culture
cul·ture / ˈkəlchər/ • n. 1. the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. ∎ a refined understanding or appreciation of this: men of culture. ∎ the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group: people from many different cultures. ∎ the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group: the drug culture.2. Biol. the cultivation of bacteria, tissue cells, etc., in an artificial medium containing nutrients: the cells proliferate readily in culture. ∎ a preparation of cells obtained in such a way: the bacterium was isolated in two blood cultures. ∎ the cultivation of plants.• v. [tr.] Biol. maintain (tissue cells, bacteria, etc.) in conditions suitable for growth.ORIGIN: Middle English (denoting a cultivated piece of land): the noun from French culture or directly from Latin cultura ‘growing, cultivation’; the verb from obsolete French culturer or medieval Latin culturare, both based on Latin colere ‘tend, cultivate’ (see cultivate). In late Middle English the sense was ‘cultivation of the soil’ and from this (early 16th cent.) arose ‘cultivation (of the mind, faculties, or manners)’; sense 1 dates from the early 19th cent.