a. [f. med.L. embryōn-em + -IC.]
1. Pertaining to, or having the character of, an embryo.
1849. Murchison, Siberia, xx. 483. The first or embryonic idea of the archetype.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., xiv. (1873), 396. Community in embryonic structure reveals community of descent.
1863. M. J. Berkeley, Brit. Mosses, iii. 21. The embryonic cell.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 220. Within the … pea, there is inclosed a perfect, though embryonic plant.
2. fig. Immature, undeveloped.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Manners, Wks. (Bohn), II. 49. Every Englishman is an embryonic chancellor.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., i. 46. The parts of speech lay undeveloped in a kind of embryonic common sound.
