinglake Crimea VI. iii. 37 There not being in all Great Britain any embryo of a Commissariat force. 1872 Morley Voltaire (1886) 10 Pale unshapen embryos of social sympathy. |
b. in embryo: in an undeveloped stage; ‘that is to be’. [?
orig. Lat., from
embryon.]
| 1636–7 N. Hobart in Verney Papers (1853) 188 There is a great preparation in embrio. 1685 tr. Gracian's Courtier's Orac. 215 Let every skilfull Master..have a care not to let his works be seen in embrio. 1742 Shenstone Schoolmistr. 24 There a chancellor in embryo. 1792 Anecd. W. Pitt III. xlii. 144 The indecent attempt to stifle this measure in embrio. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 395 The honourable Frederic G...was a diplomatist in embryo. 1868 Gladstone Juv. Mundi i. (1870) 9 The Greek nation, as yet in embryo. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
embryo-chick,
embryo-child,
embryo-germ,
embryo-life,
embryo-plant,
embryo-stage,
embryo-state; also
embryo-bud, ‘an adventitious bud, when enclosed in the bark, as in the cedar of Lebanon’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex.);
embryo-cell, the first cell of the fecundated animal ovum; also in
Bot. the germ in the embryo-sac of ferns, mosses, etc.;
embryo-sac,
Bot., a cavity in the ovule or the archegonium of a plant, within which the embryo is produced.
| 1835 Lindley Introd. Bot. (1848) I. 177 *Embryo-buds, certain nodules..in the bark of the Beech. |
| 1859 Todd Cycl. Anat. V. 4/1 The *Embryo-cell. |
| 1865 Livingstone Zambesi xv. 308 An egg is eaten here though an *embryo-chick be inside. |
| 1882 Med. Temp. Jrnl. I. 184 The *embryo-child is fed upon these intoxicants, before he is fairly in the world. |
| 1859 Todd Cycl. Anat. V. 134/2 The primitive..yolk-substance is employed in the formation of..*embryo-germ. |
| 1879 tr. Haeckel's Evol. Man I. i. 12 *Embryo-life within the egg-membranes. |
| 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 220 Subject to chemical analysis, the *embryo-plant yields certain complex bodies. |
| 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. i. iii. 24 This enlarged cell is called the *embryo-sac. |
B. adj. [From the
attrib. use of the
n.] That is still in germ; immature, unformed, undeveloped.
| 1684 T. Burnet The. Earth II. 135 In that dark womb usually are the seeds and rudiments of an embryo-world. 1742 Young Nt. Th. v. 99 Thou..in whose breast Embryo-creation..dwelt. 1798 Loves of Triangles 96 in Anti-Jacobin 23 Apr. (1852) 110 Flame embryo lavas, young volcanoes glow. 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing iii. 146 The embryo connoisseur. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey i. iii, Scribbling embryo prize-poems. 1853 C. Brontë Villette xxvii. The collegians he addressed..as embryo patriots. 1876 M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma 31 Philosophers dispute whether moral ideas..were not once inchoate, embryo. |
▪ II. embryo, v. nonce-wd. (
ˈɛmbrɪəʊ)
[f. prec. n.] trans. To represent in embryo.
| 1837 Blackw. Mag. XLII. 539 The fine reasonings they contain were..embryoed..in symbols. |