phylogeny
nounUK /faɪˈlɒd͡ʒəni/ · CA, US /faɪˈlɑd͡ʒəni/
Etymology Borrowed from German Phylogenie, coined by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, a neologism created as if borrowed from a Classic Greek word φυλογένεια (phulogéneia), composed from Ancient Greek φῦλον (phûlon, “tribe, genus, species”) + -γένεια (-géneia, “-geny (generation, production)”), equivalent to phylo- + -geny.
1
The evolutionary history of groups of organisms, such as species or clades.
- It was a bestiary more than a hundred years old, its entries organised by a quaintly outdated phylogeny and illustrated with hand-tinted plates.2022, Paul McAuley, Beyond the Burn Line, Gollancz, page 43:
2
Informal A phylogenetic diagram.
- Holonym: tree of life
3
The historical development of a human social or racial group.
- Understanding the phylogeny of this musical group helps us understand its music.
4
The historical development of any thing, idea, etc.
- Indeed, in a recent review article, Mithen (2009) traces the phylogeny of human communication […]2010, The Journey of Child Development, →ISBN:
- Synonyms
- phylogenesis
- Derived terms
- blastophyly, cophylogeny, cormophyly, cytophylogeny, geophylogeny, histophyly, macrophylogeny, megaphylogeny, monophylogeny, morphophyly, ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, organophyly, phylogenist, physiophyly, polyphylogeny, subphylogeny
- Related terms
- phylogenetics, phylogenic, phylesis, ontogeny, philoxenia