species

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈspiː.ʃiːz/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin speciēs (“appearance, form; kind, sort”),^[2][3][4] from specere (“to look at, behold”),^[2][5][6] from Proto-Indo-European *spek- (“to observe”).^[2] It is a doublet of spice.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A class of individuals or things, in logic: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum,^[3] the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Latin speciēs, “a sight, outward appearance”, had many extended senses, among them “semblance, pretext”, “display, beauty” and “a likeness or statue”.^[2] In Late Latin logic and law it came to mean a particular case, a class included under a higher class, translating Greek eidos.^[2] The early English uses included the outward look of something (1559) and an image or reflection,^[7][6] and in theology the visible form of the bread and wine of the Eucharist (1579).^[7][5] This visible form developed into the general notion of a kind or type:^[6] a distinct kind or sort is from 1561,^[3] and the biological sense, a group of living things with common characteristics, from 1608.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1398 – a class in logic.^[3]
• 1559 – outward appearance.^[7]
• 1561 – a kind or sort.^[3]
• 1579 – the elements of the Eucharist.^[7]
• 1608 – a biological species.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (biology) A basic category of classification, below a genus, of related organisms able to interbreed; an organism of such a group.
2. A kind, sort or variety: a species of humour.
3. (logic) A class of individuals with common characteristics, included in a wider class.
4. (theology) The visible form of the bread or wine in the Eucharist.

Word family

• conspecific
• ecospecies
• interspecies
• intraspecies
• speciation
• speciesism
• specific
• subspecies

Related words

• specie
• specious
• spectacle
• spectacular
• speculate
• speculation
• speculative
• speculator
• spice
• special
• specimen
• spy

Usage notes

The singular and plural are both species, while specie is a different word, meaning coined money.^[8][5]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin