Kids Need Science is devoted to demystifying and explaining science, technology, engineering and math words, names, and concepts. Check back often for a science, technology, engineering or math word defined and explained every day.
- BROWSE WORDS BY TOPIC
MAP OF VISITORS WORLDWIDE
-
Linnaeus, The Name Giver
Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus was an early information architect. He believed that every kind of plant and animal on...
-
Larva is actually a fairly poetic word in English that meant “mask” in Latin.
It comes from Carl Linnaeus, who first applied it to caterpillars,...
-
Linnaeus’ flower clock was a garden plan hypothesized by Carolus Linnaeus that would take advantage of several plants that open or close their...
-
If this isn’t a treehouse?
In the garden of the place where famous botanist, physician, and zoologist, Carl Linnaeus lived.
-
Even the ‘easy’ etymologies can be complicated: there is a family of birds native to the southern regions of Africa known as the musophagidae, or banana eaters. Word purists will tell you that proper word formation won’t mix Latin and Greek roots, but in this case, well, it’s even more complicated. Musa is a Late Latinization of the Arabic mauz (موز), which was introduced to European sensibilities in book form with the publication of the 11th century Arabic encyclopedia The Canon of Medicine, which was translated to Latin. The -phagous suffix comes from the Greek word meaning eater of, from phagein meaning to eat, literally to have a share of food. Turacos (such as the one pictured) are medium sized colorful birds-although they have been placed with cuckoo birds in the Cuculiformes order, recent research has lead away from this, and they may be reassigned to a different order.
Image of a Guinea Turaco, aka Green Turaco (Tauraco persa),South Africa, by Ian Wilson.
