Speciate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To undergo the process by which populations evolve into distinct biological species ; to differentiate genetically and reproductively from others within a group ; to form new species through evolutionary change
2. To develop into separate species through mechanisms of evolution ; to become reproductively isolated and genetically distinct from ancestry ; to generate biodiversity by creating taxonomically unique populations
3. To initiate the evolutionary events that lead to the formation of species ; to split lineages into biologically separate groups ; to produce new species by divergence and isolation over time

Etymology: The Latin "species" meant something like "appearance" or "kind," from the verb "specere," to look at. Its broad sense of a sort of thing also produced "special," something set apart by its look, and "spice," because medieval Latin used the plural "species" for goods of various kinds, including the aromatic wares we now call spices. The verb is a back-formation. English first had "speciation," the noun for the process of forming new species, built from "species" plus the suffix "-ation." Speakers then trimmed that noun to make a verb, so the verb is derived from the noun, not the other way round. Biologists use it mainly intransitively, as in a population that speciates into separate lineages that can no longer interbreed.

Synonyms: differentiate, diverge, evolve, branch, separate

Antonyms: converge, unite, merge, combine, join