The original or primitive form of protoplasm in a developing embryo, especially before cell differentiation occurs.
From Greek 'archi-' meaning 'primitive' and 'plasma' meaning 'formed substance,' describing the undifferentiated cytoplasm of early embryos.
Early biologists were obsessed with finding the 'original' substance of life, so they added 'archi-' to everything—'archiplasm' was supposed to be the primordial goo before it became cells, but we now know it's way more complex.
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