meiosis

Pronunciation

• IPA: /maɪˈəʊ.sɪs/ (UK); /maɪˈoʊ.sɪs/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It comes from Ancient Greek μείωσις (meíōsis, “a lessening, diminution”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from meioûn “to lessen”, from meíōn “less”.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The biological term is New Latin.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In rhetoric, a figure of speech that presents something as less in size or importance than it really is (1586 in the OED; 1550 in Merriam-Webster).^[7][5][4]

Semantic evolution

In rhetoric it also came to mean litotes, as “not bad” for “very good” (1642).^[7][4] In pathology it named the stage of a disease when the symptoms begin to abate (1857).^[7] The biological sense, the division of a cell that halves the number of chromosomes, is from 1905.^[3][4][7]

Timeline

• 1586 – a figure of understatement.^[7]
• 1642 – litotes.^[7]
• 1857 – the abating stage of a disease.^[7]
• 1905 – cell division halving the chromosomes.^[3][4][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The process of cell division in sexually reproducing organisms that reduces the number of chromosomes by half, producing gametes or spores.
2. Rhetorical understatement, especially litotes.

Word family

• meiotic
• meiotically

Related words

• mitosis
• litotes
• minor

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press