cormogeny
English
Etymology
Learned borrowing from German Cormogenie, itself from Ancient Greek κορμός (kormós) + -genie; equivalent to Ancient Greek κορμός (kormós, “tree-trunk”) + -geny (“origin”).
Noun
cormogeny (usually uncountable, plural cormogenies)
- (historical, biology, theory of recapitulation, rare) The study of the evolution of the forms of nationalities, ethnicities, races, etc. by observing the supposed ontogenic recapitulation of that phylogeny.[1]
Usage notes
As the theory of recapitulation presupposes "lower"/"less advanced" and "higher"/"more advanced" evolutionary forms, its application to nationalities, ethnicities, and races is, by modern standards, problematic from the outset.
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References
- “cormogeny”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- ^ Ernst Haeckel (1874) “Das Grundgesetz der organischen Entwickelung” (chapter I), in Anthropogenie; oder, Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschen. Gemeinverständliche wissenschaftliche Vorträge über die Grundzüge der Menschlichen. Keimes- und Stammes-geschichte, volume 1, page 18; translated as “The Fundamental Law of the Evolution of Organisms”, in The Evolution of Man: A Popular Exposition of the Principal Points of Human Ontogeny and Phylogeny. From the German of Ernst Haeckel., 1897, page 24.