Terrigen

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fictional mist released from Terrigen Crystals in Marvel comics that activates dormant superhuman abilities in Inhumans
2. In Marvel comics, a mysterious vapor drawn from crystals that awakens hidden powers in people carrying the Inhuman gene
3. A chemical mist of Marvel fiction that triggers latent superpowers when it spreads through the bodies of Inhumans

Etymology: In Marvel Comics, the Terrigen Mists are a fog that awakens latent superpowers in the Inhumans, a race of people with genetic abilities. The name is a modern coinage built from classical parts: "terra," the Latin for earth, and "-gen," from the Greek "genes," meaning born of or produced by. Together they describe something that produces, or is born from, the earth. The second part is the familiar "-gen" of words like "oxygen" and "antigen," which describe substances that produce or generate something. The same Latin root "terra" appears in "terrestrial" and "terrain," and in the scientific adjective "terrigenous," which geologists use for sediments that come from land rather than the sea.