Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small gemma or similar structure, especially a reproductive structure in certain sponges that remains dormant for some time and later develops into a new individual.
- noun A hypothetical particle in the theory of pangenesis, postulated to be produced by cells and to be responsible for transmitting traits from parent to offspring.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In biology, one of the hypothetical living units conceived by Darwin as the bearers of the hereditary attributes of animals and plants.
- noun In botany: A small bud or gemma.
- noun The plumule.
- noun An ovule.
- noun In zoology, a little bud; a small gemma.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A little leaf bud, as the plumule between the cotyledons.
- noun One of the buds of mosses.
- noun One of the reproductive spores of algæ.
- noun An ovule.
- noun A bud produced in generation by gemmation.
- noun One of the imaginary granules or atoms which, according to Darwin's hypothesis of pangenesis, are continually being thrown off from every cell or unit, and circulate freely throughout the system, and when supplied with proper nutriment multiply by self-division and ultimately develop into cells like those from which they were derived. They are supposed to be transmitted from the parent to the offspring, but are often transmitted in a dormant state during many generations and are then developed. See
Pangenesis .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun biology A small
gemma orbud ofdormant embryonic cells produced by some freshwatersponges - noun obsolete A
hypothetical particle once thought to be the basis ofheredity
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the physically discrete element that Darwin proposed as responsible for heredity
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word gemmule.
Examples
-
Who cares, after all, that Darwin got his physical theory of inheritance wrong (basing it on a nonexistent entity called the "gemmule")?
What's Not in Your Genes Orr, H. Allen 2003
-
Darwin's keen analogy of the fertilization of plants by pollen renders development from without conceivable, but as there are no insects to convey gemmules to their destination, each kind of gemmule would have to be exceedingly numerous and easily attracted from amongst an inconceivable number of other gemmules.
Are the Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited? An Examination of the View Held by Spencer and Darwin
-
The "gemmule" of a Halimeda contained several articulations united, ready to burst their envelope, and become attached to some basis.
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1 Charles Darwin 1845
-
In this regard, he likened Darwin's gemmule theory to Newton's corpuscular theory of light and the molecular theory of matter.
Chauncey Wright De Groot, Jean 2009
-
For our "plumule" we have also "gemmule", and French has both of these too.
-
Any part of a gemmule would be an impossible (because a _less_ than possible) quantity.
On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart
-
It is remarkable that Mr. Darwin brings forward in support of gemmule fission, the observation that "Thuret has seen the zoospore of an alga divide itself, and both halves germinate."
On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart
-
We can easily conceive a being so small, that a gemmule would be to it as large as St. Paul's would be to us.
On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart
-
Each gemmule, according to Mr. Darwin, is really the seat of powers, elective affinities, and special tendencies as marked and mysterious as those possessed by the physiological unit of Mr. Spencer, with the single exception that the former has no tendency to build up the whole living, complex organism of which it forms a part.
On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart
-
What wonder then that such an excessively complex body should divide and multiply; and what parity is there between such a body and a gemmule?
On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.