TURTLE

The word turtle is borrowed from the French word tortue or tortre 'turtle, tortoise'.^[3]

It is a common name and may be used without knowledge of taxonomic distinctions.

In North America, it may denote the order as a whole.

In Britain, the name is used for sea turtles as opposed to freshwater terrapins and land-dwelling tortoises.

In Australia, which lacks true tortoises (family Testudinidae), non-marine turtles were traditionally called tortoises, but more recently turtle has been used for the entire group.^[4]

The name of the order, Testudines (/tɛˈstjuːdɪniːz/ teh-STEW-din-eez), is based on the Latin word* testudo *'tortoise';^[5] and was coined by German naturalist August Batsch in 1788.^[1]

The order has also been historically known as Chelonii (Latreille 1800) and Chelonia (Ross and Macartney 1802),^[2] which are based on the Ancient Greek word χελώνη (*chelone*) 'tortoise'.^[6][7]

Testudines is the official order name due to the principle of priority.^[2]

The term chelonian is used as a formal name for members of the group.^[1][8]