357
The rat so nice they named it thrice!
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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If this isn't yet a death metal song, it should be.
Saying its name trice is a summoning chant, which may have worked a bit too well. You should check your house just in case.
Rattus Norvegus (common brown rat) was named by that Norwegian Linnaeus guy who came up with the Latin naming scheme for species. They are not particularly Norwegian actually.
A. The common brown rat is named Rattus norvegicus
B. Carl Linneaus was Swedish (born in Råshult, near Älmhult, Krononberg County, Småland; died in Hammarby).
C. Your rattus norvegicus was named so by John Berkenhout (English, born in Leeds), who believed the rats migrated to England from Norwegian ships in 1728. (Source: Berkenhout, John (1769). Outlines of the Natural History of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 1. London: Printed for P. Elmsly (Successor to Mr. Vaillant). p. 5.)
How dare you say he's Norwegian! Those mountain trolls could never spawn someone of such greatness! Next you'll tell me Anders Celsius was Danish, pwah.
Sweden had some good ones. Schele is my favourite. If you are a chemist tasting stuff to identify properties is a bad idea.
As a Norwegian myself I like Kristian Birkeland who in order to fund his aurora borealis research invented the Birkeland-Eyde process of fixing nitrogen from the air. Thereby enabeling the mass production of fertilizer
If you are a chemist tasting stuff to identify properties is a bad idea.
I was appalled, reading through these:
1879:
"How did I discover saccharine?" he said. "Well, it was partly by accident and partly by study. I had worked a long time upon the compound radicals and a substitution products of coal tar, and had made a number of scientific discoveries that are, as far as I know, of no commercial value. One evening I was so interested in my laboratory that I forgot about supper until quite late, and then rushed off for a meal without stopping to wash my hands. I sat down, broke a piece of bread, and put it to my lips. I tasted unspeakably sweet. I did not ask why it was so, probably because I thought it was some cake or sweetmeat. I rinsed my mouth with water, and dried my mustached with my napkin, when, to my surprise, the napkin tasted sweeter than the bread. Then I was puzzled. I again raised my goblet, and, as fortune would have it, applied my mouth where my fingers had touched it before. The water seemed sirup. It flashed upon me that I was the cause of the singular universal sweetness, and I accordingly tasted the end of my thumb, and found that it surpassed any confectionary I had ever eaten. I saw the whole thing at a glance. I had discovered or made some coal tar substance which out-sugared sugar. I dropped my dinner and ran back to the laboratory. There, in my excitement, I tasted the contents of every beaker and evaporating dish on the table. Luckily for me, non contained any corrosive or poisonous liquid.
"One of them contained an impure solution of saccharine..."
1965:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame#History
Aspartame was discovered by accident[60] in December 1965[61] by James M. Schlatter, a chemist working for G.D. Searle & Company in Skokie, Illinois. Schlatter had synthesized aspartame as an intermediate step in generating a tetrapeptide of the hormone gastrin, for use in assessing an anti-ulcer drug candidate.[60] He discovered its sweet taste when he licked his finger, which had become contaminated with aspartame, to lift up a piece of paper.[12][62]
1967:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acesulfame_potassium#Discovery
Acesulfame potassium was developed after the accidental discovery of a similar compound (5,6-dimethyl-1,2,3-oxathiazin-4(3H)-one 2,2-dioxide) in 1967 by Karl Clauss and Harald Jensen at Hoechst AG.[16][17] After some of the chemical powder accidentally spilled onto his sweater, Clauss licked his finger to wipe the spots away, which led him to notice its intensely sweet taste.[18][19]
1975:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose
Sucralose was discovered in 1975 by scientists from Tate & Lyle, working with researchers Leslie Hough and Shashikant Phadnis at Queen Elizabeth College (now part of King's College London).[21] While researching novel uses of sucrose and its synthetic derivatives, mixing sulfuryl chloride with sugar, Phadnis was told to "test" a chlorinated sugar compound. According to an anecdotal account, Phadnis thought Hough asked him to "taste" it, so he did and found the compound to be exceptionally sweet.[22][23]
Also, the scientific name of the Western lowland gorilla is gorilla gorilla gorilla. You’d say it as G. g. gorilla.
The GGG
The OG
Gorilla Gorilla Allin?
Vulpes vulpes vulpes is another one, I'm gonna guess that all these triple names are from the eighteenth century, when the dude said this subspecies is the regular one so I'll keep repeating the name to make it clear. Like vulgaris in plants.
