For the love of Latin

It’s all fascinating the world around us. But one of the biggest issues that often puts people off learning more about the outdoors and the wildlife is the terminology and in particular, the use of scientific names. But have you ever wondered what the Latin names of animals and plants actually mean and where they came from?

The naming system:

Every species has a scientific, binomial name given to it, which helps us to identify it, and it is the same no matter where you come from or what language you speak.

Each scientific name has two parts (hence the term binomial, meaning ‘two-names’) - the first is the Genus name and the second is the species name. So for example, human beings have the Latin name Homo sapien; Homo is the genus group in which we belong and means ‘human being’ or ‘man’ and sapien is our species and means ‘modern’ or ‘wise’.

Did you know? Carl von Linné was the father of the binomial classification system, which provides a scientific name for every living organism. To make his own name sound more like the organisms he was classifying, he began to sign his name as ‘Carolus Linnaeus’, the surname by which we now know him by.

So what do they mean?

Since every species has its own unique scientific name, I am not going to be able to cover them all. However, I can show you some of the easier, more common words that you come across to get you started. However, a key bit of knowledge you need is that most names are not just Latin; many are a mixture of Latin and Greek.

Scientific names are regularly given to a species based on a whole variety of factors, such as its colour, size, shape, its behaviour, the location or habitat in which it was found, or even named after the person who discovered it. By breaking down a scientific name into its various Latin or Greek parts, you can work out what it means.

Colours:

Latin	Greek	Meaning	Example
Albus / alba / album	Leuc-	White	Quercus alba (White oak)
Ruber / rubr- / rufus / ruf- / cardinalis	Erythro-	Red  / Scarlet	Erithacus rubecula (European Robin – red chest) Tringa erythropus (Spotted redshank)
Caeruleus / caerule-	Cyano / cyan-	Blue / Blue-green	Cyanistes caeruleus (Blue tit) Aganisia cyanea (Blue orchid)
Flavus / gilvus / luteus	Xanthos / crocos	Yellow  (Various shades)	Crocus sativus (Saffron crocus) Apodemus flavicollis (Yellow-necked mouse)
Niger / nigr- / Ater / atra / atrum	Melano- / Melan- / Mauro-	Black / dull black	Pinus nigra (Black pine) Fulica atra (Eurasian coot)
Viridis / Viride	Chloro-	Green / pale green	Labrus viridis (Green wrasse) Gallinula chloropus (Common moorhen)

Location:

Locations (often in Latin) are generally obvious and easy to work out, as the countries / continents / areas of the world where they are found are normally included in the name (e.g. Erinaceus europaeus - European hedgehog, and Ursus americanus - American black bear). Generic areas might include ‘australlis’ which means ‘southern’, ‘borealis’ which means ‘northern’. If something has ‘vagans’ in its name, it means ‘widely disributed’. More specific habitat locations may also form part of the name, as in the table below.

Latin (L) / Greek (G)	Meaning (of the…)	Example
Arvensis / agrestis / campestris (L)	Field / open plain	Alauda arvensis (Skylark)
Ammophilus / arenarius (L)	Sandy places	Leymus arenarius (Sand ryegrass)
Domesticus / familiaris (L)	House / domesticated	Passer domesticus (House Sparrow)
Aquaticus (L) / Hydro- (G)	Water (freshwater)	Mentha aquatica (Water mint)
Hali- / Halio- (G), Maritima (L), pelagicus (L,G)	Sea (saltwater)	Halichoerus grypus (Grey seal) Ursus maritimus (Polar bear)
Hortensis (L)	Garden	Anemone hortensis (Broad-leaved anemone)
Monantus / alpicola (L)	Mountains	Passer montanus (Tree Sparrow)
Sylvaticus / sylvestris / nemoralis (L)	Woodland / forest	Anemone nemorosa (Wood anemone) Apodemus sylvaticus (Wood mouse)

Defining characteristics and features:

Most species are named due to a defining characteristic or features that makes it unique and different to other and similar species. This might be its shape, size, calls / songs, or particular body parts that vary, just to name a few. Below are just a few examples:

