Diccionari dels amfibis i rèptils del món

© Author: Catalan Herpetological Society; TERMCAT, Centre for Terminology
© Publisher: TERMCAT, Centre for Terminology, 2025 

The online dictionary Diccionari dels amfibis i rèptils del món (‘Dictionary of the World’s Amphibians and Reptiles’) is an ongoing project which, in this first published version, presents 835 entries devoted to amphibians of the order Caudata. Once completed, the dictionary will contain approximately 21,000 terminological records relating to herpetological species worldwide. 

This work is an initiative of the Societat Catalana d’Herpetologia (SCH) aimed at establishing a clear and unambiguous Catalan nomenclature for amphibian and reptile species. The project, developed jointly with TERMCAT, has been coordinated by the Centre de Terminologia in the process of consensus-building and standardization of Catalan denominations, with the aim of consolidating herpetological terminology and promoting its dissemination among the specialist community and the general public interested in biodiversity.

In this dictionary, the terms amphibians and reptiles are used in accordance with traditional social usage. The thematic arrangement of taxa follows systematic classification based on the evolutionary history of orders and families. For the section devoted to amphibians, the initial reference corpus has been the nomenclature proposed by AmphibiaWeb (University of California) and Amphibian Species of the World (American Museum of Natural Histor), both regarded as international references in this field. The taxonomy of the dictionary will be reviewed periodically in line with any changes that may be recorded in these sources. In the case of caudates, the families Sirenidae, Hynobiidae, Cryptobranchidae, Dicamptodontidae, Ambystomatidae, Salamandridae, Proteidae, Rhyacotritonidae, Amphiumidae, and Plethodontidae have been included. 

The work of establishing Catalan denominations considers names documented in works of relevance from a lexicographic, terminological, and herpetological perspective. Nevertheless, a substantial number of the Catalan denominations included in the dictionary are newly created and have been proposed in accordance with the various linguistic criteria for the Catalan naming of animals, approved by the Supervisory Council of TERMCAT, the body responsible for terminological standardization in Catalan. These criteria have made it possible to work systematically, coherently, and consistently on the initial Catalan corpus proposed by specialists. 

Each record includes a Catalan common name (or more than one), the equivalents in English and, where they have been documented, in Spanish and French, together with the scientific name of the species. Where considered appropriate, the records also include notes providing additional information on the term, particularly of an eponymous or zoological nature. 

Clicking on “Consulta de termes” (‘Term search’), you can have access to terms in three ways: using the alphabetical indexes (there is a different index for each language of the dictionary); using the telematic index in Catalan, or making simple or advanced searches directly in the upper space “Text de la consulta” (‘Text search’) in any of the dictionary languages.  

Downloadable terminolgy at Terminologia Oberta.

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SOCIETAT CATALANA D’HERPETOLOGIA; TERMCAT, CENTRE DE TERMINOLOGIA. Diccionari dels amfibis i rèptils del món [en línia]. Barcelona: TERMCAT, Centre de Terminologia, cop. 2025. (Diccionaris en Línia) 
<https://www.termcat.cat/ca/diccionaris-en-linia/342>