“Latin” names that aren’t Latin

Image: Razorbill (Alca torda), photo S. Heard.

My friend Alex is nearly as pedantic as I am. Now and again on Twitter one of us will revel in correcting the other (in a friendly yet taunting manner) on some point of grammar or usage. Recently he got me good: what I’ve been calling “Latin names” all my life (for instance, here, here, and here) are not always “Latin” at all. I knew this perfectly well, of course, but nonetheless have been a bit sloppy. Alex points out here that “scientific names” is a more accurate term [edit: for a while, I used “scientific name” on Scientist Sees Squirrel; but I’ve changed my mind and reverted to “Latin name”]. I should have made this clearer, earlier.

But on to the issue that made me eat crow. While a large fraction of Latin names have Latin derivations, there are examples of names based on words from many, many languages. Greek is of course the next most common (the crow I ate, Corvus brachyrhynchos, has a Latin genus name but a Greek specific epithet). But there are many less obvious ones; for instance, I recently blogged about the Arabic derivation of Abudefduf. So I thought it would be fun to dig up some good examples, and to increase the fun, here they are in the form of a quiz. I’ll give you the scientific name; see if you can guess the linguistic root of the part of the name in red. (Answers below a jump).

Haootia quadriformis, an Ediacaran cnidarian

Alca torda, the razorbill

Dearcmhara shawcrossi, an ichthyosaur

Nundasuchus songeaensis, a Triassic archosaur (roughly, crocodilian)

Affecauda rugosa, a fluke (parasitic flatworm)

Patellapis hakkiesdraadi, a bee

Erythroxylum coca, the coca plant

Tarchia kielanae, a dinosaur

Cafeteria roenbergensis, a microflagellate

Slonik sibiricus, a weevil

Alpinia galangal, galangal

Tsuga canadensis, eastern hemlock

Bruhathkayosaurus matleyi, another dinosaur

Tiktaalik rosaeae, fossil lobe-finned fish

Marah fabaceus, California manroot (a wild cucumber)

OK, time to find out how you did (tell me in the comments). Here’s the jump to the answers:

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Haootia quadriformis, an Ediacaran cnidarian: Beothuk “spirit” or “demon” (the Beothuk were an indigenous people of Newfoundland)

Alca torda, the razorbill: Icelandic “auk”

Dearcmhara shawcrossi, an ichthyosaur: Gaelic “marine lizard”, pronounced “jack-vara”!

Nundasuchus songeaensis, a Triassic archosaur (roughly, crocodilian): Swahili nunda = “predator” (plus Greek suchus, “crocodile”).

Affecauda rugosa, a fluke (parasitic flatworm): German affe = “monkey” (plus Latin cauda, “tail”)

Patellapis hakkiesdraadi, a bee: Afrikaans “barbed wire”, for its bristles

Erythroxylum coca, the coca plant: Quechua (name for the coca plant)

Tarchia kielanae, a dinosaur: Mongolian “brain”

Cafeteria roenbergensis, a microflagellate: English, for its indiscriminate diet

Slonik sibiricus, a weevil: Russian “little elephant”

Alpinia galangal, galangal: Arabic (meaning uncertain)

Tsuga canadensis, eastern hemlock: Japanese “hemlock”

 Bruhathkayosaurus matleyi, another dinosaur: Sanskrit bruhath + kāya = “huge body” (+ Latin saurus = “lizard”)

Tiktaalik rosaeae, fossil lobe-finned fish: Inuktitut “burbot”

Marah fabaceus, California manroot (a wild cucumber): Hebrew “bitter”

How did you do?

If you liked these, there’s a much longer list at Curious Taxonomy (some but not all of my examples are there, along with a cornucopia of other Latin-name-based amusement).

© Stephen Heard (sheard@unb.ca) March 23 2015

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