Paleogene

adjective

Pa·​leo·​gene ˈpā-lē-ə-ˌjēn 

especially British

ˈpa- 

: of, relating to, or being the earlier part of the Tertiary including the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene or the corresponding series of rocks

Paleogene noun

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from German paläogen, adjective, from paläo- paleo- + -gen (in neogen neogene)

Note: Term introduced by the German geologist Carl Friedrich Naumann (1797-1873) in Lehrbuch der Geognosie, 2. Auflage, 3. Band (Leipzig, 1866), p 8.

First Known Use

1882, in the meaning defined above