bionyms

Noun

bionym (plural bionyms)

1. The proper name of a living being.
   • Our starting point is the bionym, the name forming part of a specialised vocabulary which classifies plants or animals. How does one decide on the number of nomials in a given bionym, so that it is called a uni-, bi- or trinomial?1991, K.J. Hollyman, “What’s in a Nomial? Folk Classification in New Caledonia”, in Andrew Pawley, editor, Man and a Half: Essays in Pacific Anthropology and Ethnobiology in Honour of Ralph Bulmer...

   Antonyms:

   abionym

2. A name derived from a habitat or an environmental characteristic.
   • Its name is a bionym combined with a taxonym. The first element of the name, the bionym, references the bird's habitat, which is the Chaco Plain,[…].2022, Susan Myers, “Chaco-Finch”, in The Bird Name Book: A History of English Bird Names, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 76