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‖ genus|ˈdʒiːnəs|
Pl. ‖ genera |ˈdʒɛnərə|. Also 7–8 genuses, 7 genus's.
[L. genus, -eris, birth, race, stock, kind, genus = Gr. γένος, -εος (same meanings), Skr. jánas, f. Aryan root *gen- to beget, produce, be born: see kin.]
1. Logic. A class or kind of things which includes a number of subordinate kinds (called species) as sharing in certain common attributes; a general concept. (One of the five predicables, q.v.)
Each species is distinguished from all the others in the genus by the possession of some peculiar attribute or group of attributes, called its ‘specific difference’ or differentia.
highest genus (L. summum genus), one which does not become subordinated as species to a higher genus; subaltern genus, one which is also a species of some higher genus.
1551T. Wilson Logike B v a, Genus is a general word, the which is spoken of many that differ in their kind..Or els thus, Genus is a general worde, vnder the whiche diuers kindes or sortes of things are comprehended. 1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 34 Tell mee if you haue not a more familiar insight into anger, then finding in the Schoolemen his Genus and difference. 1586E. Hoby Pol. Disc. Truth Ep. ⁋iij b, In the first, all vertues handled, the trueth, as it were genus vnto them..in the other, is intreated of all kinde of vices, and lying accounted as genus thereunto. 1616Rich Cabinet 135 Souldier is a name of that honour, that it is the genus of vallure and valiant men. 1644Digby Nat. Bodies xiv. 118 Rarity and Density..can not change the common nature of Quantity, that is, their Genus, which by being so to them, must be vniuocally in them both. 1651Hobbes Govt. & Soc. vii. §1. 109 We have already spoken of a City by institution in its Genus; we will now say some⁓what of its species. 1654Jer. Taylor Real Pres. 222 Substance is the highest Genus in that Category. 1668Wilkins Real Char. 22, I shall first lay down a Scheme or Analysis of all the Genus's or more common heads of things belonging to this design; and then shew how each of these may be subdivided by its peculiar Differences. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iii. iii. (1695) 228 This may shew us the reason, why, in the defining of Words..we make use of the Genus, or next general Word that comprehends it. 1725Watts Logic iii. iii. §3 So substance is the remote genus of bird or beast; because it agrees not only to all kinds of animals, but also to things inanimate..But animal is the proximate or nearest genus of bird, because it agrees to fewest other things. 1827Whately Logic (1850) Index, Genus, a Predicable which is considered as the material part of the Species of which it is affirmed. 1851Mansel Prol. Log. 183 The Highest Genus in any special science is the general class, comprehending all the objects whose properties that science investigates..In Geometry, for example, under the summum genus of magnitudes in space, we find [etc.]. 1862Burton Bk. Hunter (1863) 38 You individualise your object by showing in what it differs from the others of the genus.
2. a. Zool. and Bot. A classificatory group comprehending a number of species (sometimes a single species) possessing certain common structural characteristics distinct from those of any other group.
The determination of genera, and of what characteristics are to be considered generic, is more or less arbitrary and empirical, and admits of continual alteration according to current knowledge of facts and ideas of classification in the respective sciences. The genus ranks next under the family or sub-family, and above the species; it is sometimes divided into sub-genera. The generic and specific names (always in Latin or considered as Latin) together form the scientific proper name of an animal or plant, the generic name standing first and being written with an initial capital. (The zoological term the genus Homo is popularly current as a somewhat flippant or jocular synonym for ‘mankind’ or ‘the human race’.)
