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Where does the word "species" come from? It comes from Latin species, and was adopted directly into English (1500s).
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Where does the word "species" come from? It comes from Latin species, and was adopted directly into English (1500s).
Species’s story begins in Latin: species meant “an appearance, a kind.” A sight, an appearance, from specere (to look at). It reached English by 1500s as species. Settled as the biological word for a distinct kind of organism. Today, species means a group of organisms capable of interbreeding, the basic unit of biological classification.
- Stage 1 · Latin · ancient species "an appearance, a kind", a sight, an appearance, from specere (to look at).
- Stage 2 · English · 1500s species "a distinct kind of organism", settled as the biological word for a distinct kind of organism.