$ wget https://www.itis.gov/downloads/itisMySQLTables.tar.gz
$ unp -U itisMySQLTables.tar.gz
$ cd itisMySQL072826
$ cut -d'|' -f2 longnames|grep -iE '^([^ ]+) \1 \1$'
Porites porites porites
Volva volva volva
Modiolus modiolus modiolus
Quadrula quadrula quadrula
Arcinella arcinella arcinella
Echiurus echiurus echiurus
Sprattus sprattus sprattus
Lepadogaster lepadogaster lepadogaster
Pungitius pungitius pungitius
Caretta caretta caretta
Puffinus puffinus puffinus
Sula sula sula
Anhinga anhinga anhinga
Nycticorax nycticorax nycticorax
Lagopus lagopus lagopus
Perdix perdix perdix
Limosa limosa limosa
Alle alle alle
Apus apus apus
Riparia riparia riparia
Troglodytes troglodytes troglodytes
Cardinalis cardinalis cardinalis
Coccothraustes coccothraustes coccothraustes
Pyrrhula pyrrhula pyrrhula
Carduelis carduelis carduelis
Pica pica pica
Oenanthe oenanthe oenanthe
Ciconia ciconia ciconia
Bison bison bison
Clelia clelia clelia
Phocoena phocoena phocoena
Gulo gulo gulo
Hyaena hyaena hyaena
Nasua nasua nasua
Belone belone belone
Lerwa lerwa lerwa
Francolinus francolinus francolinus
Coturnix coturnix coturnix
Gallus gallus gallus
Crossoptilon crossoptilon crossoptilon
Zungaro zungaro zungaro
Bubo bubo bubo
Amazilia amazilia amazilia
Coeligena coeligena coeligena
Porphyrio porphyrio porphyrio
Grus grus grus
Manacus manacus manacus
Pipra pipra pipra
Suiriri suiriri suiriri
Anser anser anser
Pauxi pauxi pauxi
Gallinago gallinago gallinago
Caracal caracal caracal
Lynx lynx lynx
Genetta genetta genetta
Vulpes vulpes vulpes
Lutra lutra lutra
Martes martes martes
Meles meles meles
Mephitis mephitis mephitis
Icterus icterus icterus
Curaeus curaeus curaeus
Melanodera melanodera melanodera
Diuca diuca diuca
Nyctelius nyctelius nyctelius
Buteo buteo buteo
Cochlearius cochlearius cochlearius
Jacana jacana jacana
Milvus milvus milvus
Chinchilla chinchilla chinchilla
Tibicen tibicen tibicen
Avicularia avicularia avicularia
Alces alces alces
Capreolus capreolus capreolus
Dama dama dama
Gazella gazella gazella
Oreotragus oreotragus oreotragus
Rupicapra rupicapra rupicapra
Redunca redunca redunca
Quelea quelea quelea
Regulus regulus regulus
Tchagra tchagra tchagra
Phoenicurus phoenicurus phoenicurus
Petronia petronia petronia
Cinclus cinclus cinclus
Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax
Amandava amandava amandava
Petaurista petaurista petaurista
Marmota marmota marmota
Hoolock hoolock hoolock
Gorilla gorilla gorilla
Indri indri indri
Pithecia pithecia pithecia
Saccolaimus saccolaimus saccolaimus
Molossus molossus molossus
Pipistrellus pipistrellus pipistrellus
Myotis myotis myotis
Chitra chitra chitra
Microchaetus microchaetus microchaetus
Chloris chloris chloris
Giraffa giraffa giraffa
Basiliscus basiliscus basiliscus
Cerastes cerastes cerastes
Natrix natrix natrix
Astacus astacus astacus
Colius colius colius
Chalcides chalcides chalcides
Scincus scincus scincus
Schoeniclus schoeniclus schoeniclus
Radjah radjah radjah
Himantopus himantopus himantopus
Antigone antigone antigone
Pyrope pyrope pyrope
Curruca curruca curruca
Bufo bufo bufo
Vicugna vicugna vicugna
Erythrogenys erythrogenys erythrogenys
$Bison bison bison
Oh sweet buttery Jesus yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
to
Buffalo Bison bison bison Buffalo Bison bison bison buffalo buffalo Buffalo Bison bison bison.
Colleagues must think im crying on the toilet but I'm trying to silently laugh tears. Thank you.
Nice grep command
Am I blind or is that list missing r. r. rattus?
double checks
It's not in there. Could be that the subspecies classification was recent or undone or controversial or something?
This seems like a fact that John Oliver would bring up.
Hey that’s Cancer Mouse recoloured!
Ratatatata
Rattus R. Rattus has some real Chuck E. Cheese energy.
Rattus R. Rattus is his well-to-do British uncle.
Similarly, the Eurasian Brown Bear is Ursus Arctos Arctos (U. a. arctos) which just means Bear Bear Bear in Latin and Ancient Greek, respectively 😄
Rat^3^
The rattest rat
Rat cubed.
Crucially, I forgot to note the taxonomist who described it:
Gorilla gorilla gorilla as well
Nevil Maskelyne would appreciate this
Offhand I think that be the case for every/most type species.
Not nearly, actually! Exact tautonyms are pretty uncommon, all things considered. Trinomial tautonyms even less so, like Bison bison bison. I don't think I can give you actual data, but I can say knowing a fair bit of marine taxonomy that it's the exception there.
Edit: It's also prohibited in botany and, I learned today, used to be prohibited for bacteria.
Edit 2: Wikipedia maintains an incomplete list, incidentally.
Edit 3: Forgot to mention I was specifically talking about binomial/trinomial tautonyms. Near-tautonyms are very common as you go up toward the middle of the tree of life, e.g. a family, superfamily, and order sharing basically the same name, just with a different prescribed suffix.
Mus musculus was the one I was thinking of. The -culus is just the diminutive suffix.
Does Homo Sapiens Sapiens count here?
Yeah, it's a tautonym too. H. sapiens sapiens is the type subspecies for species H. sapiens.