▪ I. † clade, n.1 Obs.
[ad. L. clādes destruction, disaster: cf. It. clade in same sense.]
A disaster, calamity, plague.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, St. Justina 413 Or ellis suld þat fellone clade Confonde þe cyte but abade. 1528 Dr. Taylor To Wolsey (MS. Cott. Cal. D. x. 364), After the grete clade of sycknes and deth of Frenchmenn. 1604 Babington Comfort. Notes Exod. x. Wks. (1637) 215 All the ruinous calamities and miserable clades. |
▪ II. clade, n.2 Biol.
(kleɪd)
[f. Gr. κλάδος branch.]
A group of organisms that have evolved from a common ancestor.
| 1957 J. S. Huxley in Nature 7 Sept. 455/1 Cladogenesis results in the formation of delimitable monophyletic units, which may be called clades. 1963 Sokal & Sneath Princ. Numerical Taxon. v. 102 Should taxa in orthodox taxonomy be in general monophyletic groups (clades) or phenetic groups? |