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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/39619
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm currently developing a fictional species set in a fantasy world, and I want to name it, but I don't want it to sound too... scientific? For example, our scientific name is _Homo sapiens_, but we don't call ourselves like that, we call ourselves "humans". A cat is not _Felis silvestris catus_, it's a cat. This doesn't mean I don't want to give a scientific name to this species, actually I do, but I also want it to be used only in a specific context, like a biology class. Besides, how can I avoid using Latin or Greek sounding words when giving these names? The name of the species I came up with is "Dracanthropos", which is composed of both _draco_ and _anthropos_, being "dragon" or "snake" and "person", respectively. But soon I felt uncomfortable with this, since in this world there is no Greek or Latin.

On the other hand, how do I describe them without taking humans as reference?. There are no humans in this world, so the statement "they have a humanoid form" can't apply to them.

I know they're some silly questions, but they're really driving me nuts, so please, I need some help. I have a few more, but these are the most concerning to me right now.

Thank you very much.

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