Ecesis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of adapting and establishing organisms in a new environment involves both ecological adjustment and physiological changes
2. The establishment of plant or animal species in a previously uninhabited area includes ecological integration and biological adaptation
3. The process through which living organisms acclimate to and thrive in a new habitat encompasses both ecological establishment and physiological modifications

Etymology: "Ecesis" comes from Ancient Greek "oíkisis," meaning "colonization," a noun built on "oikízein," "to settle or colonize," which itself derives from "oîkos," "house" or "dwelling." The Greek word described the act of founding a settlement, so a colony was, at root, a new household planted somewhere else. In English the term has narrowed to a precise ecological sense: the process by which a species establishes itself in a new habitat and maintains a population there. The leap from human colonization to the survival of a plant or animal in unfamiliar ground is a neat example of a word moving from people to nature while keeping its core idea of settling into a new home.