Taxonomic etymology – in search of inspiration

By

Jozwiak, Piotr
Rewicz, Tomasz
Pabis, Krzysztof

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2015

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

513

Pages

143-160

Subjects

ICZN , Mythology , politics , pop-culture , taxonomy , word-play

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.513.9873

 

Abstract

We present a review of the etymology of zoological taxonomic names with emphasis on the most unusual examples. The names were divided into several categories, starting from the most common – given after morphological features – through inspiration from mythology, legends, and classic literature but also from fictional and nonfictional pop-culture characters (e.g., music, movies or cartoons), science, and politics. A separate category includes zoological names created using word-play and figures of speech such as tautonyms, acronyms, anagrams, and palindromes. Our intention was to give an overview of possibilities of how and where taxonomists can find the inspirations that will be consistent with the ICZN rules and generate more detail afterthought about the naming process itself, the meaningful character of naming, as well as the recognition and understanding of names.