repr. Gr. βίο- stem and comb. form of βίος ‘life, course or way of living’ (as distinct from ζωή ‘animal life, organic life’). Hence, in compounds formed in Greek itself, as biography, βιογραφία; and in modern scientific words in which bio- is extended to mean ‘organic life.’
Bio-bibliographical a., dealing with the life and writings of an author. Bioblast [Gr. βλαστός sprout, germ], (Biol.) a minute mass of amorphous protoplasm having formative power. Biocentric a., treating life as a central fact. Biochemic, -al a., pertaining to the chemistry of life. Biodynamic, -al a., of or relating to biodynamics. Biodynamics, that part of biological science that treats of vital force, or of the action of living organisms. Biogen (see quot.). Biognosy, a proposed general term for the ‘life-sciences.’ Biokinetics (see quot.). Biolytic a., life-destroying. Biomagnetic a., of or pertaining to animal magnetism. Biomagnetism, animal magnetism. Biometer, a measurer of life. Biometry, the measurement of life; the calculation of the average duration and expectation of life. Biophysiologist, an investigator of the physiology of living beings. Bioscope, a view of life; that which affords such a view. Biostatic, -al a., of or pertaining to biostatics. Biostatics, that part of biological science that treats of structure as adapted to act, as distinguished from biodynamics or biokinetics.
1809. Southey, Lett. (1856), II. 162. This collectanea may be formed into a biobibliographical and critical account.
1880. Athenæum, 25 Dec., 845/3. One more instalment will complete the biobibliographical part.
1869. Wallis, Delitzsch’s Bibl. Psychol., 273. To substitute for Scripture a knowledge of that biochemical process.
1874. Lewes, Prob. Life & Mind, I. 129. The biostatical and the biodynamical—i. e. the consideration of the structure ready to act; and the consideration of the structure acting.
1882. E. Coues, Biogen (1884), 62. The substance of the soul, to which I apply the name ‘biogen,’ seems to correspond closely to what Prof. Crookes calls the ‘fourth state of matter’;… It is the ‘od’ of Prof. Reichenbach.
1883. C. A. Cutter (Boston), Classif. Nat. Sci., 4. In Biognosy the specials [Phytognosy, Zoognosy] contain subdivisions brought together in a group for convenience of treatment.
1883. Long, in Education, III. 587. Biokinetics will consider them [organisms] in the successive changes through which they pass during the different stages of their development.
1865. Reader, 25 Feb., 213/1. A life table … is an instrument of investigation; it may be called a biometer, for it gives the exact measure of the duration of life under given circumstances.
1882. Pop. Sci. Monthly, XXII. 169. The eminent biophysiologist, William B. Carpenter.
1824. W. Bayley (title), Bagman’s Bioscope: Various Views of Men and Manners.
1874. Lewes, Prob. Life & Mind, I. 115. These may be classed (by a serviceable extension of the term Statics) under the heads of Biostatics and Psychostatics.
1885. Athenæum, 28 Feb., 285/1. The inquiry was limited to the biostatics and anthropometry of the Ashkenasim Jews.
