preembryon.

a1897 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Preëmbryo, term for the inferior of the two cells opposite to the micropyle in the vegetable ovule which, by its growth and division, gives rise to the embryo.

1933 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 20 516 The fertilized egg grows out into a slender suspensor which carries the one-celled pre-embryo into the interior of the endosperm, where it develops.

1970 Evolution 24 142 The f₁ seeds of species hybrids showed necrosis 4 to 5 days after fertilization, and the preembryos appeared to be ‘floating into the ovule cavity’.

1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 15 Oct. 968/2 The amphibolic factor by its continued presence and influence..on the germ-cells and sperm-cells, the pre-embryo, embryo, and its primordial germ-cells, &c., renders it impossible for the germ elements..to live the charmed life of isolation.

1960 Jrnl. Criminal Law 51 138/1 Biologists removed from the pre-embryo of a lizard those cells which were ordained to be the lizard's tail.

1979 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) June 42/3 They are preembryos because separated cells from the early cleavage stages of the eggs of nonhuman mammals (and most likely of human eggs) can each give rise to a whole embryo in twinning, and because cells can be deleted from the early clusters..and a single embryo can still result.

1985 Daily Tel. 24 Sept. 11/6 The Government will no doubt produce legislation about the disposal of what we have called the ‘pre-embryo’ (the conceptus up to 14 days).

2003 Jrnl. Law, Med. & Ethics (Nexis) 22 June 272 Another problem..was the transfer of preembryos to infertile women..without the consent of the progenitor couples.