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species

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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
  • 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