protonym

English[edit]

protonym (plural protonyms)

(zoology, taxonomy) The first legitimate name of a taxon, on which the currently accepted name is based.
- 1968, Mien A. Rifai, The Australasian Pezizales in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew:
  The protonym of Macroscyphus appears to be Nees von Esenbeck's (1817) [genus] Peziza ...
- 2005, Bertram Ludäscher, Louiqa Raschid, Data integration in the life sciences:
  Protonyms form the name for later revised opinions on a taxon concept as implicitly or explicitly circumscribed in a subsequent publication...
(prescriptive, uncommon) The first/original entity after which another entity is named without the entities being related. If the entities are related, then the original entity is the eponym of the subsequent entities.