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Glossary — O

Each scientific and technical field has a particular vocabulary: entomology is no exception. This is not an attempt by entomologists to restrict access to their science. It results from the need for precision in communication, whilst avoiding, for example, misplaced anthropocentric terms derived from human anatomy. Many terms are derived from Latin or Greek: when competence in these languages was a prerequisite for scholarship (including in the natural sciences), these terms were comprehensible to the educated, whatever their mother tongue. The utility of these terms remains, although fluency in the languages from which they are derived does not.

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