View source for Germinate - geminate

Do not confuse the [[verb]]s ‘to '''germinate'''‘ and ‘to '''geminate'''‘ or the corresponding [[nouns]] ‘'''germination'''‘ and ‘'''gemination'''‘.

The [[verb]] ‘to '''germinate'''‘ is used [[intransitive]]ly of seeds or spores, and means ‘to begin to grow (i.e., to put out shoots or develop new tissue)‘. Used [[transitive]]ly, it means ‘to cause (seeds or spores) to grow‘. The word is also used [[metaphor]]ically of, e.g., ideas or plans, as in ‘The idea of writing a history of the city '''germinated''' in the course of the year, while he worked on other projects‘.

The [[verb]] ‘to '''geminate'''‘, which may be used [[transitive]]ly or [[intransitive]]ly, means ‘to double, to arrange (or be arranged) in pairs‘. As well as the [[noun]] '''gemination''', there is also an [[adjective]], '''geminate''', meaning ‘doubled, arranged in pairs‘. All three of these words are used in the life sciences – a '''geminate''' leaf, e.g., is a compound leaf consisting of two leaflets – and in the study of language.

In linguistic contexts  ‘to '''geminate'''‘ and the related [[noun]] and [[adjective]] have three different uses. They may refer to:

*'''the doubling of a letter in a word'''. In English, for example, the final [[consonant]] in many [[monosyllabic]] [[verb]]s, such as ‘to chat‘, ‘to sin‘, ‘to pot‘, ‘to sip‘ is doubled in the [[past]] [[tense]] to produce ‘chatted‘, ‘sinned‘, ‘potted‘, ‘sipped‘: and so we may say that, e.g., the ‘t‘ in ‘chatted‘ is '''geminate''' or '''geminated'''. In Arabic ‘the base form of the ... [[verb]] ... can be extended by '''gemination''' of [[consonant]]s ...‘ (Eckehard Schulz, Günther Krahl, and Wolfgang Reuschel, ''Standard Arabic'', p. 178): e.g. with the [[verb]] ''fariha'', meaning ‘to be glad or happy‘, '''gemination''' of its second root [[consonant]] (''r'') produces ''farraha'', meaning ‘to gladden, to make happy‘. (Arabic [[verb]]s formed in this way, i.e., by '''gemination''' of their second root [[consonant]], regularly have [[causative]] or [[factitive]] force.)
::For English, AWE has an article on [[Consonant doubling]], and a [[:Category:Spelling pattern - doubled consonant|category of articles which reflect doubling of consonants]].

*'''the doubling or lengthening of a [[consonant]]al sound''' – such as the doubled ‘n‘ sound in the pronunciation of ‘thinness‘ or the doubled ‘l‘ sound in ‘soulless‘ or the doubled ‘t‘ sound in the Italian ''rottame'' or ''sotto''. (Note that in English, unlike, e.g., Italian, doubled [[consonant]]s are not usually pronounced as two sounds: e.g., the '''geminate''' ‘t‘ in ‘chatted‘ (above) is not pronounced differently from a single ‘t‘.)

*'''the immediate doubling or repetition of a word, phrase, or clause''' – for example, ‘It’s unbelievable, ... unbelievable‘ or ‘What he’s done is quite appalling, .... quite appalling‘. '''Gemination''' of this kind may be used for [[rhetoric]]al effect, e.g., to emphasise what is said, (Compare [[anaphora]].)

::[[Etymology|'''Etymological note''']]: Both ‘'''germinate'''‘ and ‘'''geminate'''‘ have Latin roots. ‘'''Germinate'''‘ comes from the [[Latin]] [[verb]] ''germinare'', ‘to sprout‘, and ‘'''geminate'''‘ from the [[verb]] ''geminare'', ‘to double, repeat‘ (from the [[adjective]] ''geminus'', ‘born at the same time, twin‘, which also gives us, in its [[plural]] form the name of the star-sign ([[Signs of the Zodiac|sign of the Zodiac]]) '''Gemini''' (the Twins)).
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