dysgenesic

English

Etymology

From dysgenesis +‎ -ic.

Adjective

dysgenesic (comparative more dysgenesic, superlative most dysgenesic)

1. (genetics) Of, pertaining to, or causing dysgenesis.
2. (more broadly) Tending to stunt to interfere with normal healthy development.
   • 1903, Henri Roger, Infectious diseases, page 45:

     Polymorphism under Dysgenesic Conditions. The variations manifested by bacteria are still more curious when the latter are placed under conditions unfavorable to their development.

   • 1976, Parwaiz Shami, Education in Search of Fundamentals, page 319:

     At the same time social change without corresponding environmental changes in other spheres turns itself on to dysgenesic trends.

   • 2009, Edward Joseph Alam, Christianity, Culture, and the Contemporary World, Challenges and New Paradigms, page 157:

     A more explicit articulation of Rielo's educational model involves an understanding of psychoethics that examines both the dysgenesic states that inhibit or perturb the capacity of human persons to act in accordance to the agency of the divine constitutive presence and the ontological remedy or ecstatic energy that can modify and correct the stated resistance within the dynamics of education in ecstasy.

3. (of a hybrid) Infertile when crossed with a similar hybrid but marginally fertile when crossed with one of the parent species.
   • 1864 July, “Science”, in The Westminster Review, volumes 82-84, page 103:

     But the degree of fertility of these crossings varies greatly in different species, for while some are perfectly fertile (eugenesic), the progeny of others will rarely breed except with a mate belonging to one of the original species (paragenesic), whiles in other cases the hybrids produced are wholly infertile among themselves, and scarcely fertile with either of the parent species (dysgenesic), or wholly infertile (agenesic).

   • 1906, Jean Finot, Race Prejudice, page 155:

     Fecundation is […] dysgenesic when the hybrids, although mutually sterile, are fecund when crossed with an individual of one or the other of the parent races;

4. (by extension, eugenics, racism) Involving reproduction by couples of different races, believed to lead to inferior offspring.
   • 1917 January, L. Oza Keshavlal, “Economics of Indian Agriculture and Industry”, in The Hindustan Review, volume 35, number 209, page 13:

     He would encourage by bonuses, eugenic and discourage by fines dysgenesic marriages among his employees.

   • 1918, Birth Control Review - Volume 2; Volumes 4-5, page 16:

     Our whole urban and industrial life is avowedly dysgenesic.

   • 1923, Political Science Quarterly - Volume 38, page 411:

     But dysgenesic tendencies in the field of biological reproduction may increase the relative mass of mediocrity in comparison with the proportion of leadership produced.

   • 1982, George W. Stocking, Race, Culture, and Evolution, page 50:

     But the polygenist distinction between eugenesic and dysgenesic race mixtures had in fact been made to order for such a situation.

   • 2006, John P. Jackson, ‎Nadine M. Weidman, Race, Racism, and Science, page 73:

     Dysgenesic crosses, on the other hand—matings between races farthest apart on the scale of humanity—were either sterile or produced only a few sterile offspring.

5. Tending to promote childlessness.
   • 1914 March 28, “To Urge the Good To Marry”, in The Literary Digest, volume 48, page 693:

     While waiting for separate colleges to become coeducational, as they eventually will, their present dysgenesic tendency can probably be reduced by the gradual introduction of men teachers into the women's colleges.

   • 1924, Census of Canada 1851/52- - Volume 1, page xxxi:

     […] conditions is not wholly unfavourable or dysgenesic, and it is to be remarked that the decline in rural population has not been accompanied by any pro rata falling off in agricultural productivity.