xenia

noun

xe·​nia ˈzē-nē-ə  -nyə 

: the effect of genes introduced by pollen especially on endosperm and embryo development

Word History

Etymology

latinization of German Xenie (plural Xenien) "an instance of xenia," borrowed from Greek xenía "hospitality, welcome," from xénos "stranger, visitor, guest" + -ia -ia entry 1

Note: The term was introduced by the German physician and botanist Wilhelm Olbers Focke (1834-1922) in Die Pflanzen-Mischlinge: Ein Beitrag zur Biologie der Gewächse (Berlin, 1881), p. 511: "Ich schlage daher vor, solche Abweichungen von der normalen Gestalt oder Färbung, welche an irgend welchen Theilen einer Pflanze durch die Einwirkung fremden Blüthenstaubes hervorgebracht werden, als Xenien zu bezeichnen, gleichsam als Gastgeschenke der Pollen spendenden Pflanze an die Pollen empfangende." ("I thus suggest that such deviations from normal form or coloration that have been produced on any parts of a plant through the action of foreign pollen should be called Xenien, as if they were gifts of a guest from the plant dispensing the pollen to the one receiving it.")

First Known Use

1899, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for xenia

• asthenia
• eugenia
• lacinia
• puccinia
• robinia
• vaccinia
• yersinia
• iphigenia
• leukopenia
• myasthenia
• neurasthenia
• neutropenia

Geographical Definition

Xenia

geographical name

Xe·​nia ˈzē-nyə 

-nē-ə

city in southwest central Ohio east-southeast of Dayton