Seedling
/ˈsiːd.lɪŋ/noun
A young plant grown from a seed.
Did you know?“Seedling” is built from the same ancient root as words for sowing and seed across Germanic languages, tying it to humanity’s oldest act of turning deathlike earth into future life.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*seh₁-
“to sow, scatter seed”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*sēdjǭ / *sēdiz
“seed, that which is sown”
Old English
OE
sǣd
“seed; offspring; race”
Middle English
ME
sedling / seedling
“a young plant grown from seed”
Modern English
English
seedling
“a young plant grown from a seed”