Biophile

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Someone who has a deep affection for living organisms and the natural world around them
2. A person with a strong love of life, nature, and all the living things that inhabit the earth
3. One who feels a profound attraction to living beings and the biological world in general

Etymology: Ancient Greek "bios" meant life and "philos" meant loving or dear, so the word is a transparent compound. Its ending follows the pattern of "bibliophile" and "Anglophile," where the first element names the thing being loved. The idea gained its psychological meaning through "biophilia," a term the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm used for an orientation toward life. He set it against necrophilia, an attraction to death and decay. The biologist E. O. Wilson later gave the concept wider currency with his proposal that humans have an innate affinity for other living things.