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Darwinism

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: darwinism

English

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WOTD – 12 February 2026
A c. 1868 photograph of Charles Darwin by Julia Margaret Cameron.
An 18th-century portrait of Erasmus Darwin by Joseph Wright of Derby.[n 1] The word Darwinism is derived from the surnames of both men, who were grandson and grandfather.

Etymology

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From Darwin +‎ -ism (suffix forming names of schools of thought, systems, or theories), from the surname of the English natural philosopher, physician, and poet Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), and his grandson the biologist, geologist, and naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882).[1]

The word was apparently first applied in noun sense 1 (“Charles Darwin’s theory regarding the evolution of living organisms through natural selection”) by the English anthropologist and biologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) in 1860: see the quotation.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Darwinism (countable and uncountable, plural Darwinisms)

  2. (evolutionary theory, uncountable) Charles Darwin's theory regarding the evolution of living organisms through natural selection (set out chiefly in his works On the Origin of Species, 1859; and The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871); also, belief in this theory.
    Synonym: Darwinianism
    1. (uncountable) Short for neo-Darwinism (“the synthesis of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection with the modern genetic understanding of heredity”).
    2. (by extension) Chiefly preceded by a descriptive word.
      1. (biology, uncountable) Any of various theories in biology which apply aspects of Darwin's theory (noun sense 1) such as adaptation, competition, or gradual evolution; also, belief in such a theory.
      2. (pseudoscience, uncountable) Any of various theories, now generally discredited, which apply aspects of Darwin's theory (noun sense 1) to other situations such as the development of ideas, organizations, or social groups.
        social Darwinism
      3. (generally, countable, uncountable) A process of gradual evolution; also, ruthless competition for achievement or survival.
  3. (biology, poetic, historical) Erasmus Darwin's poetic style, or theory of natural philosophy suggesting that living organisms developed from simpler lifeforms (set out in his work Zoonomia, 1794–1796).
    Synonym: Darwinianism (poetry, rare)
    • 1840 January–April, “Article IV. The Poetical Works of P[ercy] B[ysshe] Shelley. London: Moxon. 1839 [book review].”, in The British and Foreign Review; or, European Quarterly Journal, volume X, number XIX, London: Richard and John Edward Taylor, […], →OCLC, page 105:
      The blank verse of Queen Mab differs little from that measure as it appears in the poems of Akenside, who exercised considerable influence over such poets as escaped from the popular vortex of Darwinism.

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ From the collection of the Wolverhampton Art Gallery in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom.

References

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  1. ^ The template Template:R:OED Online does not use the parameter(s): 
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    Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.    “Darwinism, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2024.; “Darwinism, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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