genus

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin genus (“birth, descent, origin, race, stock, kind”), also "gender".^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The Latin noun is cognate with Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “race, kind”) and γόνος (gónos, “birth, offspring”),^[3][8][2] and with English kin;^[3][9][8] it is formed from Proto-Indo-European *gene- (“to give birth, beget”).^[4][10][5] Weekley notes that genus and species were adopted in Latin to render the Greek génos and εἶδος (eîdos) as Aristotle used them.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In logic, a class or kind of things that includes several subordinate kinds, called species: 1551, in Thomas Wilson's Rule of Reason.^{[2][3][4][11]}

Semantic evolution

The biological sense, a group of related species, is recorded from 1608, in Edward Topsell's Historie of Serpents;^[2][3] Etymonline dates it to about 1600.^[4] Johnson (1755) explained genus as a class of beings containing many species, giving quadruped as an example.^[12] From 1649 the word was also used of any kind or class, often with a glance at the biological sense.^[2] In other sciences it was similarly used from 1666 to 1830,^[2] and in music since 1763 for each of the three scales of ancient Greek music.^[2] Swift (1720) quoted Horace's genus irritabile vatum, the touchy race of poets.^[2]

Timeline

• 1551 – (logic) a class containing several species.^[2][3]
• 1608 – (biology) a group of related species.^[2][3]
• 1649 – any kind or class.^[2]
• 1720 – genus irritabile, the irritable race of poets.^[2]
• 1763 – (music) a scale of ancient Greek music.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (biology) A rank in the classification of living things, below a family and above a species, or a group at this rank: The lion and the tiger belong to the same genus.
2. (logic) A class of things that can be divided into two or more subordinate classes, or species.
3. A class, kind or group with common characteristics.

Word family

• pseudogenus
• form genus
• type genus

Related words

• general
• generic
• generate
• generation
• gender
• genocide
• genre
• gens
• kin
• species

Usage notes

The plural is genera,^[13][14] and genuses is also found.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press