Etymology

r/K selection theory

Today it means: A theory regarding the selection of combinations of traits in an organism that represent a trade-off between quantity and quality of offspring. Full definition →

German Kapazitätsgrenze
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The story

  1. German · derived fromKapazitätsgrenze“capacity limit”
  2. English todayr/K selection theory

Coined by the American ecologists Robert H. MacArthur and E. O. Wilson in 1967. The choice of the letter K came from the German Kapazitätsgrenze (“capacity limit”), while r came from rate.

Words from the same roots

GermanKapazitätsgrenze all →

K-selection

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.