Abiotics

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term referencing physical or chemical factors in an ecosystem that are not derived from living organisms, such as temperature and minerals
2. Denoting elements in the environment that impact living systems but do not originate from biological sources, including light and water
3. Referring to non-biological components of an ecosystem, which include inanimate factors like pH, climate, and soil nutrients

Etymology: "Abiotics" is the plural of "abiotic," an adjective first recorded in 1874 that has since been used as a noun for the non-living parts of an environment. Its meaning is built from a Greek negative: the prefix "a-" means "not" or "without," and it is attached to "biotic," from Ancient Greek "biōtikós," meaning "of life." That in turn comes from "bíos," life, the same root that gives English "biology" and "biography." So the word is literally "not of life," a deliberately blunt label for everything in an ecosystem that is not alive, such as water, soil, temperature, light and rock. The pairing matters because "biotic" and "abiotic" form a matched set. Ecologists divide an environment into the living components, the biotics, and the non-living ones, the abiotics, and the two terms only make full sense together. The plural form simply refers to the whole collection of such factors.

Synonyms: non-living entities