In addition to the generally accepted taxonomic name Homo sapiens (Latin: 'wise man', Linnaeus 1758), other Latin-based names for the human species have been created to refer to various aspects of the human character. The common name of the human species in English is historically man (from Germanic mann), often replaced by the Latinate human (since the 16th century).

In the world's languages

The Indo-European languages have a number of inherited terms for mankind. The etymon of man is found in the Germanic languages, and is cognate with Manu, the name of the human progenitor in Hindu mythology, and found in Indic terms for man (including manuṣya, manush, and manava). Latin homo is derived from the Indo-European root dʰǵʰm- earth, as it were, earthling. It has cognates in Baltic (Old Prussian zmūi), Germanic (Gothic guma) and Celtic (Old Irish duine). This is comparable to the explanation given in the Genesis narrative to the Hebrew Adam (אָדָם) man, derived from a word for red, reddish-brown. Etymologically, it may be an ethnic or racial classification (after "reddish" skin colour contrasting with both "white" and "black"), but Genesis takes it to refer to the reddish colour of earth, as in the narrative the first man is formed from earth. Other Indo-European languages name man for his mortality, mr̥tós meaning mortal, so in Armenian mard, Persian mard, Sanskrit marta and Greek βροτός meaning mortal, human. This is comparable to the Semitic word for man, represented by Arabic insan إنسان (cognate with Hebrew ʼenōš אֱנוֹשׁ‬), from a root for sick, mortal. The Arabic word has been influential in the Islamic world, and was adopted in many Turkic languages. The native Turkic word is kiši. Greek ἄνθρωπος (anthropos) is of uncertain, possibly pre-Greek origin. Slavic čelověkъ also is of uncertain etymology. The Chinese character used in East Asian languages is 人, originating as a pictogram of a human being. The reconstructed Old Chinese pronunciation of the Chinese word is. A Proto-Sino-Tibetan r-mi(j)-n gives rise to Old Chinese, modern Chinese 民 mín people and to Tibetan མི mi person, human being. In some tribal or band societies, the local endonym is indistinguishable from the word for men, human beings. Examples include: Ainu ainu, Inuktitut: inuk, Bantu: bantu,, possibly in Uralic: Hungarian magyar, Mansi mäńćī, mańśi, from Proto-Ugric *mańć- man, person.

In philosophy

The mixture of serious and tongue-in-cheek self-designation originates with Plato, who on one hand defined man taxonomically as a "featherless biped", and on the other as ζῷον πολιτικόν (zōon politikon), as "political" or "state-building animal" (Aristotle's term, based on Plato's Statesman). Harking back to Plato's zōon politikon are a number of later descriptions of man as an animal with a certain characteristic. Notably animal rationabile "animal capable of rationality", a term used in medieval scholasticism (with reference to Aristotle), and also used by Carl Linnaeus (1760) and Immanuel Kant (1798). Based on the same pattern are animal sociale or social animal, animal laborans laboring animal (Hannah Arendt 1958 ), and animal symbolicum symbolizing animal (Ernst Cassirer 1944).

Etymology

The binomial name Homo sapiens was coined by Carl Linnaeus (1758).

List of binomial names

The following names mimic binomial nomenclature, mostly consisting of Homo followed by a Latin adjective characterizing human nature. Most of them were coined since the mid 20th century in imitation of Homo sapiens in order to make some philosophical point (either serious or ironic), but some go back to the 18th to 19th century, as in Homo aestheticus vs. Homo oeconomicus; Homo loquens is a serious suggestion by Herder, taking the human species as defined by the use of language; Homo creator is medieval, coined by Nicolaus Cusanus in reference to man as imago Dei.

In fiction

In fiction, specifically science fiction and fantasy, occasionally names for the human species are introduced reflecting the fictional situation of humans existing alongside other, non-human civilizations. In science fiction, Earthling (also Terran, Earther, and Gaian) is frequently used, as it were naming humanity by its planet of origin. Incidentally, this situation parallels the naming motive of ancient terms for humanity, including human (homo, humanus) itself, derived from a word for earth to contrast earth-bound humans with celestial beings (i.e. deities) in mythology.