Paralogues

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Episodes or chapters that stand apart from the primary storyline of a larger work
2. Separate narratives that exist independently alongside the main plot of a book or series
3. Self-contained stories or sections that diverge from the central narrative thread of a work

Etymology: Paralogues is the plural of paralogue, a term in genetics for genes within the same organism that descend from a single ancestral gene copied within the genome. The concept was introduced by the biologist Walter Fitch to distinguish these genes from orthologues, which arose when a gene was carried into separate species by speciation. The word is built from Greek "para," beside, and "logos," reason or ratio, so a paralogue sits beside its gene partner rather than being the same gene in another species.