"^20 CoUES 0)1 Ne-iv Terms in Zoological Nomenclature. [October 



ON SOME NEW TERMS RECOMMENDED FOR USE 

 IN ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 



BY PROFESSOR COUES. 



I HAVE certain new terms to define and recommend for use in 

 zoology — some, as desirable substitutes for inelegant or inept 

 words now employed ; others, .as convenient names for ideas or 

 things not now expressed except in paraphrase. I refer to the 

 word ONYM and its compounds and derivatives. Onym is simply 

 anglicized from owjia, nomen^ 'name.' 



Zoologists constantly speak of the 'binomial' nomenclature, or 

 'binomial' system of naming. A name of two terms is called a 

 'binomial'. An object so named is 'binomially' entitled. The 

 agent in such cases is a 'binomialist.' The principle involved is 

 'binomialism,' or 'binomiality'. And so on. Extension of this 

 practise has led us to commit the verbal bastardy of 'mononomial' 

 and 'polynomial,' in speaking of names consisting respectively of 

 one or several terms, or in speaking of a system of nomenclature 

 in which objects are designated by one or several terms. Then 

 we also have 'polynomialist', etc. 



The objections to 'binomial', etc., are several. It does not 

 fairly and fully express what we mean. It does not readily yield 

 an eligible noun and verb. It does not easily enter into several 

 desirable compound words of collateral signification. It is 

 curiously related to, and generally confounded with, a different 

 word, 'binominal.' It is preoccupied, so to speak, in algebra, in 

 which science it has a special and appropriate signification. 



Perceiving sundry objections to 'binomial', some have sought 

 to obviate them by using 'binominal', 'uninominal', 'plurinomi- 

 nal', etc. But such terms are also ineligible, on several counts. 

 Like 'binomial', they do not readily yield collateral words, espec- 

 ially the desired noun and verb. Secondly, the tautology of 

 'binominal name', for instance, is evident. Thirdly and chiefly, 

 'nominal' and its derivatives have acquired in English a special 

 meaning, as the opposites of 'real' and its derivatives. Thus, a 

 'nominal' species is the opposite of a 'real' or true species; it is, 

 in short, a figment ; and though we do say, for instance, a 'nom- 

 inal list of species', meaning a list consisting only of the names 



