Etymology: < German Organophylie (Haeckel Anthropogenie (ed. 3, 1877) i. 20) < organo- organo- comb. form + ancient Greek ϕῦλον tribe (see phylo- comb. form) + German -ie -y suffix3. Compare blastophyly n. at blasto- comb. form , cormophyly n. at cormo- comb. form , histophyly n. at histo- comb. form , homophyly n. at homo- comb. form 1, morphophyly n., physiophyly n.In the first edition of his work, Haeckel uses the term Organophylogenie ( Anthropogenie (1874) i. 18) to describe this development.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2004; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
n.1879