abiogenesis
/ˌeɪbaɪəʊˈdʒɛnəsɪs/
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).
abiogenesis means the origination of living organisms from lifeless matter; such genesis as does not involve the action of living parents. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.
Why this word is great
ABIOGENESIS — [Noun] The origination of living organisms from lifeless matter; the natural process by which life arises from non-life. From the Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, "not") + βίος (bíos, "life") + γένεσις (génesis, "origin, birth"), coined in 1870 by T.H. Huxley. Unlike biogenesis (the iron law that life begets life) or spontaneous generation (the discredited fancy for mice from rags or maggots from meat), abiogenesis is the singular, monumental exception—the first, necessary breach. It is the lightning strike through a primordial atmosphere, the self-replicating shudder in a chain of nucleotides, and the first fragile membrane deciding what was self and what was soup—the solitary chemical fluke from which all subsequent inheritance flows.
noun
- The origination of living organisms from lifeless matter; such genesis as does not involve the action of living parents.“And thus the hypothesis that living matter always arises by the agency of pre-existing living matter, took definite shape; […] It will be necessary for me to refer to this hypothesis so frequently, that, to save circumlocution, I shall call it the hypothesis of Biogenesis; and I shall term the contrary doctrine—that living matter may be produced by not living matter—the hypothesis of Abiogenesis.”