The Why Series
Felis Catus, Canis lupus familiaris, Homo sapiens! These are all names for cats, dogs, and humans. But they don’t seem familiar, do they? Whenever you see a cat, you say ‘cat’ and notFelis Catus, right? Then why are these strange and difficult names used when we have easier alternatives available and where are they used? These are scientific names. Whenever scientists mention cats, they say – you guessed it, Felis Catus! Scientific names are names given by scientists to all living things on earth. That’s right, all living things have been given some difficult-to pronounce Latin names and because they are so difficult, every language has easier alternatives e.g., in English we say Cat, in French we say Le Chat, in Hindi we say Billi, in German we say Katze, and so on.
Let’s assume that scientists from all over the world met for a congregation and started calling living beings by names in their own language, how would they be understood by others? Scientific names are made to avoid this confusion. This nomenclature makes every scientist understand the organism being discussed and when one scientist says ‘Felis Catus’ to another, it would be understood as cat. But, why Latin? Latin has been a dead language for decades, if not centuries. No developments have been made in the language for ages. It was deemed perfect for scientific nomenclature as it’s not used in day-to-day life. No country uses Latin as an official language and very few people know and speak it. Latin was first used to write scientific names in the Middle Ages (5th to 15th Century AD) but they were often long, descriptive, and difficult to read. In the mid-16th and 17th century, Latin was used binomially (a name made of two parts) by a group of scientists called Herbalists. However, it was in 1735 that Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus made the nomenclature used today. He introduced the current classification system and based the naming of living things on that. So, Felis Catus means cat but if you go into specific species of cats, the names will change e.g., the black- footed cat is called Felis Nigripes. In this, Felis means cat and is common between Felis Catus and Felis Nigripes.
Did you notice something unusual in the feature? All the above-mentioned scientific names are in italics. Why? It is done to distinguish the scientific names from normal text. Of course, it doesn’t matter when spoken out loud, but while reading a text, the italicized Latin words differentiate the scientific name from the normal text. This rule was formulated to avoid confusion while reading Latin texts (when it was still in use) and in taking the binomial text in the literal or scientific sense, as intended.
