exaptation
/ˌɛk.sæpˈteɪ.ʃən/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The use of a biological structure or function for a purpose other than that for which it initially evolved.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The promotion of meaningless or redundant material so that it does new grammatical (morphosyntactic or phonological) or semantic work.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Birds initially developed wings and feathers as a means of heat regulation. The use of wings for flight is an example of exaptation."
- "I believe that Stephen Gould and Elizabeth Vrba were correct in proposing exaptation as a missing term in evolutionary biology. I want to make a distinction between adaptation and exaptation here. Again it is about mechanistic differences. An exaptation can be viewed as the acquisition of a new and useful function once the novelty has spread and once the environment has changed."
- "These presumed exaptations can be assigned to major categories associated with theories of movement (Nathan et al. 2008). In table 1.2, we list five categories of exaptations that we believe make resident birds possessing them preadapted for migration."
- "An interesting consequence of this way of characterizing exaptations is that whether or not a trait counts as an exaptation depends upon how we describe it. Human legs are adaptations for locomotion, but exaptations for walking."
- "The process Haiman focuses on is exaptation, which he defines as "the promotion of meaningless or redundant material so that it does new grammatical (morphosyntactic or phonological) or semantic work" (p52)."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰ Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs Proto-Italic *eks Latin ex Latin ex-der. Middle French ex-bor. Middle English ex- English ex- Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *h₂ptós Proto-Italic *aptos Latin aptus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Proto-Indo-European [Term?]der. Proto-Italic *apjō Latin apiō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus ▲ Latin -ō Latin -tō Latin aptō Latin adaptō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Medieval Latin adaptātiōbor. French adaptationbor. English adaptation blend English exaptation Blend of ex- + adaptation. Coined 1982 by palaeontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba to avoid the perceived teleological baggage of the existing term preadaptation.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌɛk.sæpˈteɪ.ʃən/
- British English: /ˌɛk.səpˈteɪ.ʃən/