| 释义 |
epigenetic, a. and n. pl.|ˌɛpɪdʒɪˈnɛtɪk|
[f. epigenesis, on the analogy of genetic.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to, or of the nature of, epigenesis.
1883W. Arthur Fernley Lect. 160 Epigenetic progress from germ to organ. 1887Mind Oct. 629 He..contends for an ‘epigenetic’ as distinguished from an evolutionary view of the origins of civilisation.
2. Phys. Geogr. and Geol. (a) Of a natural drainage system, = superimposed ppl. a. 1 b (Cent. Dict. Suppl., 1909); (b) applied to a deposit of later origin than the rocks among which it occurs (opp. syngenetic a. 2).
[1886F. Richthofen Führer f. Forschungsreisende vi. 174 Man kann die hier dargestellten Bildungen als epigenetische Erosionsthäler bezeichnen.] 1905J. Geikie Struct. & Field Geol. xvi. 233 Epigenetic Ore-Formations. The formations included under this head are of later age than the rocks with which they are associated or in which they occur. 1914Min. Mag. XVII. 72 ‘Epigenetic’..still is used antithetically to the term ‘syngenetic’ by writers on ore deposits, to describe a deposit the age of which is subsequent to that of the rocks in which it occurs. 1937Wooldridge & Morgan Phys. Basis Geogr. xiv. 205 Such a drainage system is called superimposed or epigenetic. Ibid. xxii. 401 ‘Epigenetic gorges’ through ridges, due to superimposition of drainage. 1965[see autoradiograph n.].
B. n. pl. (See quot. 1942.)
1942C. H. Waddington in Endeavour Jan. 18/2 The..more important part of the task is to discover the causal mechanisms at work, and to relate them as far as possible to what experimental embryology has already revealed of the mechanics of development. We might use the name ‘epigenetics’ for such studies, thus emphasizing their relation to the concepts, so strangely favourable to the classical theory of epigenesis, which have been reached by the experimental embryologists. 1952― (title) The epigenetics of birds. Ibid. (title-p.), ‘Epigenetics’. The science concerned with the causal analysis of development.
Hence epigeˈnetically adv. |