heterochronic, a. Biol. and Path.
(-ˈkrɒnɪk)
[f. hetero- + Gr. χρόνος time, χρονικός of or concerning time.]
a. ‘Occurring at different times; irregular; intermittent: applied to the pulse’ (Mayne Expos. Lex. 1854). b. Occurring or developed at an abnormal time. So ‖ heterochronia (-ˈkrəʊnɪə), heterochronism (-ˈɒkrənɪz(ə)m), heteˈrochrony, the occurrence of a process, or development of a tissue, organ, or organic form, at an abnormal time; also heterochroˈnistic.
| 1854 Mayne, Heterochronicus, Heterochronus..heterochronic: heterochronous: applied to the pulse. 1876 tr. Wagner's Gen. Pathol. 5 We may..designate the general morbid processes as Heterochronic and Heterotopic. Ibid. 355 They are developed at a time when their presence is an abnormality (Heterochronia). 1876 H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. (1877) I. 502 Entire organs which, during the serial genesis of the type, came comparatively late, come in the evolving individual comparatively soon. This Prof. Haeckel has called heterochrony. 1879 tr. Haeckel's Evol. Man I. i. 13 Kenogenetic ‘displacements in time’, or ‘Hetero-chronisms’. Ibid., By heterotopy the sequence in position is vitiated; by heterochrony the sequence in time is vitiated. |