autogeny
- noun
- /ˌɔːtəˈdʒɛni/
- Archaic
:
autogenia
- The hypothesis of autogeny was eventually displaced by the concept of biogenesis.
Examples
-
Textbooks now refer to autogeny as a historical idea rather than current scientific theory.
-
In the nineteenth century, many scientists debated the plausibility of autogeny.
-
The theory of autogeny was once popular.
-
Many scientists now reject autogeny.
-
In the nineteenth century, many scientists debated the plausibility of autogeny.
-
Textbooks now refer to autogeny as a historical idea rather than current scientific theory.
-
The hypothesis of autogeny was eventually displaced by the concept of biogenesis.
Synonyms
1
9.8
The idea that living things can appear from nonliving matter without parents is now known to be wrong
1
9.9
A process in which life begins naturally from nonliving matter
A process that makes living things from nonliving matter
Surface Forms
Morphology
autogeny = auto + gen + y
The word appears to contain auto- plus a gen- element meaning birth or generation, but the scientific theory label is specialized and the meaning is not transparently recoverable for an average learner.
Etymology
Autogeny comes from Greek parts auto- meaning 'self' and -geny meaning 'birth' or 'origin', the same root as generate and genesis. So autogeny was the old idea that living things could 'be born by themselves' from nonliving matter, an idea now rejected by science.