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abiogenesis

noun
/ˌeɪbaɪəʊˈdʒɛnəsɪs/UK/ˌeɪˌbaioʊˈd͡ʒɛnəsɪs/US

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not-”, the alpha privative) + βῐ́ος (bĭ́os, “life”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”)) + γένεσις (génesis, “origin, source; manner of birth; creation”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis (“birth; production”)); equivalent to abio- + genesis. The words biogenesis and abiogenesis were both coined by English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) in 1870 (see the quotation).

  1. derived from *ǵénh₁tis✻ — “birth; production”
  2. derived from *gʷeyh₃-✻ — “to live”
  3. derived from ἀ- — “not-”

Definitions

  1. The origination of living organisms from lifeless matter

    The origination of living organisms from lifeless matter; such genesis as does not involve the action of living parents.

    • Life began. There was one abiogenesis when something happened to turn inanimate matter into animate cells. And it happened only once. There are no abiogeneses today. Human life is continuous. Human persons are discontinuous and individual.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for abiogenesis. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA