Meanings
- uncountableThe philosophy that biology plays a larger role in determining human psychology or development than social, economic, or environmental factors.
Here the ghetto-centric individualism of the poor appears to have defeated the convenient bioessentialism of the elite.
2000, Paul Gilroy, Against Race: Imagining Political Culture Beyond The Color Line, page 2662 more examples
[…] this book investigates a Spiritualist ethos dedicated, not to indeterminacy, but to bioessentialism, racial and hereditary determinism, and the prenatal fixity of character.
2012, Christine Ferguson, Determined Spirits: Eugenics, Heredity and Racial Regeneration in Anglo-American Spiritualist Writing, 1848-1930, page 2Peterson's bioessentialism appeals to the spurned white man, cognizant of his financial and marital insecurity - his lack of social prominence is not his own fault, but due to the perversion of nature by the principle of egalitarianism, and without the demasculinating force of feminism, he could reach his full predestined potential.
2019 March, Samantha Bedford, “Jordan Peterson: Intellectual Or Imposter?”, in On Dit, University of Adelaide, page 37
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*gʷeyh₃-
- Ancient Greekβῐ́ος (bĭ́os)
- Ancient Greekβῐο- (bĭo-)
- Englishbio-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁es-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁ésti
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰuH-
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰúHt
- Proto-Italic*ezom~*som
- Old Latinesum
- Latinsum
- Latin*essēns
- Latinessentia
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
- Late Latinessentiālis
- Englishessential
- Englishessentialism
- Englishbioessentialism
From bio- + essentialism.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with bioessentialism
All rhymes →Cite this entry
bioessentialism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bioessentialism
“bioessentialism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bioessentialism. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bioessentialism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bioessentialism.
Source: bioessentialism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.