Etymology

xenobiology

X8E1N1O1B3I1O1L1O1G2Y4

Today it means: The speculative biology of extraterrestrial life forms. Full definition →

English biology ← New Latin biologia ← Ancient Greek βίος (bíos)
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Hellenic*ksénwos
  2. Ancient Greekξένϝος (xénwos)
  3. Ancient Greekξένος (xénos)
  4. Englishxeno-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*gʷeyh₃-
  6. Ancient Greekβίος (bíos)
  7. New Latinbiologia
  8. Englishbiology
  9. English todayxenobiology

From xeno- + biology. Sometimes attributed to science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.