Latin (L) / Greek (G)	Meaning	Example
Major / magnus / maximus / grandis (L) Macro- / mega- (G)	Large / largest / long / great / greater / big	Parus major (Great tit)
Minor / minimus / minuta / parvus (L) / Micro (G)	Small / smaller / smallest / lesser / dwarf	Micromys minutus (Harvest mouse)
Trivialis / Vulgaris (L)	Common / ordinary	Sturnus vulgaris (Starling)
Punctatus / macuatus (L)	Spotted	Coccinella septempunctata (Seven-spot ladybird)
Platy- (G)	Broad / wide and flat	Anas platyrhyncos (Malllard) (rhyncos is ‘beak or snout’ in Greek)
Ped- / -pes (L) / Pod- (G)	Foot / footed	Eleocharis erythropoda (Red-footed spikesedge)
Volans (L)	Flying	Draco Volans (Flying dragon)

Uses / properties:

Latin (L) / Greek (G)	Meaning	Example
Edulis / esculentus (L)	Edible (although always double check before eating)	Ostrea edulis (Oyster)
Fragrans / aromaticus (L)	Fragrant / aromatic	Syzygium aromaticum (Clove)
Melliferus (L)	Produces honey	Apis mellifera (Western honey bee)
Virosus (L)	Toxic / poisonous	Cicuta virosa (Cowbane)
Officinalis (L)	For the workshop / shop, useful (vegetable, culinary, medicinal)	Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary) Borago officinalis (Borage)
Tinctorius (L)	Used as a dye	Genista tinctoria (Dyer’s Greenwood)
Medicus (L)	Medicinal	Citrus medica (Citron fruit)

Time:

Annuus (L)	Annual (single year)		Aestivualis (L)	Relating to Summer
Biennis (L)	Biennial (two-years)		Autumnalis (L)	Relating to Autumn
Perennis (L)	Perennial (many years)		Vernalis / vernum / veris (L)	Relating to Spring
Nocturnus (L)	Of the night / nocturnal
Praecox (L)	Early		Hyemalis / Hiemalis (L)	Relating to Winter
Tardus (L)	Late

People’s names:

The surnames of famous people, or the explorers who discovered a species can often be found in the scientific name. For example, ‘darwinii’ shows that a species was named after Charles Darwin. A recent example was in 2007, when a new tree species (Blakea attenboroughii) was discovered and named after David Attenborough.

Greek / Latin numbers are often used in names which also gives clues to a species’ characteristics, for example, the number of petals or leaves, how many spots or legs it has, etc.

1	Mono- (G)	3	Tri- (G)	5	Penta- (G)	7	Septum- (L)	9	Ennea- (G) Novum (L)
2	Di- (G) Bi- /Duo- (L)	4	Quadri- (L) Tetra- (G)	6	Hexa- (G)	8	Octo- (G)	10	Deca- (G) Decem- (L)

So I have shown you just a few examples of how Latin and Greek terms can be used to put a scientific name together. If you therefore ever get stuck, try breaking the name into smaller chunks and work out each individual meaning. Then piece them back together and you may be able to match the scientific name to the common name. For example, ‘Trifolium repens’ describes a plant – ‘tri’ is three, ‘folium’ is leafed, and ‘repens’ is creeping. Therefore put together, this forms ‘three-leafed creeping’, which describes white clover. Diceros bicornis is divided into ‘di‘ means two and ‘ceros’ is horn in Greek, and ‘bi’ is two and ‘cornis’ is horn in Latin. Therefore, this animal is literally translated as ‘two-horns, two-horns’ and is the black rhino.

Having now seen how names are classified and the meanings behind them, what would your binomial name be?

For further information and help here are some books and websites I recommend:

Armitage, J. and the RHS (2016) RHS Practical Latin for Gardeners: More than 1,500 Essential Plant Names and the Secrets They Contain.

Lederer, J. and Burr, C. (2014) Latin for Bird Lovers: Over 3,000 bird names explored and explained.

Wright, John (2015) The Naming of the Shrew: A Curious History of Latin Names.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/info/latin-plant-names.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_and_Greek_words_commonly_used_in_systematic_names

Me with a Brown Hawker dragonfly (Aeshna grandis)

By Vicky Brown, Tutor