from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Palingenesis \Pal`in*gen"e*sis\, Palingenesy \Pal`in*gen"e*sy\,
n. [Gr. ?; pa`lin again + ? birth: cf. F. paling['e]n['e]sie.
See {Genesis}.]
[1913 Webster]
1. A new birth; a re-creation; a regeneration; a continued
existence in different manner or form.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence: The passing over of the soul of one person or
animal into the body of another person or animal, at the
time of the death of the first; the transmigration of
souls. Called also {metempsychosis}.
[PJC]
3. (Biol.) That form of development of an individual organism
in which in which ancestral characteristics occurring
during its evolution are conserved by heredity and
reproduced, sometimes transiently, in the course of
individual development; original simple descent; --
distinguished from {cenogenesis} ({kenogenesis} or
{coenogenesis}), in which the mode of individual
development has been modified so that the evolutionary
process had become obscured. Sometimes, in Zoology, the
term is applied to the abrupt metamorphosis of insects,
crustaceans, etc. See also the note under
{recapitulation}.
[1913 Webster +PJC]