Etymologies of Brazilian Amphibians

Herpetologia Brasileira - Suplemento 1
INTRODUCTION
Below are the etymologies of the generic names and specific epithets of 1206 Brazilian
amphibian species and their synonyms, totaling the explanation of more than
1600 words. The compilation ranges from Rana pipa, the first Brazilian species described
in the 10th edition of the Systema Naturae (Linnaeus, 1758), to Osteocephalus
melanops, published by Melo-Sampaio et al. on December 20, 2021. Within
this range are included 18 species named in the XVIII century, followed by 204 in
the XIX, 527 in the XX, and 457 in the first 21 years of the XXIth century. Many of
them are due to a single author, or a couple of them, perhaps a trio ... but taxonomists
working alone in the XXIth century are increasingly being replaced by true international
“consortia” that, reviewing this or that clade, generate unusual, almost
grotesque situations, such as the fact that there are names due to 16 authors.
This contribution is almost a lexicographic analysis and does not claim to be a systematic
or synonymic list (although it was necessarily based on them), nor it is intended
to be a nomenclatorial work in the sense of the International Code of Zoological
Nomenclature (ICZN 1999). The primary source of taxa was an updated
version of Segalla et al. (2021), and their synonyms came from the contents of the
American Museum of Natural History’s Amphibian Species of the World site (Frost
2022), as well as the analysis of each and every one of the original descriptions (see
the aforementioned page for the corresponding bibliographic references).
As far as possible, each analyzed term is accompanied by the word or words that
make it up, its language of origin (A. = Abyssinian; Ar. = Arawak; Ap. = Apurina;
B. = Borun; C. = Caribe; D. = Dutch; E. = English; F. = French; G. = Greek; Ge.
= German; Gê = Gê; Gu. = Guaraní; H. = Hebrew; HC. = Haitian creole; It. =
Italian; Iq. = Iquitos; J. = Jê; K. = Karajás; Ka. = Kakano; Ki. = Kimbundú;; L.
= Latin; M. = Machiguanga or Matsigenka; Ma. = Malagasy; Mu. = Munduruku;
N. = Nheengatu; P. = Portuguese; Pe. = Pemón; Pl. = Polysynthetic language; Pu.
= Puri; Q. = Quechua; Qi. = Quimbundu; S. = Spanish; Sh. = Shiwilo (= Jebero);
T. = Tupi; Ta. = Taíno; Tu. = Turkish; Y. = Yanomami], a fragment of the original
description with which the interpretation of the name is validated (in case the etymology
was not explicit), the original combination in which it was used, later combinations
(not exhaustive), and present synonymy. Question marks (?) previous to
the name indicates that the original language is unknown (to us); at the end of the
etymologies reflect that there are no further data associated to the root or meaning
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