1608Topsell Serpents (1658) 682 Because there be many kindes of Crocodiles, it is no marvel although some have taken the word ‘Crocodilus’ for the genus; and the several species they distinguish into the Crocodile of the Earth, and the Water. 1683Ray Corr. (1848) 134 The description..is scarce sufficient to determine to what genus it belongs, much less whether it be a nondescript species. 1691― Creation i. (1692) 203 The greatest and most luxuriant Species in most Genera of Plants are Native of the Mountains. 1755Gentl. Mag. XXV. 33 When the shells are distributed according to their proper classes and tribes, nothing remains but to remark their less essential differences, by which they are subdivided into genuses and species. 1807J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 404 Lychnis dioica has the Stamens on one plant, the Pistils on another, though the rest of the genus has them united in the same flower. 1834T. Medwin Angler in Wales I. 97, I was speaking of adders some time back: do you consider them of one genus? 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. ii. (1873) 47 The larger genera..tend to break up into smaller genera. 1860Once a Week 22 Sept. 353/2 Peter..may turn out a magnificent specimen of the genus homo.
Comb.1851–6Woodward Mollusca Pref. 2 The blundering and bad spelling of English and French genus-makers.
†b. Similarly used in classifications of other sciences (see quots.). Obs.
[1599Thynne Animadv. (1875) 41 ‘Porpherye’ you expounde ‘marble’, whiche marble ys genus, but purpherye is species.] 1666G. Harvey Morb. Angl. v. (1672) 13 If minerals are not convertible into another Species, though of the same Genus, much less can they be surmised reducible into a Species of another Genus. 1807T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 630 The genus sulphates contains several salts of considerable importance. 1811Pinkerton Petral. I. p. i, Hence in mineralogy some eminent writers entirely reject Genera; while others, with Daubenton, say that there are no Species. 1816Accum Chem. Tests (1818) 207 This fluid precipitates many of the genera of metals. 1830R. Knox Béclard's Anat. 53 M. Chaussier has arranged the organs under twelve genera, the twelfth comprehending the viscera or compound organs.
3. Mus. Each of the three scales in ancient Greek music.
1763J. Brown Poetry & Mus. v. 62 The three Genera or Kinds of the Greek Melody. 1842Brande Dict. Sci., etc., Genus in Music, the general name for any scale of music. If a scale proceed by tones, it is called the diatonic genus; if between the tones semitones are introduced, it is called the chromatic genus. When the subdivisions are smaller, as quarter tones, it is called the enharmonic genus. 1867Macfarren Harmony i. 5 The true genera of the Greek system.
4. gen. A kind, class, order, tribe, etc. (Often with reference, more or less explicit, to sense 2.)
1649J. Cooke K. Charles' Case 9 It seems to me, that the Lord renounces the very Genus of such Kings as are there mentioned. 1691Ray Creation i. (1692) 6 Animate Bodies are divided into four great Genera or Orders, Beasts, Birds, Fishes and Insects. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 356 We cannot think it for the good of the human species, or the animal genus. 1789Bentham Princ. Legisl. xviii. §13 Let us..branch out the several divisions of that class as above exhibited into their respective genera. 1816T. L. Peacock Headlong Hall i, Other varieties of the same genera, namely, men of taste and philosophers. 1818Moore Fudge Fam. Paris i. 5 ‘A Dandy’ describes what I mean, And Bob's far the best of the genus I've seen. 1820Edin. Rev. XXXIV. 136 The following short passage contains a picture of one, we trust, of the lost genera of the native Irish. 1844Disraeli Coningsby iv. v, The days of the genus Jawster Sharp were over in this borough. 1880Manch. Guard. 25 Oct., The proprietors ‘rarely or never resident in Ireland’ are only one species of the genus absentee.
5. genus irritabile (vatum) [after Horace, Ep. ii. ii. 102], the irritable or over-sensitive race or class (of poets).
1721Swift Let. to Young Poet 23 These of your Profession have been call'd Genus irritabile vatum. 1818Keats Let. (1958) I. 386 That matter..which is accounted so acceptable in the ‘genus irritabile’. 1838Dickens Let. (1965) I. 398 Your great patience is so exemplary and peculiar that I fear you will never make an author, as you can never be one of the genus irritabile. 1940‘N. Blake’ Malice in Wonderland vii. 86 The Mad Hatter realized he was of the genus irritabile of singers, so he doped the piano for him, knowing it would make him fly off the handle. |