Genes
/dʒiːnz/noun
Units of heredity that carry biological information from parents to offspring.
Did you know?The word *gene* was coined in 1909 by Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen from Greek *genos* (“birth, offspring, race”), so its name is literally tied to lineage and becoming.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ǵenh₁-
“to beget, give birth, produce”
Ancient Greek
Greek
γένος (génos)
“birth, descent, kind, race”
Latin
Latin
genus
“birth, stock, kind, class”
1909
Danish/Scientific English
gene
“a unit of heredity”
Modern English
English
genes
“plural of gene; units of heredity”