What is "chresonym"

In biodiversity informatics, a chresonym refers to the cited use of a taxon name, usually a species name, within a publication. The term is derived from the Greek "chresis" meaning "a use" and refers to published usage of a name.

The technical meaning of the related term " synonym" is for different names that refer to the same object or concept. As noted by Hobart and Rozella Smith, zoological systematists had been using "the term (synonymy) in another sense as well, namely in reference to all occurrences of any name or set of names (usually synonyms) in the literature." Such a "synonymy" could include multiple listings, one for each place the author found a name used, rather than a summarized list of different synonyms. The term "chresonym" was created to distinguish this second sense of the term "synonym." The concept of synonymy is furthermore different in the zoological and botanical codes of nomenclature.

A name that correctly refers to a taxon is further termed an orthochresonym while one that is applied incorrectly for a given taxon may be termed a heterochresonym.