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This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with
classical language A classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large and ancient body of written literature. Classical languages are typically dead languages, or show a high degree of diglossia, as the spoken varieties of the ...
s to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The
binomial nomenclature In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
used for
animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...
s and
plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...
s is largely derived from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
words, as are some of the names used for higher
taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
, such as
orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...
and above. At the time when biologist
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
(1707–1778) published the books that are now accepted as the starting point of binomial nomenclature, Latin was used in
Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
as the common language of science, and scientific names were in Latin or Greek: Linnaeus continued this practice. Although Latin is now largely unused except by
classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
s, or for certain purposes in
botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
, medicine and the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, it can still be found in scientific names. It is helpful to be able to understand the source of scientific names. Although the Latin names do not always correspond to the current English common names, they are often related, and if their meanings are understood, they are easier to recall. The binomial name often reflects limited knowledge or hearsay about a species at the time it was named. For instance ''Pan troglodytes'', the
chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...
, and ''Troglodytes troglodytes'', the
wren Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonly ...
, are not necessarily cave-dwellers. Sometimes a
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
name or
specific Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the fina ...
descriptor is simply the Latin or Greek name for the animal (e.g. ''Canis'' is Latin for dog). These words may not be included in the table below if they only occur for one or two taxa. Instead, the words listed below are the common adjectives and other modifiers that repeatedly occur in the scientific names of many organisms (in more than one genus). Adjectives vary according to gender, and in most cases only the
lemma Lemma may refer to: Language and linguistics * Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word * Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered Science and mathematics * Lemma (botany), a ...
form (
nominative In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular homology * SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS) * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, ...
masculine Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...
form) is listed here. 1st-and-2nd-declension adjectives end in ''-us'' (masculine), ''-a'' (feminine) and ''-um'' (neuter), whereas 3rd-declension adjectives ending in ''-is'' (masculine and feminine) change to ''-e'' (neuter). For example, ''verus'' is listed without the variants for ''
Aloe vera ''Aloe vera'' () is a succulent plant species of the genus ''Aloe''. It is widely distributed, and is considered an invasive species in many world regions. An evergreen perennial, it originates from the Arabian Peninsula, but grows wild in tro ...
'' or ''Galium verum''. The second part of a binomial is often a person's name in the
genitive case In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
, ending ''-i'' (masculine) or ''-ae'' (feminine), such as
Kaempfer's tody-tyrant Kaempfer's tody-tyrant (''Hemitriccus kaempferi'') is a rare species of bird in the family Tyrannidae. It is endemic to the Atlantic forest in southeastern Brazil. It was known only from two specimens until the 1990s, when it was finally observed ...
, ''Hemitriccus kaempferi''. The name may be converted into a Latinised form first, giving ''-ii'' and ''-iae'' instead. Words that are very similar to their English forms have been omitted. Some of the Greek transliterations given are
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
, and others are
Modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...
. In the tables, L = Latin, G = Greek, and LG = similar in both languages.


A


B


C


D


E


F


G


H


I–K


L


M


N


O


P


Q


R


S


T


U


V


X–Z


See also

*
Glossary of scientific naming This is a list of terms and symbols used in scientific names for organisms, and in describing the names. For proper parts of the names themselves, see List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names. Note that many of the abbreviat ...
*
List of commonly used taxonomic affixes This is a list of common affixes used when scientifically naming species, particularly extinct species for whom only their scientific names are used, along with their derivations. *a-, an-: ''Pronunciation'': /ə/, /a/, /ən/, /an/. ''Origin'' ...
*
List of descriptive plant species epithets (A–H) Since the first printing of Carl Linnaeus's ''Species Plantarum'' in 1753, plants have been assigned one epithet or name for their species and one name for their genus, a grouping of related species. These scientific names have been catalogued i ...
*
List of descriptive plant species epithets (I–Z) Since the first printing of Carl Linnaeus's ''Species Plantarum'' in 1753, plants have been assigned one epithet or name for their species and one name for their genus, a grouping of related species. These scientific names have been catalogued i ...
*
List of Greek and Latin roots in English The English language uses many Greek and Latin roots, stems, and prefixes. These roots are listed alphabetically on three pages: * Greek and Latin roots from A to G * Greek and Latin roots from H to O * Greek and Latin roots from P to Z. Som ...
*
List of Latin place names used as specific names List of Latin place names used as specific names *A list of place names, used in Latin descriptions and, after the development of binomial nomenclature, as specific names in the natural sciences. {{compact ToC, side=yes, top=yes, num=no A *abanca ...
*
List of Latin words with English derivatives This is a list of Latin words with derivatives in English (and other modern languages). Ancient orthography did not distinguish between ''i'' and ''j'' or between ''u'' and ''v''. Many modern works distinguish u from v but not i from j. In this ...
*
List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
List of taxa named by anagrams In the biological nomenclature codes, an anagram can be used to name a new taxon. Wordplays are one source of inspiration allowing organisms to receive scientific names. In the binomial nomenclature, as scientists have latitude in naming gener ...
*
Latin names of cities Users of Neo-Latin have taken the Latin language to places the Romans, and consequently, their language, never spread to, and consequently, have created a need to construct Latin city names in these places. Strategies for constructing Latin nam ...


References

{{Reflist


External links


Latin names decoded with relevant images/photos at agrozoo.net



European Species Names in Linnaean, Czech, English, German and French
Systematic Greek words and phrases Systematic Systematic Taxonomy (biology) Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names