prenucleus

pre- +‎ nucleus

prenucleus (not comparable)

1. Occurring before the development of a nucleus

prenucleus (plural prenuclei)

1. Non-subject elements that are placed at the beginning of a clause before the subject in an interrogative. (e.g. "which one" in "which one did you pick?").
   • 2019, Anne Lacheret-Dujour; Sylvain Kahane; Paola Pietrandrea, Rhapsodie: A prosodic and syntactic treebank for spoken French:

     We have identified three kinds of peripheral constituents: ad-nuclei (i.e., pre-nuclei, in-nuclei and post-nuclei), associated nuclei and IU openers.

2. A partially formed nucleus that is still developing.
   • 1959 ·, Doklady: biological sciences sections - Volumes 128-131, page 212:

     In egg nucleus one prenucleus in which the chromosomes are developing . This prenucleus could have been formed as a result of fusion of nucleolus and sperm ;

• purulences