Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The first leaf which rises above the ground in the germination of grain; also the rudimentary stem or first leaf which appears in malted grain; the developed plumule of the seed.
  • To throw out the first leaf; sprout.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To put forth the first sprout.
  • noun (Bot.) The sprout at the end of a seed when it begins to germinate; the plumule in germination; -- so called from its spiral form.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun botany The sprout at the end of a seed when it begins to germinate.
  • verb To put forth the first sprout.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • If the acrospire be suffered to proceed, the mealy substance melts into a liquid sweet, which soon passes into the blade, and leaves the husk entirely exhausted.

    The American Practical Brewer and Tanner Joseph Coppinger

  • The vegetation of the grain, together with the turning, will by this time make the watering pot necessary; the criterion by which you will judge of its fitness for the water, is as soon as you perceive the root or acrospire begins to wither.

    The American Practical Brewer and Tanner Joseph Coppinger

  • This, or even less than this, is contended for by many maltsters, as a sufficient advance of the acrospire, which, they say, has done its business, so soon as it has passed the middle of the kernel.

    The American Practical Brewer and Tanner Joseph Coppinger

  • By this is meant the farthest advance of the acrospire, when it is just bursting from its confinement, before it has effected its enlargement.

    The American Practical Brewer and Tanner Joseph Coppinger

  • By the slow mode of conducting vegetation here recommended, an actual and minute separation of the parts takes place; the germination of the radicles and acrospire carries off the cohesive properties of the barley, thereby contributing to the preparation of the saccharine matter, which it has no tendency to extract, or otherwise injure, but to increase and meliorate, so long as the acrospire is confined within the husk; and by as much as it is wanting of the end of the grain, by so much does the malt fall short of perfection; and in proportion as it is advanced beyond, is that purpose defeated.

    The American Practical Brewer and Tanner Joseph Coppinger

  • It is at first perfect at the instant the kernel is going to send forth the acrospire, and form itself into the future blade; it is again discovered perfect when the ear is labouring at its extrication, and hastening the production of the yet unformed kernels; in this it appears, the medium of nature's chemistry, equally employed by her in her mutation of the kernel into the blade, and her formation thus of other kernels, by which she effects the completion of that circle to which the operations of the vegetable world are limited.

    The American Practical Brewer and Tanner Joseph Coppinger

  • When the acrospire has shot but half the length of the grain, the lower part only is converted into that mellow saccharine flour we are solicitous of, whilst the other half exhibits no other signs of it than the whole kernel did at its first germination: let it advance to two thirds of the length, and the lower end will not only have increased its saccharine flavour, but will have proportionably extended its bulk, so as to have left one third part unmalted.

    The American Practical Brewer and Tanner Joseph Coppinger

Comments

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  • The wintering earth cannot respire

    But Spring brings a sun grown higher,

    And warm penetration

    A great exhalation

    With mist to nurture the acrospire.

    January 10, 2015