In addition to the generally accepted
taxonomic name ''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
'' (
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 ...
: "sapient human",
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 ...
1758), other Latin-based names for the human species have been created to refer to various aspects of the human character.
The
common name of the
human species
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...
in English is historically ''
man
A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...
'' (from
Germanic), often replaced by the Latinate ''
human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
'' (since the 16th century).
In the world's languages
The
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
have a number of inherited terms for mankind.
The etymon of ''
man
A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...
'' is found in the Germanic languages, and is cognate with ''
Manu
Manu may refer to:
Geography
* Manú Province, a province of Peru, in the Madre de Dios Region
**Manú National Park, Peru
** Manú River, in southeastern Peru
* Manu River (Tripura), which originates in India and flows into Bangladesh
*Manu Tem ...
'', the name of the
human progenitor in Hindu mythology, and found in Indic terms for "man" (''manuṣya, manush, manava'' etc.).
Latin ''homo'' is derived from an Indo-European root ''
dʰǵʰm-'' "earth", as it were "earthling". It has cognates in Baltic (Old Prussian ''zmūi''), Germanic (Gothic ''guma'') and Celtic (Old Irish ''duine'').
This is comparable to the explanation given in the
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
narrative to the Hebrew ''
Adam'' (אָדָם) "man", derived from a word for "red, reddish-brown". Etymologically, it may be an
ethnic or racial classification (after "reddish" skin colour contrasting with both "white" and "black"), but Genesis takes it to refer to the reddish colour of earth, as in the narrative the first man is formed from earth.
Other Indo-European languages name man for his mortality, ''*mr̥tós'' meaning "mortal", so in Armenian ''mard'', Persian ''mard'', Sanskrit ''marta'' and Greek βροτός meaning "mortal; human".
This is comparable to the Semitic word for "man", represented by Arabic ''
insan
''Insan'' () is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language masala film, starring Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Esha Deol, Lara Dutta and Tusshar Kapoor. Directed by K. Subash, it is a remake of Telugu film ''Khadgam'' (2002), directed by Krishna Vamsi.
''Ins ...
'' (cognate with Hebrew ''
ʼenōš'' ), from a root for "sick, mortal".
The Arabic word has been influential in the
Islamic world, and was adopted in many
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...
. The native Turkic word is ''kiši''.
Greek (''anthropos'') is of uncertain, possibly
pre-Greek
The Pre-Greek substrate (or Pre-Greek substratum) consists of the unknown pre-Indo-European language(s) spoken in prehistoric Greece before the coming of the Proto-Greek language in the Greek peninsula during the Bronze Age. It is possible that ...
origin.
Slavic ''čelověkъ'' also is of uncertain etymology.
The
Chinese character
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanj ...
used in East Asian languages is 人, originating as a pictogram of a human being. The reconstructed
Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 ...
pronunciation of the Chinese word is /ni
. A Proto-Sino-Tibetan ''
r-mi(j)-n'' gives rise to Old Chinese /*miŋ/, modern Chinese 民 ''mín'' "people" and to Tibetan མི ''mi'' "person, human being".
In some tribal or band societies,
the local endonym is indistinguishable from the word for "men, human beings".
Examples include
Ainu: ''
ainu'',
Inuktitut: ''
inuk
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and ...
'',
Bantu
Bantu may refer to:
*Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages
*Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language
* Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle
*Black Association for National ...
: ''
bantu
Bantu may refer to:
*Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages
*Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language
* Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle
*Black Association for National ...
'',
naq, khoe-khoe (etc.),
possibly in
Uralic
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...
:
Hungarian ''
magyar'',
Mansi
Mansi may refer to:
People
* Mansi people, an indigenous people living in Tyumen Oblast, Russia
** Mansi language
* Giovanni Domenico Mansi
Gian (Giovanni) Domenico Mansi (16 February 1692 – 27 September 1769) was an Italian prelate, theolog ...
''mäńćī, mańśi'', from a Proto-Ugric ''*mańć-'' "man, person".
In philosophy
The mixture of serious and tongue-in-cheek self-designation originates with
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
, who on one hand
defined man as it were taxonomically as "featherless biped" and on the other as ', as "political" or "state-building animal" (
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
's term, based on Plato's ''
Statesman'').
Harking back to Plato's ' are a number of later descriptions of man as an animal with a certain characteristic.
Notably ''
animal rationabile'' "animal capable of rationality", a term used in medieval
scholasticism (with reference to Aristotle), and also used by
Carl von Linné
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 ...
(1760) and
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
(1798).
Based on the same pattern is ''animal sociale'' or "social animal"
''animal laborans'' "laboring animal" (
Hannah Arendt 1958
) and
''
animal symbolicum'' "symbolizing animal" (
Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( , ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science.
A ...
1944).
Taxonomy
The
binomial name ''Homo sapiens'' was coined by
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...
(1758).
Names for other
human species
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...
were introduced beginning in the second half of the 19th century (''
Homo neanderthalensis
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While the ...
'' 1864, ''
Homo erectus'' 1892).
There is no consensus on the taxonomic delineation between human
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
, human
subspecies and the human
races. On the one hand, there is the proposal that ''
H. sapiens idaltu'' (2003) is not distinctive enough to warrant classification as a subspecies. On the other, there is the position that
genetic variation in the extant human population is large enough to justify its division into several subspecies.
Linneaeus (1758) proposed division into five subspecies, ''H. sapiens europaeus'' alongside ''H. s. afer'', ''H. s. americanus'' and ''H. s. asiaticus'' for Europeans, Africans, Americans and Asians. This convention remained commonly observed until the mid-20th century, sometimes with variations or additions such as ''H. s. tasmanianus'' for Australians.
The conventional division of extant human populations into taxonomic subspecies was gradually abandoned beginning in the 1970s.
Similarly, there are proposals to classify
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While the ...
s and ''
Homo rhodesiensis
''Homo rhodesiensis'' is the species name proposed by Arthur Smith Woodward (1921) to classify Kabwe 1 (the "Kabwe skull" or "Broken Hill skull", also "Rhodesian Man"), a Middle Stone Age fossil recovered from a cave at Broken Hill, or Kabwe, No ...
'' as subspecies of ''H. sapiens'', although it remains more common to treat these last two as separate species within the genus ''Homo'' rather than as subspecies within ''H. sapiens''.
List of binomial names
The following names mimick
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 ...
, mostly consisting of ''Homo'' followed by a Latin adjective characterizing human nature.
Most of them were coined since the mid 20th century in imitation of ''Homo sapiens'' in order to make some philosophical point (either serious or ironic), but some go back to the 18th to 19th century, as in ''Homo aestheticus'' vs. ''
Homo oeconomicus
The term ''Homo economicus'', or economic man, is the portrayal of humans as agents who are consistently rational and narrowly self-interested, and who pursue their subjectively defined ends optimally. It is a word play on ''Homo sapiens'', u ...
''; ''Homo loquens'' is a serious suggestion by Herder, taking the human species as defined by the
use of language;
[Compare ''alalus'' "incapable of speech" as the species name given to ]Java Man
Java Man (''Homo erectus erectus'', formerly also ''Anthropopithecus erectus'', ''Pithecanthropus erectus'') is an early human fossil discovered in 1891 and 1892 on the island of Java (Dutch East Indies, now part of Indonesia). Estimated to be b ...
fossil, at the time (1895) taken to reflect a pre-human stage of "ape-man" (''Pithecanthropus
The terms ''Anthropopithecus'' ( Blainville, 1839) and ''Pithecanthropus'' (Haeckel, 1868) are obsolete taxa describing either chimpanzees or archaic humans. Both are derived from Greek ἄνθρωπος (anthropos, "man") and πίθηκος (p ...
'').
Herder's ''Homo loquens'' was parodied by Henri Bergson (1943) as ''Homo loquax'' i.e. Man as chattering or overly talkative.
''Homo creator'' is medieval, coined by
Nicolaus Cusanus in reference to man as ''
imago Dei
The image of God (; ) is a concept and theological doctrine in Christianity, as well as in Judaism. This concept is a foundational aspect of Christian and Jewish understandings of human nature. It stems from the primary text in Genesis 1:27, whi ...
''.
In fiction
In fiction, specifically
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
and
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
, occasionally names for the human species are introduced reflecting the fictional situation of humans existing alongside other, non-human civilizations.
In science fiction,
Earthling (also "Terran", "Earther", and "Gaian") is frequently used, as it were naming humanity by its planet of origin. Incidentally, this situation parallels the naming motive of ancient terms for humanity, including "
human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
" (''homo'', ''humanus'') itself, derived from a word for "earth" to contrast humans as earth-bound with celestial beings (i.e.
deities) in
mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...
.
See also
*
Cultural universal
A cultural universal (also called an anthropological universal or human universal) is an element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all known human cultures worldwide. Taken together, the whole body of cultural universals is known ...
*
Human self-reflection
Self-reflection is the ability to witness and evaluate our own cognitive, emotional, and behavioural processes. In psychology, other terms used for this self-observation include 'reflective awareness', and 'reflective consciousness', which orig ...
*
Übermensch
The (; "Overhuman") is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. In his 1883 book ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' (german: Also sprach Zarathustra), Nietzsche has his character Zarathustra posit the as a goal for humanity to set for itse ...
References
{{reflist, 20em
Further reading
* Luigi Romeo, ''Ecce Homo!: A Lexicon of Man'', John Benjamins Publishing, 1979.
Humans
Human species
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...