phene

[feen]

noun Biology.

any characteristic of an individual organism that is genetically determined.

Origin of phene

extracted from phenotype, or directly < Greek phaínein to show, (passive) to appear

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for phene

Historical Examples of phene

He had brought a book, and by-and-by opened at the part commencing, "Do not die, Phene."
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 5, No. 28, February, 1860
Various
Phene, betrothed to the French sculptor Jules, will be led this morning to her husband's home.
A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th ed.)
Mrs. Sutherland Orr
In the agony of his disappointment he is about to renounce Phene forever as the artists, waiting outside to sneer at him, expect.
How to Add Ten Years to your Life and to Double Its Satisfactions
S. S. Curry
His history is thus carried on beyond the point where we left him at the close of his interview with Phene.
Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning
Robert Browning
The timid voice goes on, saying the lines by rote as Phene had learned them—and hard indeed they must have been to learn!
Browning's Heroines
Ethel Colburn Mayne

Word Origin and History for phene

as an element in names of chemicals derived from benzene, from French phène, proposed 1836 by French scientist Auguste Laurent as an alternative name for "benzene" because it had been found in coal tar, a byproduct of the manufacture of "illuminating gas," from Greek phainein "to bring to light," (see phantasm). Related: Phenyl (radical which forms the basis of derivatives of benzene); pheno- (comb. form).