How can I say “Natural Selection” in Latin?

Question

I was wondering what Is the correct way to translate “natural selection” in latin? Is It more correct “naturalis lectio” or “naturalis electio”?

Answer 1

The idea of natural selection was first expressed by Lucretius, a Roman theorist who wrote one of the most important works on science: De Rerum Natura. In this book some relevant passages are:

Res quaeque suo ritu procedit, et omnes foedere naturae certo discrimina servant. ("Each thing proceeds after its own fashion, and all of them by the fixed limit of nature preserve their differences.")

Immediately before this passage he talks about the parts of plants and animals joining together by chance. Previous to that he speaks of how what combinations were unfit undoubtedly was destroyed when the world was new:

At quis nil horum tribuit natura, nec ipsa sponte sua possent ut vivere nec dare nobis utilitatem aliquam quare pateremur eorum praesidio nostro pasci genus esseque tutum, scilicet haec aliis praedae lucroque iacebant, indupedita suis fatalibus omnia vinclis, donec ad interitum genus id natura redegit. ("But those to which nature gave no such qualities, so that they could neither live by themselves at their own will, nor give us some usefulness for which we might suffer them to feed under our protection and be safe, these certainly lay at the mercy of others for prey and profit, being all hampered by their own fateful chains, until nature brought that species to destruction.")

So, we can see that Lucretius expresses what we call natural selection by the expression foedus naturae certum ("the certain limit of nature"). This expression can be rendered more conceptually by "the ever-present rules of nature") because the adjective certus means what is certain in the sense of what is reliable and constant.

Also, we see above the word discrimen, a difference, used. This word comes from discerno, to tell apart. However, there is an even more expressive related word excerno, which means to sift out and keep what is wanted. Very good, but there is an better word which is similar to excerno and that is excerpor which means to pick out or select what is fit for use, exactly the meaning we want. The participle of this word is excerptus, from which our English word "excerpt" comes. Therefore, we can express the idea of natural selection in Latin as excerptus naturae. In the modern style you can use the adjectival form of natura if desired: excerptus naturalis. Finally, I would add that this form is a somewhat modernistic way to say it. A Roman might well prefer to use the neuter plural to express this idea, so they might write excerpta naturae ("the selections of nature") or excerpta naturalia.

Answer 2

Welcome to Latin Language SE.

If Spanish is to be trusted the phrase Natural selection which translates to Spanish as Selección Natural, then by the Spanish-Latin dictionary of Diccionarios Vox, the word selección only can translate to életio and nothing else, making the obvious choice in

nátúrális électio