Distinguishable Terms

The word evolution has been confused. Evolution: to evolve; change. That's simple enough. But then there's the hypothesis that every blade of grass, worm, human, dragon, etc., can all trace lineage back to a single cell organism. One microscopic organism transformed into every living thing on the planet. So that's the story. And then there's the mechanism by which it is proposed to have occurred…'natural inclination' or something. Now, this ?'natural inclination' may also be referred to as micro-evolution, but is often referred to as just plain evolution. This is accurate. Studies have shown that finches have adapted to changes in their environment. These changes can be detected by measuring their beaks in millimeters. We can say these finches changed, evolved or succumbed to their natural inclination, whatever. Some even prefer to just call this evolution. That's fine, except the hypothesis mentioned earlier is often termed evolution as well. The current method for differentiating between the hypothesis and the mechanism is to use the following two compound words: macro-evolution and micro-evolution. This would seem to suffice, except that the micro and macro are often left off in a conversation and a person never knows which one is the subject of the discussion at hand. For future clarification it is imperative that we apply distinguishable terms for each.

The following terms are suitable when discussing micro-evolution, change, etc:
Evolution, Micro-evolution, Change, Adaptation, Prerogative and Natural Inclination.

The term to use when referring to the story that one single celled organism of unknown origin transformed into dogs, frogs and hogs, cats, bats and gnats, bees, trees and tea leaves, etc., will be:
Pocus-Cadabra.

There.

Now, if someone is talking to you regarding canines and the fact that coyotes, wolves, chows, beagles, hounds and St. Bernards can all trace their lineage to a single male and female canine, you may respond, ?'Oh, evolution.'

Likewise, if someone shares a tale with you about how these same canines, along with yourself and your whole family, the elephants in Africa, kangaroos in Australia and bats the world over can all trace their lineage back to a male and female fish that were cousins and contemporaries of the Coelacanth, you may reply with an acknowledging lift of your eyebrows, "Ah, Pocus-Cadabra."