bionn.
/ˈbʌɪɒn/, U.S. /ˈbaɪɑn/ Microbiology. Now historical.
In the terminology of W. Reich: a microscopic organism comprising an elementary form of life containing orgone energy and existing in a state between life and non-life.
ΚΠ
1938 Psychoanal. Q. Oct. 568 ‘Bions’ are the most primitive particles of ‘living’ substance, and are similar to amœbæ except that they are of artificial origin.
1952 M. Gardner In Name of Sci. xxi. 254 Bions propagate like bacteria. In fact, Reich's critics suspect, what he calls bions really are bacteria.
1983 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 25 June Convinced that he [sc. Reich] had found in ‘bions’ the missing link between inorganic and living matter, he constructed his famous ‘orgone accumulator’.
2003 Guardian 29 May (Life section) 10/5 Reich..returned to medicine, announcing the discovery of ‘bions’. These blue, bacteria-destroying organisms were, he said, released by decay and existed in a state between living and dead matter.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1938