primordial soup

American  

noun

Biology.

1. the seas and atmosphere as they existed on earth before the existence of life, consisting primarily of an oxygen-free gaseous mixture containing chiefly water, hydrogen, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide.

2. a laboratory preparation containing the substances believed to have composed primordial soup, and used in experiments seeking to understand the origin of life.

---

primordial soup Scientific  

/ prī-môr′dē-əl /

1. A liquid rich in organic compounds and providing favorable conditions for the emergence and growth of life forms. Oceans of primordial soup are thought to have covered the Earth during the Precambrian Eon billions of years ago. The organic compounds in the primordial soup, such as amino acids, may have been produced by reactions in the Earth's early atmosphere, which was probably rich in methane and ammonia. The complex self-replicating organic molecules that were the precursors to life on Earth may have developed in this primordial soup.

---

Etymology

Origin of primordial soup

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

"And so life could have emerged from a simple, cold prebiotic primordial soup of RNA building blocks," explains Braun.

From Science Daily • Mar. 22, 2024

Other reality TV wedding circuses emerged from this primordial soup too, including a few that built an entire marriage-accessory block on TLC and a market for rubbernecking horror comedies like WEtv’s “Bridezillas.”

From Salon • Jan. 5, 2024

Some will have seen the character emerge from the primordial soup at the Groundlings.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 31, 2023

He, like many artists, tries to reclaim a childlike mind-set, and “this primordial soup of ecstatic, creative energy that kids have an endless amount of,” in his own practice.

From New York Times • Oct. 21, 2022

Stockton’s seascapes could depict today’s oceans or the primordial soup that preceded them; her “Bloom” series portrays flowers, but the buds also resemble cells.

From Washington Post • Feb. 20, 2020