allele

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from German Allel,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} a shortening of Allelomorph, itself from the English word allelomorph.^[2][1] Barnhart leaves open whether it was borrowed from German or shortened independently in English,^[8] and the OED, in its entry revised in 2012, takes it as a shortening within English of allelomorph, comparing a German adjective of the same spelling meaning "allelomorphic", recorded from 1923.^[9] Allelomorph was coined in 1902 by William Bateson and Edith Rebecca Saunders,^[1][9] from Ancient Greek ἀλλήλων (allḗlōn, “of one another”) and μορφή (morphḗ, “form”).^[8][7][1] The Greek pronoun comes from ἄλλος (állos, “other”),^[8][1][7] a cognate of else,^[8] from Proto-Indo-European *al- (“beyond”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Each of the alternative forms of a gene: Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1921.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from a 1928 paper by G. H. Shull in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,^[9] and Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1931.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

The word replaced the longer allelomorph, which the OED and Collins now treat as the same term;^[9][10] Barnhart defines it as one of a pair of alternative genetic characters,^[8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged keeps both that older Mendelian sense, of contrasting characters such as two kinds of seed coat in peas, and the gene sense.^[3] The adjective allelic and the noun allelism date from the mid-20th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 1902 – allelomorph, the longer form, in Bateson.^[9]
• 1921 – allele, an alternative form of a gene.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from 1928.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of two or more alternative forms of a gene that can occupy the same locus on homologous chromosomes.^[3][10][9]
2. Either of a pair of contrasting Mendelian characters.^[3][8]

Word family

• allelic
• allelism
• allele frequency

Related words

• allelomorph
• allelo-
• allelopathy
• else

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins