Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Ontogeny
/ɒnˈtɒdʒəni/noun
The development of an individual organism from fertilised egg to adult form.
The Greek roots
ὄν
ón
being, that which is
γένεσις
génesis
origin, coming into being
Literally: “the coming-to-be of a being”
The story of the word
Ernst Haeckel built the German Ontogenie in 1866 as the partner of phylogeny, then compressed both into his slogan that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Biologists spent the next century dismantling that claim; the two words outlived it. The first half is a participle of einai, to be, the same piece standing inside ontology.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
phylogenyontologygenesisbiogenesis
In a sentence
The paper tracks skull shape through the whole ontogeny of the species, from hatchling to adult.