Bioassets

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The biological materials or living resources owned or managed by an individual, organization, or country that have economic, scientific, or environmental value
2. Living organisms or organic compounds considered as valuable possessions or resources that contribute to economic, ecological, or research purposes
3. Natural biological entities and substances regarded as valuable assets for their utility in commercial, environmental, or scientific contexts

Etymology: "Bioassets" is a compound of "bio-", from Greek "bios" meaning "life", and "assets", from Old French "asets" and ultimately Latin "ad satis", meaning "enough". The combination is a modern business coinage, used mainly in accounting and agriculture to describe living things that hold economic value, such as livestock, timber trees, or the staff and biological material of a research organisation. It is a deliberate fusion rather than a word that evolved gradually. The "bio-" prefix itself is far older than the compound. It was formed from Greek in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and attached to many English words, from "biology" onward. "Asset" developed a financial sense in English long before that, originally meaning enough property to cover a debt. Joining the two produced a term that treats living organisms as a category of property, an idea that grew more common as companies began listing animals, crops and genetic material on their balance sheets.

Synonyms: biological assets