Where does “fauna” come from?
fauna (Norwegian Nynorsk) comes from Latin Fauna, from Latin Faunus, from New Latin fauna, from English avifauna, from Latin avis, from Proto-Italic awis, from Proto-Indo-European h₂éwis — bird.
fauna (Norwegian Nynorsk): fauna
Ancestry of “fauna”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Latin | Fauna | Roman goddess |
| 2 | Latin | Faunus | Faunus |
| 3 | New Latin | fauna | animals |
| 4 | English | avifauna | The birds, or all the kinds of birds, inhabiting... |
| 5 | Latin | avis | a bird; omen, portent; dative/ablative plural of... |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | awis | bird |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂éwis | bird |