Pl. summa genera. [L., summum (see prec.), genus kind.] The highest or most comprehensive division in a classification; in Logic, a genus that is not considered as a species of a higher genus.
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse, Wks. 1904, I. 235. The diuell, which is the Summum genus to vs all. Ibid. (1593), Christ’s T., ibid. II. 41. I my selfe haue no enemy but Pryde, which is the Summum genus of sinne.
1843. De Quincey, Ceylon, Wks. 1890, VII. 455. In the running over hastily the summa genera of products by which Ceylon will soon make her name known to the ends of the earth.
1870. McCosh, Laws Disc. Thought, I. § 35. 28. If we take all things, the Summum Genus is Being; if we take merely an order of things, the Summum Genus is the highest in that order; thus Plant is the Summum Genus in Botany.
