germ (jerm). 1

The primitive rudiment of an animal or vegetable organism, of a particular part of such organism, or of anything (material or of the nature of a proce ) that may be developed. 2. In botany, the ovary, the embryo, or the bud. 3. A microbe, a bacterium, dental g. An embryonic tooth, disease g's. Microorganisms to which, or to certain products of their proce es of growth, various infectious diseases are attributed. enamel g. Of Kolliker (1863), the invagination or downward growth of the malpighian layer of the oral epithelium along the line of the jaws. By special growth at various points it appears to become divided into segments, each of which becomes the enamel of a tooth. [Lat, germen, a microbe, or bacterium.]