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Page 3
The naming of organisms using a binomen, or Buccinum undatum is correct
genus and species, began in 1758 with Lin-
naeus. At that time, Latin was used to commu- Buccinum undatus is not correct
nicate all scientific work and Latin was used to
deliver university lectures. Everyone in the sci-
entific community used and understood Latin.
The concern we have not for proper pronuncia-
tion did not exist because every educated per-
son routinely heard and spoke Latin.
Today, Latin is a “dead” language, so proper
pronunciation has become an issue. We have a
subculture of Americanized Latin pronunciation,
so pronunciation has become inconsistent.
Consequently, there is no designated “right” or
“wrong” pronunciation of Latin names.
Rules do exist for constructing binominal Latin
names. The genus name is usually a Latin or
Latinized noun; the species name is usually a
Latin or Latinized adjective. The genus and
species names must agree in gender, which
usually means the Latin work endings must be
the same. In Latin, sometimes gender is obvi-
ous; other times it is not. In English, words with
gender are limited to words such as brother,
aunt, hen, and bull. In English it is not neces-
sary to change the ending of the adjective ac-
cording to the gender of the noun.
In Latin, words ending in “us” are masculine,
words ending in “a” are feminine, and words
ending in “um” as neuter. Shell examples in-
clude:
Masculine: Conus, Nassarius, Funinus
Feminine: Littorina, Cypraea, Crepidula
Neuter: Pallium, Buccinum, Umbraculum
Gender agreement between genus and species
must occur:
Making Sense of the Use of Latin Names for Shells
By Alice J. Monroe
Buccinum undata is not correct
One commonly used suffix that indicated posi-
tion, connection, or possession by when added
to the Latin base is –anus (masculine), -ana
(feminine), or –anum (neuter). For example,
floridanus is a masculine species meaning re-
lated to Florida.
Of course it is not always so simple; some ex-
ceptions exist. The suffix –ensis is used to indi-
cate the country, place of origin or habitat when
added to a Latinized stem word, regardless of
the gender of the genus.
Examples:
Masculine: Conus bengalensis
Feminine: Fissurella barbadensis
Neuter: Biffium vancouverensis
For a species named after a person, the suffix
of the species is determined by the gender of
the genus name (the noun). The usual suffixes
are “i” for a species names after a male and
“ae” for a species names after a female.
Examples:
Shells named after males:
Conus boschi Masculine genus
Cypraea walkeri Feminine genus
Sinum grayi Neuter genus
Shells names after females:
Conus memiae Masculine genus
Ancilla edithae Feminine genus
Cerithium judithae Neuter genus
Continued on Page 4
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