bioenergyn.
/ˌbʌɪəʊˈɛnədʒi/, U.S. /ˌbaɪoʊˈɛnərdʒi/ 1.
a. Biology. Energy produced and utilized by living organisms. Cf. bioenergetics n. 1.figurative in quot. 1911.
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1911 Med. Herald Apr. 182 Thus the national organism was deprived of elements which possibly would have preserved its bio energy for some time.
1913 Exper. Station Rec. (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 28 168 Thermodynamic muscular bioenergy of the living organism.
1939 Q. Rev. Biol. 14 232/1 Bioenergy—vital heat and the animal machine.
1970 Sci. News 97 161/2 The intracellular organelles responsible for the generation of bio-energy in plant and animal cells.
2004 R. J. Huggett Fund. Biogeogr. (ed. 2) xii. 226 Biomass is the weight or mass of living tissue in an ecosystem... It has an energy content, which may be thought of as bioenergy.
b. Energy of a distinctive kind conceived to be produced within living organisms and to underlie various forms of holistic therapy and paranormal or psychic phenomena; vital energy, life force; spec. (in Reichian bioenergetic therapy) orgone, or the vital or sexual energy derived from it (cf. bioenergetic adj. 2).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > theory of psychoanalysis > follower of Reich > [noun] > vital energy
bioenergy1928
orgone1942
1928 H. G. Baynes & C. F. Baynes tr. C. G. Jung Contrib. Analyt. Psychol. 17 To regard life-energy thus [sc. as a specific form of a universal energy], and so bridge over the still yawning chasm between physical and vital processes, would be to do away with the special privilege of bio-energy [Ger. Bioenergetik] as opposed to physical energy.
1974 S. H. Nagler in S. Arieti Amer. Handbk. Psychiatry (ed. 2) I. xli. 910 He [sc. Reich] claimed to have demonstrated the existence of this mysterious energy visually, microscopically, and thermically. This was the bioenergy he had sought since student days.
1977 Jrnl. Soc. Psychical Res. 49 616 Much of her book is devoted to describing phenomena of various kinds—Kirlian photography, healing, dowsing, skin vision, and acupuncture—in terms of bioenergy.
1997 Independent on Sunday 2 Nov. (Real Life section) 1/2 Proponents of bio-energy..claim to have raised people out of wheelchairs without even touching them.
2006 M. Chivers Dyslexia & Alternative Therapies xi. 110 Bioenergy therapists believe that energy fields control how we feel from day to day and if the ‘energy’ is out of balance we may feel unwell.
2. Energy for industrial and domestic use derived from biofuels or other plant or animal sources.
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1978 PS (Amer. Polit. Sci. Assoc.) Winter 71/2 The Bio-Energy Council was recently created to encourage the production of clean fuels and byproducts from urban and rural wastes and special crops.
1985 W. Ramsay (title) Bioenergy and economic development: planning for biomass energy programs in the Third World.
1990 C. A. McKay & H. Hengeveld Changing Atmosphere in C. Mungall & D. J. McLaren Planet under Stress (1991) 70 Opt for sports that use bio-energy, not fossil fuels.
2003 J. B. Skjærseth & T. Skodvin Climate Change & Oil Industry 131 Renewable energy (in addition to hydroelectric power) such as wave, wind, solar and bioenergy has never been high on the political agenda in Norway.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1911