abiologicaladj.
/ˌeɪbʌɪəˈlɒdʒᵻkl/, U.S. /ˌeɪˌbaɪəˈlɑdʒək(ə)l/ Not relating to biology; relating to the study of inanimate things. Also: not involving living organisms, abiogenic, inorganic.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > study > [adjective] > biology > not
abiological1868
non-biological1882
abiologic1900
unbiological1950
the world > life > [adjective] > devoid of or harmful to
barren1879
abiological1981
1868 H. B. Jones Croonian Lect. ii. 63 In the abiological sciences the earliest ideas of matter were quite separate from the ideas of force.
1925 Mind 34 72 Proceeding upwards from abiological events to biological events, one asks: Is there here a jump, with new qualities and new properties after the jump?
1963 Proc. 6th World Petroleum Congr. I. 483/1 Oceanographic factors important to petroleum can be grouped into categories such as..alteration (biological and abiological oxidation and other chemical changes).
1981 G. Porter in W. Palz et al. Energy from Biomass 672 We may seek to construct an abiological photosynthetic system.
2002 S. J. Gould Struct. Evolutionary Theory i. 85 Kauffman's powerful notion of..adaptive configurations that emerge from the ahistoric (even abiological) nature of systems, and need not be explained by particular invocations of some functional force like natural selection.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1868