Origin of latin names for different species?

May 26, 2009 2:30 PM

Is there a database of the origins of Binomial Latin names for species?

I have to memorize lots of boring molds. I know a little Latin and sometimes this helps me connect the Latin name to something about the mold. But I can't find a website that lists the origins of the names...does one exist?

posted by melissam to science & nature (12 comments total)

Not all binomial nomenclature is Latin.
posted by kldickson at 2:53 PM on May 26

A lot of the nomenclature is Greek (including the insect genus that is my username!).
posted by hydropsyche at 3:03 PM on May 26

oopps, yeah, and other languages too...any way, that makes it even harder to just use a dictionary
posted by melissam at 3:09 PM on May 26

Post some examples of the ones you can't find a defining characteristic about .
posted by kldickson at 3:25 PM on May 26

Entoleuca mammata
Gremmeniella abietina (I know the abietina refers to spruce)
Pollaccia radiosa
Chrysomyxa abietis (same here)
Nectria galligena
posted by melissam at 3:43 PM on May 26

While studying here is a good example. There are two lophoderium you can find on pines: pinastri and seditiosum. Only one is really bad for the tree. Seditiosum means quarrelsome...being able to associate it with that really helps. I was looking for a database with such a thing...guess there isn't one.
posted by melissam at 5:39 PM on May 26

This latin-english-latin grammar dictionary may help with some of them. However, I doubt that all the names (even those derived from latin) have perfect translations. Biologists were much better scientists than they were linguists, so it's not uncommon to have somewhat odd words pop up here and there.
posted by The White Hat at 9:39 PM on May 26

This one. This is the link I forgot to include because I am tired.
posted by The White Hat at 9:40 PM on May 26

Abies is actually the fir family; Picea is spruce.

Botanical dictionary- is not bad. Things I don't find in there sometimes show up by googling "etymology" along with the epithet.

From off the top of my head:

mamma= breast. mammatus usually indicates a rounded form.
radiosa means like radii, or radiating.
chrys(o)= gold, myxa= mucus
ento= inner leuca= white

for molds, I think there will be a lot of epithets referring to what they infect.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:53 PM on May 26

One useful source is the 1963 classic How Plants Get Their Names. Also look at this Short Dictionary of Specific Epithets, but the author warns that "For every specific epithet [the second word in the binomial name] that has a scrap of meaning in its archaic latinized history, there is another which has been invented playfully or otherwise, and which has no meaning whatever."
posted by Ery at 5:21 AM on May 27

You may be hindering yourself with the notion that the binomial name is the Latin(ized) description of the species. Two words just aren't enough to describe a species; all they really do is denote the species. As noted above, the specific epithet often has very little direct correlation to the species description (indeed, some of the specific epithets are inside jokes -- amusing for taxonomists, but of very little help for everyone else).

What you really want is a history of the taxonomy for each of the species you need to memorize. Unfortunately, it is very, very doubtful that such a thing exists (although, if such a thing exists for any taxa, I’m hot to hear about it!) – taxonomic surveys are, at the very least, a *lot* of work. ‘Fraid what you’re doing now is pretty much the best way: associate the name as many ways as possible. Ideally, have a 1 paragraph story/history about the name & nature of each species.

Sometimes, you can build the rational without special knowledge,
eg.your last example, Nectria galligena:

Nectria – implies fruit
galligena – implies gall (eg. leaf galls)

And, indeed, a quick googleing of Nectria galligena reveals that it is
a canker of fruit trees.
posted by Tuesday After Lunch at 6:53 AM on May 27

I asked a similar question and bought this book (finally) as a result of that thread, and I think it may do the trick.
posted by dhruva at 10:46 AM on May 27