Ab′i‐o‐gen″e‐sis (�), n. [Gr. ἀ priv. + βίοσ life + γένεσισ, origin, birth.] (Biol.) The supposed origination of living organisms from lifeless matter; such genesis as does not involve the action of living parents; spontaneous generation; — called also abiogeny, and opposed to biogenesis.
I shall call the... doctrine that living matter may be produced by not living matter, the hypothesis of abiogenesis.
Huxley, 1870.