genetic
- 1Relating to genes, or to genetics as the scientific study of heredity.
Researchers compared the genetic profiles of several fish populations.
Her genetic background includes ancestry from three different continents.
Similargenomic
Note
The laboratory sense, though the word was not built from gene: it was coined from genesis, as antithetic was from antithesis, and only looks like gene plus a suffix. It usually sits before a noun in technical pairings such as genetic variation and genetic risk, and it takes no degrees. One variation is not more genetic than another. Used after a verb (the trait is genetic), it usually shifts to the "caused by genes" meaning.
- 2Brought about by an organism's genes rather than by environmental influences.
The condition is genetic, appearing in each generation of the family.
Studies suggest the disorder is largely genetic rather than tied to diet.
Similarhereditary, inherited, inborn, innate, heritable
Oppositeacquired, environmental
- 3Concerning the origin or beginning of something; relating to its genesis or first development.
The essay offers a genetic analysis of the constitution's earliest drafts.
Historians prefer a genetic approach, tracing each custom back to its source.
Similardevelopmental, historical, evolutionary
Note
Here the word stays nearest its root in genesis, with no biology in sight. The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art for 1858 calls the sun "the prime genetic agent of earthquakes," meaning the force that sets them going. Today the sense survives mostly in scholarly phrases like a genetic account or method, which trace something back to how it began. Context has to tell the reader that no genes are involved.
- 4Describing the relationship of languages that descend from a common ancestor, sharing membership in one family.
The genetic classification groups Hindi and Persian within the same family.
Linguists established a genetic connection between Finnish and Hungarian.
Similargenealogical, phylogenetic
Note
Linguists use a family-tree picture: languages have ancestors, daughters and sisters, and a genetic relationship means common descent. The test is inheritance, not resemblance. Chinese has borrowed several words from English, yet the two languages have no genetic relationship, because loans pass sideways between languages rather than down from a shared parent. The usual pairings are genetic relationship and genetic classification.
- 5Describing religions related through descent from a shared origin, as members of one tradition or family.
The genetic relationship among the Abrahamic religions traces back to a shared origin.
Their genetic kinship explains the overlapping stories found in both traditions.
Similargenealogical
Note
Comparative religion applies the descent model of the linguist's sense to faiths, grouping traditions by lineage rather than by shared doctrine. Koji Yamashiro (2016), discussing Guy Stroumsa's term Abrahamic religions, stresses the genetic relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He notes that monotheism, their most obvious common belief, is not always central to it. The adjective points to shared history, not to similar beliefs.
Practice
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Origin
Coined from "genesis" (much like "antithesis" gives "antithetic"), reflecting Ancient Greek γενετικός (genetikós), from γένεσις (génesis). It ultimately traces back to Ancient Greek γίγνομαι (gígnomai, "I come into being").