seminal

Reader's Digest 11月号にあった "The Brain in the World, A burgeoning science explores the deep imprint fo culture" と言う記事からの抜粋です。
A few years ago, Shinobu Kitayama and colleagues at the University of Michgan conducted a seminal study that highlighted some of the differences between Eastern and Western thinking that Gladwell observed in the Korean Air case.
Korean Air caseと言うのはこの記事の冒頭にあるのですが、１９９７年に操縦士のミスで起きたKorean Air Flight 801のグァムの空港着陸時の事故の事で、操縦士がミスを冒していることをfirst officerとflight engineerが気が付いていたのにも関わらず、韓国人の年上の人に極端に敬意を払う性格が原因で操縦士に注意しなかったと報告された事件です。その原因を解明したのが "seminal study " なのですが、この"seminal" が分かりません。
・American Heritage Dictionary: Highly influential in an original way; constituting or providing a basis for further development: a seminal idea in the creation of a new theory.
・V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionary: original and influential, especially of ideas revolutionary for their time; It was a seminal movie that changed the way people looked at the use of technology in filmmaking. (creative, original); He played a seminal role in finding the cure for the disease. (influential, important)
Tips: Seminal is derived from semen, which means "seed." Seminal still means "full of semen or seeds" in a biological sense, but has also come to mean "creative and influential," possibly out of the notion that seeds bring a growth of possibilities and influence change. Something seminal is important because of its ability to influence change.
私には "seminal idea" を出す能力はありませんが、せめてこの単語の意味だけでもしっかりと覚えたい。