Embryonic
Etymology
From "embryo," which comes through Latin from Greek embryon, "young one, that which grows within," built from en-, "in," and bryein, "to swell, grow." The literal picture is of something swelling into being while still enclosed. The figurative use extends this to any project or idea still in its unformed, gestating stage.
adjective · /em-bree-ON-ik/
In an early, undeveloped stage, containing the seed of what it may later become.
What it names
The word for something at its rudimentary beginning — an embryonic idea, an embryonic organization — with the sense that its full form is still folded up inside it.
Example
The plan for the museum existed only in embryonic form — a few sketches and a name scribbled on a napkin.
Related idea
Nascent stresses that something has just been born into the world; embryonic stresses that it is still developing and not yet ready to stand on its own.