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> The origin of the term 'genocide' arose out of eugenics ('geno'). You've got the etymology confused. 'geno-' comes from Grk 'genos', which means race/tribe.
by jhanschoo 10y ago
> The origin of the term 'genocide' arose out of eugenics ('geno').
You've got the etymology confused. 'geno-' comes from Grk 'genos', which means race/tribe. Genocide refers to ethnic killings. Eugenics ('eu' good + 'gen-' race/tribe) refers to the goal of achieving 'better races' and methods to achieve them. Unfortunately those methods involve pruning perceived bad seeds.
They come from the same root word, but genocide isn't derived from eugenics.
- fossuser 10y agoThanks - looks like I was wrong about the etymology. I'd read the term itself was created in response to what the nazis did, a lot of which started under the guise of eugenics. This book spent some times talking about it and I thought it was interesting: http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Gene/Siddhartha-Mukherjee/9781476733500 http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Gene/Siddhartha-Mu...