Mendelian, a. and n. Biol.
(mɛnˈdiːlɪən)
[f. the name of Gregor Johann Mendel (1822–84) + -ian.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to Mendel, or following his law or theory of heredity.
| 1901 Bateson, etc. Rep. to Evol. Comm. Roy. Soc. (1902) 15 Cases which follow Mendelian principles. 1902 Bateson Mendel's Princ. Heredity 114 The Mendelian principle of heredity asserts a proposition at variance with all the laws of ancestral heredity, however formulated. 1902 Nature 9 Oct. 573/1 The Mendelian theory. |
B. n. One who adheres to or supports Mendel's principles of heredity.
| 1903 K. Pearson in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. CCIII. 57 If we were ‘pure Mendelians’ we should for the purpose of character classification make v = w. 1907 Nature 23 May 73/1 It would be regarded as a demonstration of the falsity of the doctrine of gametic purity by everyone who was not a Mendelian. 1925 A. Huxley Let. 25 Feb. (1969) 242 You Mendelians have made all that..philosophy look..dubious. 1941 J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man ii. 82 Twenty-five years ago..the field of heredity was still a battle-field. The Mendelians and the Biometricians were disputing for its possession. 1972 Science 12 May 623/3 The Mendelians, with their insistence upon large mutations as the agent of evolutionary change, undercut the Darwinian assumption of insensibly graded variation. |