Etymology

These pages are devoted to the science, or art, of forming scientific names of Prokaryotes. Other aspects of nomenclature are treated elsewhere. Yet another page treats taxonomy and systematics.

General LPSN advice on forming names:

Publications about forming names available in IJSEM follow, sorted chronologically. The symbol ✋ indicates a proposal to emend the ICNB/ICNP, while 🏢 indicates an official IJSEM publication.

1986-1990

1996-2000

2001-2005

2006-2010

2011-2015

2016-2020

2021-2025

The gender of names above the rank of genus, up to and including the rank of kingdom, and with exceptions for some class names, is fixed by the ICNP. The gender of each of such names is given on its respective LPSN page.

As a rule, names above the rank of genus and below the rank of domain are formed by appending a category-specific suffix to the stem of the name of a genus. The LPSN glossary contains information on how names of classes, domains, families, kingdoms, orders, phyla, subclasses, subfamilies, suborders, subtribes and tribes are formed.

Many validly published names of classes deviate from the expected scheme, hence a separate overview is provided. Names of domains do not have a common ending. This is by design.

The grammatical gender of names of genera (and subgenera) can be masculine, feminine or neuter. The grammatical gender of virtually all validly published names of genera is given on their respective LPSN page.

As an aid for the formation of new genus names, LPSN includes special pages that list the names of genera assorted by their grammar and gender.

The grammatical gender of names of species and subspecies is determined by the gender of their genus name and can accordingly be masculine, feminine or neuter. The grammatical gender of virtually all validly published names of species and subspecies is given on their respective LPSN page. If the epithet is an adjective, it must be adapted to the gender of the genus name.

As an aid for the formation of new names of species and subspecies, LPSN includes special pages that list the names of species or subspecies assorted by their grammar and gender.

The ancient LPSN page on three-letter codes for abbreviations of generic names is not going to be moved to the new system. Please see the archived version. The current LPSN authors opine that the usage of these abbreviations should be discontinued because they are not needed any more to save printing space. In fact, most journals (and readers) are switching from print publications to electronic publications.

The ancient LPSN pages on the etymology of genus and species names are not going to be moved as such to the new system. Please use the general search page instead for searching for name components, consult the up-to-date etymological arrangements of names listed above, or see the archived versions of the ancient pages:

This LPSN page was printed on 2024-03-19 11:52:15