BioConcepts

trinomial nomenclaturetrinomiale Nomenklatur (ger.)

• A system for naming entities in which the name for each entity consists of three terms, the first being that of the genus, the second that of the species, the third that of the subspecies or variety, instead of the two former only; involving or characterized by three terms, as a system of nomenclature. (OED 1989)
  category species

  1828

  Ich kann nicht läugnen, daß ich es ungern sehe, wenn das System ohne Noth mit Namen überfüllt wird, und möchte daher die Frage aufstellen, ob im Falle es sich zeigen würde, daß diese neuen oder Nebenarten sich nur höchstselten oder unregelmäßig mit ihren verwandten Arten verpaaren, es dennoch nöthig sey, sie durch besondere Namen zu trennen und ob es für das ohnedieß schon überladene Gedächtniß nicht eine Erleichterung sey, eine dreyfache Nomenclatur einzuführen, indem man dem Haupttypus den alten Namen ließe und die Abweichungen durch ein drittes Wort bezeichnete.

  Bruch, C.F. (1828). Ornithologische Beyträge. Isis 21, 718-734: 725.

  1845

  trinomial nomenclature [...] so as always to indicate every species by its generic and subgeneric as well as by its specific name

  Strickland, H.E. (1845). Report on the progress and present state of ornithology. Report of the British Association of the Advancement of Science 14, 170-221: 219; cf. Anonymus (1881). The British Museum catalogue of birds. Nature 24, 239-241: 240.

  1865

  I have sometimes [...] speculated on what nomenclature would come to, and concluded that it would be trinomial

  Darwin, C. (1865). [Brief an J.D. Hooker vom 17. April 1865] (More Letters of Charles Darwin, 2 vols., London 1903, I, 474f.): 474.

  1936

  In his [scil. Hermann Schlegels] treatise “Kritische Uebersieht der europäischen Vögel,” published at Leiden in 1844, he first applied trinomials in the way we do now by simply adding the subspecific name to the name of the species. This was in his day quite a revolutionary procedure; one had become accustomed to look upon Linnés binomial nomenclature as a scientific principle not to be disturbed, and very few people therefore dared to follow Sehlegel. Sehlegel’s trinomial nomenelatare had first to win approval in America before it found any acceptance among Old World ornithologists. John Cassin, in 1854, was the first American who endeavoured to adopt this novelty; but its chief promoter in this country was Spencer Fullerton Baird, who, from 1858 onwards, made use of trinomials on a large scale, although, by interealating the term “var.”, in a somewhat “milder” form. He soon acquired quite a number of followers, and when, in 1886, the American Ornithologists' Union laid down their “Rules for Zoological Nomenclature,” the use of trinomials was recommended by the committee. Henceforward, trinomialism was regarded in Europe as being an American innovation, which in the beginning was looked upon with suspicion

  Stresemann, E. (1936). The formenkreis-theory. Auk. 53, 150-158: 152.