Rootstock

Origin

root + stock

Full definition of rootstock

Noun

1. (agriculture) A healthy plant that is used as the base for grafting a scion
2. (by extension) The necessary basis for something to develop
• 2009, January 30, Simon Jenkins, For real secrets we already have the one-and-a-half-year memoir rule, We know more - vastly more - about how we are governed, and that knowledge is the rootstock of consent.