Picture a dry bean on a wet cloth. For two days nothing at all happens. Then the skin splits and a thin white root pushes out of the crack. Germinate is that moment and only that moment — the switch from still to growing. Everything afterwards, the stem, the leaves, the height, is grow. English keeps the word for the beginning, which is why it also fits the first small stirring of an idea.
可以想成一顆乾豆子放在濕棉布上。前兩天完全沒動靜。然後外皮裂開，一條細細白白的根從縫裡擠出來。germinate 抓住的就是那一刻——從靜止變成開始長。之後長莖、長葉、長高，那些都叫 grow。英文把這個字留給「開始」，所以一個念頭最初的那一點動靜，也能用同一個畫面來寫。
From the word’s history
The word comes from Latin germen, germinis, a shoot or bud, and the verb germino, to sprout or bud. So from the start it named the first shoot appearing, which is exactly what the modern core still is.
這個字來自拉丁文 germen（屬格 germinis），意思是「芽、嫩枝」，動詞 germinō 就是「發芽、長出來」。也就是說，它從最早就在講「第一個芽冒出來」那一刻，跟今天的核心畫面是同一件事。
Wiktionary, "germinate"
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。