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Webster 1913 Edition


Polygenism

Po-lyg′e-nism

(pō̍-lĭj′ē̍-nĭz’m)
,
Noun.
[Cf. F.
polygénisme
.]
(Biol.)
The doctrine that animals of the same species have sprung from more than one original pair.

Definition 2024


polygenism

polygenism

English

Noun

polygenism (uncountable)

  1. (ethnology) The belief that humans descended from more than one ancestral pair.
    • 2003: Such pigmental indelibility spelt polygenism for some: blacks formed a distinct species altogether, a separate creation. — Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (Penguin 2004, p. 248)