species

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈspɛ.ki.eːs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈspɛː.t͡ʃi.es]^[1]

Forms

speciēs f (genitive speciēī); fifth declension^[1] The genitive singular speciēī is not found in texts, and the genitive and dative plural were not used in Cicero's day, fōrmae serving instead, while specierum and speciebus appear in late writers.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin speciō (“to look at”) + -iēs, a noun of the fifth declension formed on the verb of seeing,^[2][1][4] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to observe”).^[5][6] Lewis and Short and Georges give the same derivation.^[3][7] The development from “look, appearance” to “kind, sort” has parallels in Slavic, where words for a kind are formed on the verb “to see”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Livius Andronicus uses it of a welcome sight that gladdens the eyes,^[2] and Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[6] who praises a woman of lovely appearance.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From a sight or spectacle and the act of looking it came to mean the visual appearance of a thing, and so good looks or beauty, splendour or display, and the outward appearance as opposed to inner reality, hence a semblance or a pretext (per speciem, under the pretence of).^[2][3] Concretely it was a figure or image, especially a statue, and a vision seen in a dream or a mental picture.^[2]

Philosophers used it for the Platonic idea, as Cicero says, and for a subdivision of a genus, a kind or sort, the sense in which species entered English logic in the late 14th century.^[2][5] Lawyers used it for a specific case and for a specific item of property.^[2] In Late and Medieval Latin the plural meant goods, wares and in particular spices and drugs, and the word also meant a valuable object or a substance;^[8][6][5] from this plural, through Old French espice, comes English spice (c. 1200), a doublet of species.^[5] New Latin uses the plural for a blend of herbs for tea.^[1] The Romance languages keep both strands, French espèce and épice, Italian specie and spezie.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 280–200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it of a sight.^[2]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of appearance and beauty.^[2][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the act of looking and of the surface films given off by objects.^[2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a statue and of a subdivision of a kind.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero renders Plato's idea as species and opposes species to genus.^[2][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of a specific legal case.^[2][6]
• c. 1200 – English Spice is borrowed into English from the Late Latin plural.^[5]
• late 14th century – English Species enters English as a term of logic.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sight, a spectacle; the act of looking.^[2][3]
2. Visual appearance, look; beauty.^[2]
3. Splendour, show, display.^[2]
4. Outward appearance as opposed to reality; a semblance; a pretext.^[2][3]
5. A figure, an image, a statue.^[2]
6. A vision, an apparition; a mental picture.^[2]
7. A kind or sort, a subdivision of a genus; specific character.^[2][3]
8. (law) A specific case; a specific item of property.^[2]
9. (philosophy) The Platonic idea, an archetype.^[2]
10. (Late and Medieval Latin, usually plural) Goods, wares; spices, drugs, medicines; a valuable object; a substance.^[8][6][5]
11. (New Latin, plural) A blend of herbs for tea.^[1]

Word family

• speciālis
• speciaria
• speciātim
• speciatus
• speciōsus

Related words

• speciō
• English species
• English spice
• English special

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes figūra, shape in its mathematical outline, fōrma, shape as the visible stamp of an inner substance, and species, the outside as opposed to the invisible substance it covers.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper