subspecies

Etymology

It is formed from English sub- + species,^[2][3][4][5] after the post-classical Latin subspecies, recorded from 1544 or earlier.^[2] Merriam-Webster and Klein treat the English word as the New Latin one, made from Latin sub- (“under”) and speciēs (“kind, sort”).^[6][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A subdivision of a species, a subcategory: 1681, in N. Grew's Musæum Regalis Societatis.^[2][6] The 1989 edition of the OED and the Merriam-Webster Collegiate had 1699,^[9][10] and Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the word to the 1690s.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The OED compares an earlier use of the Latin phrase sub specie, within a kind, in an English text of 1647 by F. Lodowyck, which applies it to the distinction between male and female names of creatures.^[2] As a term of classification the word was long imprecise, and Etymonline notes that its exact definition was much debated.^[3] In biology it settled as the rank below species and above variety,^[2] for a group that differs in form and is usually isolated geographically but can still interbreed with the rest of the species.^[6][4] The general sense of a subgroup of any kind survives beside it.^[10][2] The 1989 OED records the derivative subspeciation from 1942.^[9]

Timeline

• 1681 – a subdivision of a species; a subcategory.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to the 1690s.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (biology) A taxonomic rank immediately below species, for a population that differs in form, is usually separated by geography, and can still interbreed with others of the species.^[6][2][11]
2. (biology) A group of organisms of this rank, usually named with three terms: The Siberian tiger is a subspecies of tiger.^[2][12]
3. Any subdivision or subcategory of a kind: a subspecies of crime fiction.^[2][10]

Word family

• subspecific

Related words

• infraspecific
• species
• specific

Usage notes

The plural is the same as the singular.^[4][11] Collins gives the abbreviation ssp.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin