Where does “species” come from?

Species comes from Latin speciēs, meaning appearance or form, derived from the Proto-Indo-European root speḱ- meaning to look or observe.

species (English): Type or kind; An image, an appearance, a...

Definitions

  1. Type or kind; An image, an appearance, a...

Ancestry of “species”, step by step

species traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English specie

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishspecieType or kind, in various uses of the phrase in...
2EnglishSpeciesA type or kind. Compare
3Latinspeciēsseeing, view, look
4Latinspeciōto observe, watch, look at
5Proto-Italicspekjōto observe, to see
6Proto-Indo-Europeanspéḱyetito be looking at, to keep looking at
7Proto-Indo-Europeanspeḱ-to see, to look, to observe

via Latin species

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Latinspeciesa seeing, view, look; a spectacle, sight;...
2LatinspecioI observe, watch, look at

Words derived from “species”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European speḱ- →Every word from Proto-Indo-European spéḱyeti →Every word from Proto-Italic spekjō →