hybrid

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Genetics The offspring of genetically dissimilar parents or stock, especially the offspring produced by breeding plants or animals of different varieties, species, or races.
2. n. Something of mixed origin or composition.
3. n. Something, such as a computer or power plant, having two kinds of components that produce the same or similar results.
4. n. A word whose elements are derived from different languages.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The offspring or progeny of animals or plants of different varieties, species, or genera; a half-breed or cross-breed; a mongrel. Hybrid animals are more or less frequent according to the less or greater zoölogical difference of their parents. Thus, the commonest are those resulting from the union of opposite sexes of varieties of the same species; and these hybrids are in fact of much more frequent occurrence than has usually been supposed. Hybrids or half-breeds of the human race are among the best-known examples, and the occurrence of hybrids among plants is very frequent. The most familiar hybrids between distinct species are mules, bred between the horse and the ass. Hybrids between different genera are rare; but they occur, as in the case of the cross between the dog and the fox. The fertility of hybrids among themselves is as a rule proportionate to the nearness of their parents, fertile hybrids between varieties being common, those between species less so, those between genera least so. Hybrids between distinct species are commonly infertile, at least with one another, though they may propagate with an individual of the pure breed of either parent. The natural tendency is thus for hybrids to die out unless artificially kept up by repeated cross-breeding. But the degree of sterility is not always dependent solely upon the zoological affinity of the parents, for reciprocal hybrids of the same two species may differ in this respect. In botany a hybrid is an individual which results from the union of the male element of one species of plant with the female of another, a process frequently occurring in oaks, willows, etc. The resulting offspring resembles both parents, yet differs in certain more or less marked characters from either. A graft-hybrid is an individual, or a part of an individual, which results from the grafting of one species upon the stock of another species. Ordinarily the ingrafted species retains its individual peculiarities nearly or quite intact, yet, as stated above, it may in exceptional cases become a sort of hybrid by exhibiting the peculiarities of both.
2. n. Hence—2. Anything which is a product or mixture of two heterogeneous things, or comes from two different sources, as a word formed of elements from two different languages. See II., 2.
3. Produced from the union of opposite sexes of two different or distinct varieties, species, or genera; half-bred; cross-bred; mongrel. See I.
4. Hence Of heterogeneous origin; having a mixed character; combining diverse elements, as a word formed from two different languages, architecture combining diverse styles, etc. Hybrid words of various kinds abound in English. Examples are bank-rupt, dis-belief, atone-ment, and eat-able, in which Tentonic and Latin elements are joined. In natural history hybrid names are generally condemned, though many have been retained in science; it is not regarded as an infringement of the laws of precedence to rectify or wholly reject them. A word bodily transferred from Greek to Latin and then taking the Latin inflections is not regarded as a hybrid; but if Greek and Latin inflections or Greek and Latin stems are mixed it is so regarded. Some hybrids have come into general use, and have been allowed to remain.

Wiktionary

1. n. biology Offspring resulting from cross-breeding different entities, e.g. two different species or two purebred parent strains.
2. n. Something of mixed origin or composition.
3. n. A word whose elements are derived from different languages.
4. n. Short for hybrid vehicle (especially a car), one that runs on both fuel (gasoline/diesel) and electricity (battery or energy from the sun).
5. n. golf A golf club that combines the characteristics of an iron and a wood.
6. adj. consisting of diverse 'hybridized' components

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Biol.) The offspring of the union of two animals or plants derived from recognizably different genetic lines, as two distinct species, or two strains of the same species with known genetic differences; an animal or plant produced from the mixture of two genetic lines. See mongrel.
2. n. (Philol.) A word composed of elements which belong to different languages.
3. n. anything derived by a mixture of components or characteristics from two distinctly different sources.
4. adj. Produced from the mixture of two genetically distinct strains.
5. adj. derived by a mixture of characteristics from two distinctly different sources.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. produced by crossbreeding
2. n. (genetics) an organism that is the offspring of genetically dissimilar parents or stock; especially offspring produced by breeding plants or animals of different varieties or breeds or species
3. n. a word that is composed of parts from different languages (e.g., `monolingual' has a Greek prefix and a Latin root)
4. n. a composite of mixed origin