Noah Webster
Germ
GERM, noun [Latin germen.] In botany, the ovary or seed-bud of a plant, the rudiment of fruit yet in embryo. It is the base or lower part of the pistil, which, in the progress of vegetation, swells and becomes the seed-vessel.
1. Origin; first principle; that from which any thing springs; as the germ of civil liberty, or of prosperity.