-nē, -ni noun
( -es )
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary phyl- + -geny
1. : the racial history of a specified kind of organism
2. : the evolution of a race or genetically related group of organisms (as a species, family, or order) as distinguished from the development of the individual organism — compare ontogeny
3. : the history or course of the development of an immaterial thing (as a word or custom)
we cannot hope phylogeny will explain the morphology of philosophies — W.P.Kent