The roots of our modern system of biological nomenclature are to be found in the 18th century and can be traced mainly to the Swedish botanist and medical doctor Karl von Linne (better known by his more scholarly Latinized name of Carolus Linneaus). Linneaus' pioneering work on scientific classification and binomial nomenclature was the cornerstone on which modern systematics was constructed.
The Origin of Modern Taxonomic Nomenclature
During the time of Linneaus, scientific names were polynomial (“many names”) and the descriptive words used in scientific names were not fixed to that specific creature. The European honeybee, for example, was named Apis, pubescens, thorace subgriseo, abdomine fusco, pedibus posticis glabris utrinque margine ciliates. The scientific name for humans from that time translated into English would read “hairy on top, bare on the bottom of the walking surfaces, bipedal, eyes forward with binocular vision, opposable thumbs, no wings, no feathers, capable of rational thought and the capacity to love.”
Linneaus established a more concise and precise system of binomial nomenclature in which each species’ name is made up of two words or epithets. The first epithet (capitalized) names the genus; and the second (lowercase) names the species of the genus. The only rules Linneaus applied were that the epithets should be short and unique, and that they should not be changed
Thanks to the binomial system of nomenclature developed by Linneaus, the genus and species epithets for any particular animal are so specific that only those two words need be used to immediately identify precisely what animal is being discussed. Sitta carolinensis denotes the white-breasted nuthatch, Drosophila melanogaster is the fruit fly, and humans are Homo sapiens; no ambiguity or confusion, just preciseness and permanence.
Why Not Use Common Names?
Why use Latin for scientific names? Why not use common names such as frog, cat, fish, eagle, and so on? Common names are not suitable for use as biological nomenclature for a number of reasons:
1. Common names are often not physically accurate. Imagine what the following animals would look like if their common names accurately reflected their physical structure or appearance: the house fly, the bald eagle, and the sea horse.
2. One common name may be applied to several different creatures. For example, the English robin is smaller with different feather coloration than the robin we know in North America.
3. A number of common names may be applied to the same creature. Puma, cougar, mountain lion and catamount are only several of the 40 different common names applied to the same large North America cat, Puma concolor.
4. Common names for the same animal differ not only between countries but also regionally within the same country. In northern regions, the fish known as the bullhead and the crustacean known as the crayfish are known as the horn pout and the mudbug respectively in southern states.
5. Common names often do not translate accurately and meaningfully into other languages.
Why is Latin the Preferred Language of Biological Nomenclature?
In the Middle Ages, Latin became the accepted language of the scholar and scientist and any scholarly or scientific work was published in Latin. However, Latin is not used solely for tradition’s sake but also because it is the perfect vocabulary for international communication in biology:
1. Latin is a “dead” language. That is, Latin is no longer spoken as a national or even regional language anywhere in the world. Because of this, Latin words do not change so the pure Latin is not be corrupted by developing slang words from it.
Any spoken language develops slang words at an amazing rate. In fact, whole dictionaries are devoted just to explaining slang words. “Spider”, for example, is a frying pan or skillet in the Deep South of the USA. One might be surprised to learn that “bruisecruise,” “shingrater,” and “stonesoup” are just several of the over 300 slang terms used to describe the same exact thing – crashing on a skateboard and one definitely would not want to eat “vodoo stew,” a slang term for water contaminated by sewage or other pollutants.
2. Latin need not be translated. For example, an American zoologist researching the mating behavior of the cat he commonly known as the mountain lion might communicate with a colleague in Mexico about that animal. All parts of any communiqués between them would be translated from English to Spanish and back to English except the name of the cat (or any other animals) being discussed. The scientific name of the cat, Puma concolor, would used instead of any common name and the scientific name would not be translated.
With the emergence of phylogenetic (cladistic) taxonomy, a new formal code of nomenclature, the PhyloCode, intended to deal with clades rather than taxonomic ranks, is currently under development.
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