Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “fauna” come from?

Fauna comes from New Latin fauna, from Latin Fauna, the Roman goddess of nature, derived from Latin Faunus, a Roman deity of fields and forests.

fauna (English): Animals considered as a group; especially those...

Definitions

  1. Animals considered as a group; especially those...

Ancestry of “fauna”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1New Latinfaunaanimals
2EnglishavifaunaThe birds, or all the kinds of birds, inhabiting...
3Latinavisa bird; omen, portent; dative/ablative plural of...
4Proto-Italicawisbird
5Proto-Indo-Europeanh₂éwisbird

Words derived from “fauna”

  • faunal
  • megafauna
  • macrofauna
  • microfauna
  • epifaunal
  • mesofauna
  • megafaunal
  • epifauna
  • macrofaunal
  • faunistic
  • herpetofauna
  • ichthyofauna
  • malacofauna
  • meiofaunal
  • microfaunal
  • defaunation
  • faunally
  • entomofauna
  • herpetofaunal
  • paleofauna
  • ichthyofaunal
  • ichnofauna
  • paleofaunal
  • mesofaunal
Every word from Proto-Indo-European h₂éwis →