Why is the Latin name for the Eurasian eagle-owl 'bubo bubo' ?

November 11, 2014 6:32 AM

Why is the Latin name for the Eurasian eagle-owl 'bubo bubo' ? I can't find any reference to the Eurasian Eagle Owl having buboes - as in 'a swollen inflamed lymph node in the armpit or groin'

Why is the Latin name for the Eurasian eagle-owl 'bubo bubo' ?

I can't find any reference to the Eurasian Eagle Owl having buboes - as in 'a swollen inflamed lymph node in the armpit or groin' - and I can't trace any other meaning of bubo.

posted by Quillcards to Science & Nature (9 answers total)

In Spanish an owl is a búho because that is how they interpret the sound it makes.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:42 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Pretty much all "horned" owls are in the genus bubo. The Eagle Owl may have just been the first one to be classified there, so its genus name was repeated as its species name, which happen fairly often.
posted by LionIndex at 6:43 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

The use of Bubo for horned owls goes all the way back to Linneaus's Systema Naturae. It's possible that he named them after the noise they make, or some misconception he had about them and buboes.
posted by fermezporte at 6:45 AM on November 11, 2014

Best answer: See the Latin etymology here. Bubo is the Latin word for owl, thought to be from an onomatopoeic proto Indo-European root.
posted by mr_roboto at 6:46 AM on November 11, 2014 [5 favorites]

Long before Linnaeus, it was the Latin for owl (possibly because of the noise it makes). It was also a Latin word for bubo. The same sequence of letters can mean several different things, in any language. Wiktionary entry here.
posted by altolinguistic at 6:47 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

"A swollen lymph node" is the English meaning of "Bubo". The Latin meaning (according to Wiktionary, anyway) of "Bubo" actually is "owl", and apparently has been for some time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:49 AM on November 11, 2014

Google Translate says it's Latin for horned owl and says strix is Latin for screech owl. I have absolutely no idea how to properly connect Latin to IE roots, but the American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots has two entries for *beu- that might be relevant: one is connected to words associated with the idea of swelling up (including G. boubōn > E. bubo), and the other is connected to both bitterns and buteos (L. būteō) and is supposedly imitative of muffled sounds. You can find both a picture of a swollen-looking threat posture and a circumstance in which a Eurasian eagle owl can be confused for a buteo on its Wikipedia page.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 6:49 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: mr_roboto's answer seems to nail it.

From Proto-Indo-European *b(e)u (“owl”),
posted by Quillcards at 7:00 AM on November 11, 2014

...and if you're curious about the buboes we associate with the plague, the etymology of that word comes from the Greek βυβον which means groin or swelling in the groin - so separate origins for both words, though they come to look & sound the same in English.
posted by AthenaPolias at 9:40 AM on November 11, 2014