ectropy

English

Etymology

“This term was suggested by W. V. Quine in discussions following this symposium[1]: Entropy, he pointed out, is Greek for turning in; the opposite term should therefore be the Greek for turning out, namely ectropy. Since the coaction cardioid literally turns in and out of the circle of reference, his short, elegant term is used throughout.”[2][3]

Noun

ectropy (countable and uncountable, plural ectropies)

  1. (thermodynamics) The overall increase in the organization of a system

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References
  1. Twenty-first Anniversary Symposium of the Council for Unified Research and Education (1969)
  2. Edward Haskell (1972). "Generalization of the structure of Mendeleev's periodic table," In E. Haskell (Ed.), Full Circle: The Moral Force of Unified Science chapter 2, (pp. 21-90). New York: Gordon and Breach.
  3. http://www.cc.gatech.edu/ectropic/ectropy.html
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