Selache

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A scientific genus name applied to certain sharks, taken from the Greek word for cartilaginous fish
2. A taxonomic label given to a group of cartilaginous sea fish, namely a genus of sharks
3. The Latinized genus designation used in zoology for particular shark species within the cartilaginous fishes

Etymology: Selache is a modern scientific coinage, not an ancient word, though its Greek root is old. The genus was named in 1810 by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier's colleague... I need to be careful here, so let me state only what I can confirm: the name was created in the nineteenth century from Greek, and it is used in zoology for a genus of sharks. The Greek "selachos" (σέλαχος) originally meant a cartilaginous or sometimes skate-like fish, and the word was used by Aristotle and other ancient writers for various sea creatures. Its exact literal sense is uncertain, and it is often connected with "selax," a word for a flat or slippery thing, but this link is not firmly established. Scientists reached back to this classical term because it already described a group of fishes, so it gave taxonomists a learned name with a respectable pedigree. Because the word was formed by naturalists, it follows the usual pattern of scientific Latin and Greek borrowings. Most readers will meet it only in specialist texts, where it marks a genus rather than a common name. Its meaning is therefore fixed by classification, not by everyday use.