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List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names

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According to the definition by George L. Hart , a classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large body of ancient written literature .

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18-449: This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The binomial nomenclature used for animals and plants is largely derived from Latin and Greek words, as are some of the names used for higher taxa , such as orders and above. At the time when biologist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) published

36-662: A "classical" stage. Such a stage is limited in time and is considered "classical" if it comes to be regarded as a literary "golden age" retrospectively. Thus, Classical Greek is the language of 5th to 4th century BC Athens and, as such, only a small subset of the varieties of the Greek language as a whole. A "classical" period usually corresponds to a flowering of literature following an "archaic" period, such as Classical Latin succeeding Old Latin , Classical Sumerian succeeding Archaic Sumerian, Classical Sanskrit succeeding Vedic Sanskrit , Classical Persian succeeding Old Persian . This

54-421: A Latin or Latinized name as the scientific name of each species . In terms of worldwide cultural importance, Edward Sapir in his 1921 book Language extends the list to include classical Chinese , Arabic , and Sanskrit : When we realize that an educated Japanese can hardly frame a single literary sentence without the use of Chinese resources, that to this day Siamese and Burmese and Cambodgian bear

72-451: A person's name in the genitive case , ending -i (masculine) or -ae (feminine), such as Kaempfer's tody-tyrant , 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 , and others are Modern Greek . In

90-476: 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 , and Troglodytes troglodytes ,

108-475: Is no longer a colloquial mother tongue in its original form. If one language uses roots from another language to coin words (in the way that many European languages use Greek and Latin roots to devise new words such as "telephone", etc.), this is an indication that the second language is a classical language. In comparison, living languages with a large sphere of influence are known as world languages . The following languages are generally taken to have

126-427: Is partly a matter of terminology, and for example Old Chinese is taken to include rather than precede Classical Chinese . In some cases, such as those of Persian and Tamil , the "classical" stage corresponds to the earliest attested literary variant. Parachronistis albiceps Parachronistis albiceps , the wood groundling , is a moth of the family Gelechiidae . It is found in most of Europe, except

144-659: The Iberian Peninsula and part of the Balkan Peninsula . Outside of Europe, it is found in southern Siberia (Transbaikalia, Altai), the Russian Far East and Korea . The wingspan is 10–12 mm. Adults are on wing in June and July. The larvae feed on Corylus (including Corylus avellana ), Ulmus and Prunus persica species. They feed inside the buds of their host plant. This article related to

162-401: The lemma form ( nominative singular masculine 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 or Galium verum . The second part of a binomial is often

180-501: The wren , are not necessarily cave-dwellers. Sometimes a genus name or specific 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

198-562: The books that are now accepted as the starting point of binomial nomenclature, Latin was used in Western Europe as the common language of science, and scientific names were in Latin or Greek: Linnaeus continued this practice. While learning Latin is now less common, it is still used by classical scholars , and for certain purposes in botany , medicine and the Roman Catholic Church , and it can still be found in scientific names. It

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216-505: The difference between spoken and written language has widened over time. In the context of traditional European classical studies , the "classical languages" refer to Greek and Latin , which were the literary languages of the Mediterranean world in classical antiquity . Greek was the language of Homer and of classical Athenian , Hellenistic and Byzantine historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to

234-614: The lingua franca of the early Roman Empire and later of the Western Roman Empire . Despite the decline of the Western Roman Empire, the Latin language continued to flourish in the very different social and economic environment of the Middle Ages , not least because it became the official language of the Roman Catholic Church . In Western and Central Europe and in parts of northern Africa, Latin retained its elevated status as

252-480: The main vehicle of communication for the learned classes throughout the Middle Ages and subsequently; witness especially the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This language was not supplanted for scientific purposes until the 18th century, and for formal descriptions in zoology as well as botany it survived to the later 20th century. The modern international binomial nomenclature holds to this day: taxonomists assign

270-1739: The tables, L = Latin, G = Greek, and LG = similar in both languages. dwarf date palm , Phoenix acaulis angled sunbeam (butterfly) , Curetis acuta ; northern pintail , Anas acuta three-spined stickleback , Gasterosteus aculeatus ; butcher's-broom , Ruscus aculeatus African clubhook-squid , Notonykia africanae ; pyjama shark , Poroderma africanum; lemon basil , Ocimum × africanum green field-speedwell , Veronica agrestis sharpwing monkeyflower , Mimulus alatus ; winged elm , Ulmus alata ; winged everlasting , Ammobium alatum ; winged loosestrife , Lythrum alatum ; winged seahorse , Hippocampus alatus ; winged-stem passion flower , Passiflora alata moth , Syngamia albiceps; wood groundling , Parachronistis albiceps; Mexican golden red rump tarantula , Brachypelma albiceps narrowflower lupine , Lupinus angustiflorus narrowleaf cottonwood , Populus angustifolia ; narrowleaf sunflower , Helianthus angustifolius sea snail , Vexillum angustissimum gummy shark , Mustelus antarcticus ; brown skua , Stercorarius antarcticus golden wattle , Acacia pycnantha ; white sage , Salvia apiana water spinach , Ipomoea aquatica ; parrot's-feather , Myriophyllum aquaticum , Aloe arborescens ; Hydrangea arborescens archo – archus common bearberry , Arctostaphylos silvery lupine , Lupinus argenteus; white mulberry , Pipturus argenteus see also nomina dubia electric (modern usage) Classical language Classical languages are usually extinct languages . Those that are still in use today tend to show highly diglossic characteristics in areas where they are used, as

288-455: The unmistakable imprint of the Sanskrit and Pali that came in with Hindu Buddhism centuries ago, or that whether we argue for or against the teaching of Latin and Greek [in schools,] our argument is sure to be studded with words that have come to us from Rome and Athens , we get some indication of what early Chinese culture and Buddhism , and classical Mediterranean civilization have meant in

306-577: The vocabulary of English and many other European languages, and has been a standard subject of study in Western educational institutions since the Renaissance . Latinized forms of Ancient Greek roots are used in many of the scientific names of species and in other scientific terminology. Koine Greek , which served as a lingua franca in the Eastern Roman Empire, remains in use today as a sacred language in some Eastern Orthodox churches . Latin became

324-431: The world's history. There are just five languages that have had an overwhelming significance as carriers of culture. They are classical Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic, Greek, and Latin. In comparison with these, even such culturally important languages as Hebrew and French sink into a secondary position. In this sense, a classical language is a language that has a broad influence over an extended period of time, even after it

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