List of plant family names with etymologies

LG: derived from a Greek word (G), a Latin word (L), another language (–), or a personal name (P)

Ba: listed in Ross Bayton's The Gardener's Botanical

Bu: listed in Lotte Burkhardt's Index of Eponymic Plant Names

CS: listed in both Allen Coombes's The A to Z of Plant Names and William T. Stearn's Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners

Gl: listed in David Gledhill's The Names of Plants

Qu: listed in Umberto Quattrocchi's four-volume CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names

St: listed in Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners

Linked numerical citations in the last column refer to Plants of the World.

Except for Plants of the World, these books list genera alphabetically. "Latin plant name" or "Greek plant name" in the fourth column means that the name appears in Classical Latin or Greek or both for some plant, not necessarily the plant listed here.

• Glossary of botanical terms
• List of Greek and Latin roots in English
• List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names
• List of plant genera named for people: A–C, D–J, K–P, Q–Z
• List of plant genus names with etymologies: A–C, D–K, L–P, Q–Z

• Bayton, Ross (2020). The Gardener's Botanical: An Encyclopedia of Latin Plant Names. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-20017-0.
• Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. S2CID 187926901. Retrieved January 1, 2021. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for license.
• Christenhusz, Maarten; Fay, Michael Francis; Chase, Mark Wayne (2017). Plants of the World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Vascular Plants. Chicago, Illinois: Kew Publishing and The University of Chicago Press. pp. 18–637. ISBN 978-0-226-52292-0.
• Coombes, Allen (2012). The A to Z of Plant Names: A Quick Reference Guide to 4000 Garden Plants. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. ISBN 978-1-60469-196-2.
• Cullen, Katherine E. (2006). Biology: The People Behind the Science. New York, New York: Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8160-7221-7.
• Gledhill, David (2008). The Names of Plants. New York, New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-86645-3.
• POWO (2019). "Plants of the World Online". London: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Archived from the original on March 22, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2021. See See https://www.kew.org/science/collections-and-resources/data-and-digital/terms-of-use for license.
• Quattrocchi, Umberto (2000). CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, Volume I, A–C. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-2675-2.
• Quattrocchi, Umberto (2000). CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, Volume II, D–L. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-2676-9.
• Quattrocchi, Umberto (2019) [2000]. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, Volume III, M–Q. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-367-44751-9.
• Quattrocchi, Umberto (2019) [2000]. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, Volume IV, R–Z. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-367-44750-2.
• Stearn, William (2002). Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners. London: Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-36469-5.
• Turland, N. J.; et al. (eds.). International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Shenzhen Code) adopted by the Nineteenth International Botanical Congress Shenzhen, China, July 2017 (electronic ed.). Glashütten: International Association for Plant Taxonomy. Retrieved 25 February 2022.

• Brown, Roland (1956). Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 978-1-56098-848-9.
• Lewis, Charlton (1891). An Elementary Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-910205-1. Available online at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (2013) [1888/1889]. An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon. Mansfield Centre, Connecticut: Martino Fine Books. ISBN 978-1-61427-397-4. Available online at the Perseus Digital Library.