Definition of "plumule" []

• A down feather. (noun)
• Botany The rudimentary terminal bud of a plant embryo situated at the end of the hypocotyl, consisting of the epicotyl and often of immature leaves. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The part bearing the tiny leaves was formerly, and is sometimes now, called the plumule, but is generally called the epicotyl, because it grows above or upon the cotyledons."
• "For our "plumule" we have also "gemmule", and French has both of these too."
• "The word "plumule" struck me; it turns out it's pronounced PLOOM-yule /"plu:myu:l/, and it means 'rudimentary shoot, bud, or bunch of undeveloped leaves in a seed' (it's from Latin plūmula, the diminutive of plūma 'small soft feather, down'), so that "shoots and plumules of one's experience" is a very tasty phrase, incorporating both the visible (as it were) and the embryonic shoots sprouting up from the depths of our lived lives and mulish memories."