eugenics
[yoo-jen-iks]
- the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).
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Origin of eugenics
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for eugenics
Contemporary Examples
Eugenics is a word that made everyone at the event uncomfortable.
Want Blue Eyes With That Baby?: The Strange New World of Human ReproductionEleanor Clift
November 24, 2014
Why the sterilization and eugenics programs are running in different countries in one way or another under the umbrella of UNO.
The very subject evokes dark visions of forced sterilization and the eugenics horrors of the early 20th century.
Penn State Sex-Abuse Case Revives Issue of Using Chemical CastrationMichelle Cottle
November 11, 2011
Watch a montage of his many references, from SS uniforms, to the Third Reich, to eugenics.
The attempt to “breed back” the Auroch of Teutonic legend was of a piece with the Nazi obsession with racial purity and eugenics.
Historical Examples
I try so hard not to be afraid of men, for I know they are necessary to eugenics.
City of Endless NightMilo Hastings
They may be bad for your work, but they are worse for eugenics.
City of Endless NightMilo Hastings
It is a sin of our race that the Eugenics Office should have bred out--but they have failed.
City of Endless NightMilo Hastings
It is here that the ideals of Eugenics may be expected to work fruitfully.
The Task of Social HygieneHavelock Ellis
The only compulsion we can apply in eugenics is the compulsion that comes from within.
The Task of Social HygieneHavelock Ellis
eugenics
- (functioning as singular) the study of methods of improving the quality of the human race, esp by selective breeding
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Word Origin
C19: from Greek eugenēs well-born, from eu- + -genēs born; see -gen
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for eugenics
n.
1883, coined (along with adjective eugenic) by English scientist Francis Galton (1822-1911) on analogy of ethics, physics, etc. from Greek eugenes "well-born, of good stock, of noble race," from eu- "good" (see eu-) + genos "birth" (see genus).
The investigation of human eugenics, that is, of the conditions under which men of a high type are produced. [Galton, "Human Faculty," 1883]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
eugenics
(yōō-jĕn′ĭks)- The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
eugenics
[(yooh-jen-iks)]
The idea that one can improve the human race by careful selection of those who mate and produce offspring.
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Note
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.