clone
UK[kləʊn]US[kloʊn]
n
An organism or cell produced asexually from one ancestor, to which it is genetically identical.
n
A person or thing regarded as identical to another.
v
Propagate an organism or cell as a clone.
v
Make an identical copy of.
Etymology
The word 'clone' is a 20th-century borrowing from the Greek word 'klōn', meaning a twig or slip, especially one used for grafting. This botanical origin is apt, as grafting is a form of vegetative, asexual reproduction. The term was first adopted in botany before being generalized by biologists in the early 1900s to describe any asexually produced, genetically identical group. Its logic flows directly from the Greek concept of a 'cutting' that grows into a new plant, extending metaphorically to modern contexts of genetic and digital replication.
Analysis
The word is a simplex loanword from Greek, adopted as a whole into scientific English. It cannot be meaningfully segmented into productive morphemes within its modern English spelling.
Examples
The first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell was Dolly the sheep.
The new smartphone is just a clone of last year's model with a different name.
Scientists can clone the gene responsible for this trait and insert it into other plants.