fauna

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin fauna,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} an application of Late Latin Fauna, the name of a Roman rural goddess of fertility,^[4][7][8][9] usually called the sister of Faunus,^{[2][10][8][11]} though Barnhart and Etymonline also make her his wife or daughter.^[4][7] Faunus, a god of the countryside worshipped by shepherds and farmers and identified with the Greek Pan, is the source of faun.^[11][7][2] The Swedish naturalist Linnaeus used the name in the title of his catalogue of the animals of Sweden, “Fauna Suecica” (1746), as a companion to his “Flora Suecica” (1745),^[2][11][4] and so made it a counterpart of flora in the natural sciences.^[7][12][13] Klein calls the names of the two deities of uncertain origin and suggests, as a possibility, a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dhau- (“to strangle”), with the sense "wild beast".^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The animal life of a region: 1771, in a letter of Gilbert White later printed in his Natural History of Selborne (1789).^[2][7] Dictionary.com dates the word 1765–75.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English as a scientific term already paired with flora, the plant life of a region,^[2][7][10] and has kept that meaning: the animals of a region, a habitat or a geological period.^[2][15][16] From 1885 it was also used of a book or treatise describing such animals.^[2][16][10] Merriam-Webster also records it for the animals adapted to one kind of environment, such as caves or the human intestine.^[6] Both the English plural faunas and the Latin faunae are used.^[6][5][10]

Timeline

• 1746 – Linnaeus's “Fauna Suecica”.^[2][11][4]
• 1771 – the animals of a region or period, in Gilbert White.^[2][7][4][6]
• 1885 – a treatise on the animals of a region or period.^[2][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The animals of a particular region, habitat or geological period, especially as distinguished from its flora: the fauna of the Andes.^{[5][6][2][15]}
2. The animals adapted to a particular kind of environment: the fauna of desert springs.^[6]
3. A book or list describing the animals of a region or period.^{[5][2][6][15]}

Word family

• faunal
• faunally
• avifauna
• epifauna
• faunistic
• ichthyofauna
• infauna
• megafauna

Related words

• faun
• flora

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
15. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)