seminal
adj.adj. describing a piece of work, like a book or a study, that is very original and influences everything that comes after it.
adj. highly influential in an original way, providing a basis for future development in a field. Often used to describe academic papers, artistic works, or historical events.
She wrote a seminal book on modern art.
The professor assigned the seminal 1953 paper that first described the structure of DNA.
His seminal research into linguistics fundamentally altered how scholars understand language acquisition, paving the way for decades of cognitive science studies.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *séh₁mn̥ Proto-Italic *sēmən Latin sēmen Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin sēminālis Old French seminalbor. Middle English seminal English seminal From Middle English seminal, semynal, from Old French seminal, seminale, from Latin sēminālis.
Typically used attributively before a noun; often paired with 'work', 'study', 'paper', or 'moment'.