Scientific Nomenclature

[Pete B]

Is there a book available that gives the meanings of the scientific names of fish and/or a list of the Latin and Greek words used in nomenclature?

[cichla]

Schmettkamp, W. (1985): Die Namen unserer Aquarienfische. Landbuch Verlag, Hannover. 208 S.
It gives the meaning for every single scientific name.

[Rico Morgenstern]

I don't have the book myself, but I had borrowed it from the library some month ago. It is indeed a really good one, unfortunately, there is (at least as far I am aware) nothing comparable in English. As it is 27 years old, it may be difficult to obtain now, and you will certainly not find the meaning of every name, but modern original descriptions usually contain this sort of information.

As far as cichlids are concerned, you will find the meanings of names in our cichlid catalog:

http://www.cichlidae.com/gallery/default.php

And of course, you may just ask here in the forum, if you search for certain names.

[dogofwar]

There was a great book by Dr. Peter Lewis that did exactly this. Probably out of print as my version was from the 80s...

Matt

[Lisachromis]

There was a great book by Dr. Peter Lewis that did exactly this. Probably out of print as my version was from the 80s...

Matt

Do you mean this one?

Common Names of Tropical Fish
Dr. Peter Lewis
Lewis Books 1984

[Darrell Ullisch]

When I first got into the hobby in 1967, the best book was Innes' Exotic Aquarium Fishes, 19th edition. It gave the meaning of all the latin names for the fish shown, and I don't think I've seen this in any other atlas type book. I learned a lot from that, but also from just general research on Latin root words. A lot of that also came from English classes in grade school back in ancient times. I don't think they teach that kind of information in grade schools these days. They just tell them to use Google.

[dogofwar]

I think so... I have a copy signed by Dr. Lewis from back in the day... it's in a box somewhere...

Matt

There was a great book by Dr. Peter Lewis that did exactly this. Probably out of print as my version was from the 80s...

Matt

Do you mean this one?

Common Names of Tropical Fish
Dr. Peter Lewis
Lewis Books 1984

[Lisachromis]

I have that somewhere, maybe I'll dig it out and see if it's the one that does what you said.

[Willem Heijns]

Are you saying that you don't have it on your desk "ready for use" Matt?

[Nothonotus]

This is useful, but pretty limited.

http://ebookbrowse.com/dictionary-of-word-roots-and-combining-forms-pdf-d76593266

A general latin or greek dictionary used in conjunction with the above book is usually good enough to figure out etymologies.

Ben

[dogofwar]

If only I had a desk at home. Long since been subsumed by piles of kid and baby toys!

As an aside, I seem to remember that Dr. Lewis passed. Is this correct? He was a really nice and generous guy, at least to a dorky 15 year old fish geek

Matt

Are you saying that you don't have it on your desk "ready for use" Matt?