clade (n.)

Old English holt "woods, forest, grove, thicket," common in place names, from Proto-Germanic *hultam- (source also of Old Frisian, Old Norse, Middle Dutch holt, Dutch hout, German Holz "a wood, wood as timber"), from PIE *kldo- (source also of Old Church Slavonic klada "beam, timber;" Russian koloda, Lithuanian kalada "block of wood, log;" Greek klados "twig;" Old Irish caill "wood"), from root *kel- "to strike, cut."

"theory or practice of cladistic taxonomy," 1966, from clade + -ism. Related: Cladist.

1960, from clade + -istic. Related: Cladistics "systematic classification of life forms" (1965; see -ics).