Ab`i*o*gen"e*sis (#), n. [Gr. priv. + life + , origin, birth.] Biol.
The supposed origination of living organisms from lifeless matter; such genesis as does not involve the action of living parents; spontaneous generation; -- called also abiogeny, and opposed to biogenesis.
I shall call the . . . doctrine that living matter may be produced by not living matter, the hypothesis of abiogenesis.
Huxley, 1870.
© Webster 1913.