Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RU'DI-MENT, n. [Fr. from L. rudimentum. If connected with erudio, it denotes what is taught, and erudio may be connected with the Goth. rodyan, to speak, Sax. rædan, to read. But the real origin is not obvious. It may have formed from some word in Rd, signifying to shoot or spring.]

1. A first principle or element; that which is to be first learnt, as the rudiments of learning or science. Articulate sounds are the rudiments of language; letters or characters are the rudiments of written language; the primary rules of any art or science are called its rudiments. Hence instruction in the rudiments of any art or science, constitutes the beginning of education in that art or science.
2. The original of anything in its first form. Thus in botany, the germen, ovary, or seed bud, is the rudiment of the fruit yet in embryo; and the seed is the rudiment of a new plant. Martyn. Rudiment, in natural history, is also an imperfect organ; one which is never fully formed. Thus the flowers in the genus Pentstemon, have four stamens and a rudiment of a fifth, (a simple filament without an anther.) God beholds the first imperfect rudiments of virtue in the soul. Spectator.