LATENT

La"tent, a. Etym: [L. latens, -entis, p. pr. of latere to lie hid or

concealed; cf. Gr. lethargy: cf. F.latent.]

Defn: Not visible or apparent; hidden; springs of action.

The evils latent in the most promising contrivances are provided for

as they arise. Burke.

Latent buds (bot.), buds which remain undeveloped or dormant for a

long time, but may at length grow. Latent heat (Physics), that

quantity of heat which disappears or becomes concealed in a body

while producing some change in it other than rise of temperature, as

fusion, evaporation, or expansion, the quantity being constant for

each particular body and for each species of change.

-- Latent period. (a) (Med.) The regular time in which a disease is

supposed to be existing without manifesting itself. (b) (Physiol.)

One of the phases in a simple muscular contraction, in which

invisible preparatory changes are taking place in the nerve and

muscle. (c) (Biol.) One of those periods or resting stages in the

development of the ovum, in which development is arrested prior to

renewed activity.