About the nomenclature of scientific classification of life.

[John_5696]

Hi, all!
As I'm new to biology and life science, I'm interested in the classification system of life. However it's hard for me to memorize those seemingly Latin words of all kinds of lives. For example, I've absolutely no idea what 'Escherichia' means in Escherichia coli.
Do you know any available resources discuss extensively about the meaning of those words?
Thank you.

 

[Borek]

Latin-English dictionary? But it won't always help.

Escherich was a German doctor.

Some species are named after places or discoverers, or to commemorate something/someone.

Best case I know is about extinct insects family Sepulcidae, named after "sepulka". Trick is, nobody knows what "sepulka" is, it was a mystery objects in a science-fiction novel by Stanisław Lem. There are several known species - Sepulca mirabilis (which means beautiful sepulca), Sepulca mongolica (Mongolian sepulca) and so on.

 

[jim mcnamara]

The reason for Latin and Latinized names in Linnean taxonomy is: Latin was as close to a lingua franca as there was at the time. We are going to have to live with it.

There are a few dozen that are commonly used. Here is how they "work"

http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWlatin.html

PS: they are not going away anytime soon.