Biol. [f. Gr. ἄβιος without life (f. ἀ priv. + βίος life) + γένεσις birth: see GENESIS.] The (supposed) origination or evolution of living organisms from lifeless matter without the action of living parents; ‘spontaneous generation.’ (Introduced by Prof. Huxley in addressing Brit. Assoc. at Liverpool, Sept. 1870.)
1870. Huxley, in Brit. Assoc. Rep., lxxvi. To save circumlocution, I shall call … the doctrine that living matter may be produced by not-living matter, the hypothesis of Abiogenesis.
1875. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2), s.v., Abiogenesis, as a name for the production of living by not-living matter, has of late been superseding the less accurate phrase ‘Spontaneous Generation.’
