[danans]

> the Denisovans might have been called something else

You have to admit that Denisovan has a nicer ring than more descriptive "Late Pleistocene Pan Asian Hominid"!

[jacobolus]

To be fair, those are only descriptive through our familiarity. If you look just at etymology that combination could be plenty ambiguous:

Pleistocene = “most new” in Greek.

pan- = “all” in Greek.

Asia = “northwest Anatolia” in Hittite.

Hominid = “human-looking” in Latin/Greek mashup.

[danans]

Yes but the immediate meaning of those terms is the totality of their definition in normal communication.

I love - or am practically obsessed with - etymologies, but an etymology is the linguistic equivalent of of a fossil.

Much as evolution reused terrestrial therapod dinosaur feathers for flight in their bird descendants, language creates new meanings and concepts by reusing older ones. And thankfully we don't communicate in etymologies.

[jacobolus]

I think we are making compatible claims.

Naming this sketchily understood category of ancient people after some cave in Russia (itself named after one Denis, an 18th century religious separatist hermit who lived there by himself) is only obscure at the start. As we become familiar with the name “Denisovan” it becomes a fine description, whether or not we know or care about Denis or his cave.