(plural genera), 1550s as a term of logic, "kind or class of things" (biological sense dates from c.1600), from Latin genus (genitive generis) "race, stock, kind; family, birth, descent, origin," cognate with Greek genos "race, kind," and gonos "birth, offspring, stock," from PIE root *gen(e)- "produce, beget, be born" (cf. Sanskrit janati "begets, bears," janah "race," janman- "birth, origin," jatah "born;" Avestan zizanenti "they bear;" Greek gignesthai "to become, happen;" Latin gignere "to beget," gnasci "to be born," genius "procreative divinity, inborn tutelary spirit, innate quality," ingenium "inborn character," germen "shoot, bud, embryo, germ;" Lithuanian gentis "kinsmen;" Gothic kuni "race;" Old English cennan "beget, create;" Old High German kind "child;" Old Irish ro-genar "I was born;" Welsh geni "to be born;" Armenian chanim "I bear, I am born").
