Clonality

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of biological groups originating from one progenitor cell that share the same genetic identity
2. The characteristic of biological entities being descended from a single cell, which leads to genetic homogeneity among them
3. The condition of a set of cells or organisms all deriving from one original cell, resulting in genetic uniformity

Etymology: "Clonality" is a straightforward formation: the adjective "clonal" with the suffix "-ity" added. The adjective is itself built from "clone," which comes from Greek "klōn," meaning a twig or slip, the kind of cutting a gardener pushes into the ground to root a new plant. That horticultural image is the seed of the whole family, since a clone is a plant grown from a cutting and so genetically identical to its parent. The suffix carries its own long route into English. "-ity" descends from Latin "-itās," which passed through Old French "-ite" and Middle English "-ite" before English settled on "-ity." Attaching it to "clonal" turns a description of a single cloned thing into a name for the state of being clonal, the uniformity shared by a whole population of cells or organisms descended from one ancestor.