Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Genome
/ˈdʒiːnoʊm/noun
The complete set of genetic material in an organism.
The Greek roots
γένος
génos
birth, kind, race
σῶμα
sôma
body
Literally: “the gene body”
The story of the word
Hans Winkler cut the German word Genom out of Gen and Chromosom in 1920. Whether the ending is the -som of chromosome or the Greek -ωμα that gives rhizome is genuinely disputed, and Winkler never explained himself. The front half is not in doubt: γένος, birth or kind, the same word standing behind genus, genesis and genocide. The word waited seventy years for machines that could make it useful.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → German coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1930s
Same family
genegenesisgeneticschromosome
In a sentence
Sequencing a human genome now costs less than a used car.
The whole genome of that virus fits on a page.