anthropogenic

Etymology

It is formed from English anthropo- + -genic,^[2][3][4] in its first sense after anthropogeny, the origin of humankind;^[2] Etymonline derives it from that noun and -ic.^[5] The first element is from Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos, “human being”),^[5] and the second goes back, partly through French -gène, to Ancient Greek -γενής (-genḗs).^[2] The noun anthropogeny was modelled on New Latin anthropogenia and, in its sense "the origin of humankind", on German Anthropogenie, used by Haeckel in 1874.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to human origins or human development: 1883, in the new edition of Ogilvie's Imperial Dictionary,^[2] the date Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives;^[3] the 1989 edition of the OED had 1889,^[6] and Etymonline dates the adjective to 1847.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word first belonged with anthropogeny and anthropogenesis, the study of how humans came to be.^[2][5] In 1923 A. G. Tansley used it in Practical Plant Ecology for what originates in human activity,^[2] and this sense, the effect of people on nature, is the one Merriam-Webster's Collegiate gives alone, with pollutants as its example.^[7][3] Collins gives pollution as the typical case.^[8] The OED records the matching noun sense of anthropogeny, the extent to which something originates in human activity, from 1973.^[2]

Timeline

• 1883 – relating to human origins or development.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the word to 1847.^[5]
• 1923 – originating in or caused by human activity.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Caused or produced by human activity, especially in its effects on the natural world: anthropogenic changes in river flow.^[3][8][2][7]
2. Relating to anthropogenesis or anthropogeny, the origin and development of humans.^[3][2][8]

Word family

• anthropogenically

Related words

• anthropogeny
• anthropogenesis
• Anthropocene

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins