Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature: Misc.: Languages

Scientific names have traditionally been derived from Latin and Greek, but many other languages have been used, too. This page gives examples of some of those languages.

Help, please! This page is new, and I will be relying on readers to contribute more examples. Please note, however, that I will not include most proper names here. Tangaroa, for example, is the name of a Tahitian god; it is not included here because the name is not derived from a Tahitian common word. Texas, though derived from Caddoan, does not belong here unless the genus is named for the Caddoan meaning ("friends") and not the location.

Afar: Ardipithecus ramidus (fossil hominid) "Ardi" means "floor," and "ramid" means "root". ("-pithecus" is Greek for "ape".)

Afrikaans: Patellapis (Chaetalictus) hakkiesdraadi Timmermann 2009 (bee) "Hakkiesdraadi" means "barbed wire", for the bee has bristles resembling barbed wire on its metasomal sterna. (It is also a brand of South African liquor, which the biologists discovered separately.) [Timmermann & Kuhlmann (2009), Zootaxa 2099: 1-188.]

Aimara: Hiskatherium Pujos et al., 2011 (Miocene ground sloth) Hiska means "dwarf" in this native Bolivian language.

Aleut: Aaptos kanuux Lehnert, Hocevar & Stone, 2008 (sponge) "kanuux" is the Aleut word for "heart". [Zootaxa 1939: 65]

Amharic: Eragrostis tef (teff, an Ethiopian grain). "Teff" is from Amharic or a related language.

Arabic: Alanqa 2010 (pterosaur) from "Al Anqa", meaning Phoenix.

Australian aboriginal: Notopais minya Merrin, 2004 (isopod) minya is "small" in an unspecified aboriginal language from Australia.

Blackfoot: Piksi Varricchio, 2002 (fossil bird) From Blackfoot (aka Siksika) piksi, "big bird" or "chicken". The fossil, found on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, is known only from part of one wing.

Chinese: Shanweiniao Hou & Chen, 1999 (early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird) = "fan-tailed bird".

Crow: Suuwassea Harris & Dodson, 2004 (sauropod dinosaur) "first thunder heard in spring," from suu, "thunder" and wassea, "ancient".

Daga: Paedophryne dekot (frog) In Daga, the local language in Papua New Guinea, dekot means "very small." The frogs are about 9 mm long.

German: Affecauda Hall & Chambers, 1999 (platyhelminth parasitic worm) From German Affe, "monkey" (plus Latin cauda, "tail"), because the worm's curled end looks like a monkey tail.

Guarani: Netta peposaca (Vieillot, 1816) (rosybill) "Peposaca" transcribes the Guarani name, which means "showy wings". ("Netta" is ancient Greek for "duck".)

Hawaiian: Aloha Kirkaldy, 1904 (fulgorid bug) = "love", named for the traditional greeting.

Hebrew: Marah Kellogg, 1863 (manroot) = "bitter", from the taste of all parts of the plant.

Inuktitut: Tiktaalik Daeschler et al. 2006 (fossil lobe-finned fish) meaning "burbot" (a freshwater fish).

Kiswahili: Euphorbia kalisana Carter, 1982 (African plant), a very spiny plant, from Kiswahili kali sana = "very fierce".

Lakota: Ekgmowechashala (Early Miocene primate) = "small fox-man".

Malagasy: Ravensara (laurel) from "ravintsara", meaning something like "good leaf".

Maori: Waimanu Slack et al., 2006 (Paleogene penguin) = "waterbird".

Mayan: Stenolicnus ix Wosiack, Montag and Coutinho, 2011 (Brazilian catfish) Ix is Mayan for "jaguar", inspired by the fish's coloring.

Mongolian: Kol ghuva Turner et al. 2009 (theropod dinosaur) from Mongolian "köl" (foot) and "ghuv-a" (beautiful). This is also the second-shortest dinosaur name, after Mei long.

Nahuatl: Manilkara zapota (sapodilla, a fruit tree) from Nahuatl "tzapotl". The family Sapotaceae has the same root.

Navajo: Seitaad Sertich and Loewen 2010 (Jurassic saurischian) derived from the Navajo word, "Seit'aad," a sand-desert monster from their creation legend who swallowed its victims in sand dunes, as the dinosaur skeleton Seitaad had been found "swallowed" in a fossil sand dune.

Polish: Dziwneono etcetera Dworakowska, 1972 (leafhopper) Dziwne ono = "it is strange".

Quechua: Chenopodium quinoa (quinoa) from Quechua "quinua" via Spanish.

Romanian: Balaur bondoc (sauropod dinosaur) The name means "stocky dragon".

Russian: Slonik sibiricus Zherichin, 1977 (weevil). Slonik means literally "little elephant".

Seri: Mustelus hacat Pérez Jiménez et al. 2005 (Smoothhound shark) Hacat means "shark" in the language of the Seri Indians of Tiburón Island and Sonora, Mexico. [Copeia 2005: 834.]

Sesotho: Australopithecus sediba (South African fossil hominin) "sediba" = "wellspring."

Sinhala: Moschiola meminna (Erxleben, 1777) (Sri Lankan mouse deer) Sinhala (Singhalese) meeminna means "mouse-like deer".

Swahili: Janicharis Gumovsky & Delvare, 2006 (wasp) Jani means "green" or "foliage"; the wasp is green. (Charis, from Greek for "grace", appears in other wasp genus names.)

Taino: Zea mays L. (maize) "Mays" (variously spelled) is the Taino word for the plant.

Tok Pisin: Juncus nupela Veldk. (rush) nupela = "new thing". [Blumea 23: 415]

Turkish: Caracal caracal (African/Asian cat) from "karakulak", "black ear".

Welsh: Talpohenach Kay and Cartmill, 1977 (fossil primate) from talp o hen ach, "Piece (lump, fragment) from an ancient lineage"; also an anagram of Palaechthon

Zuni: Jeyawati 2010 (hadrosaur dinosaur) The name, pronounced HAY-a-WHAT-ee, is derived from Zuni words meaning "grinding mouth".

Other root languages are represented in names that were given probably after the root name was westernized.

Amharic: Equus zebra (zebra) zebra = "zebra", adopted partly through Portuguese and Dutch.

Basque: Lainodon orueetxebarriai (upper Cretaceous mammal) Orueetxebarria is a common Basque family name meaning, in part, "new house".

Hottentot: Equus quagga Gmelin 1788 (extinct South African wild ass) quagga from "quahah", imitative of the animal's cry.

© 2002-2011 Mark Isaak. All rights reserved.