The genesis of 'gene'

Chance in the house of fate (A natural history of heredity) by Jennifer G. Ackerman (Bloomsbury, 2001) is a slightly frustrating popular science book. As you might infer from the title, the author is rather prone to purple prose. She much prefers to let the cool facts she finds flutter around willy-nilly like so many butterflies rather than pinning them meticulously to the page. It's rather annoying if you are actually trying to learn new things. But the more poetical approach does make you stop and think about a few things you might take for granted like the deep historical roots of some of the words and ideas that go into the study of genetic inheritance. Like this:

gen

And I have to agree with Ackerman's reaction to this etymology:

xvi

Credit for the scientific use of the term is due to Danish geneticist, Wilhelm Johannsen. Much improving on Gregor Mendel's terminology of "factors".