<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Just to add a note to Paul's excellent explanation--it may be useful to you to look at the origin of the word "voucher" to better understand its meaning.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><i>Voucher</i> comes from the Latin word <i>vocare</i>, which means "to call." The best definition for <i>voucher</i> in the Oxford English Dictionary is "a fact, circumstance, or thing to confirm or prove something," which is why we use voucher in the ways that Paul described, to refer to specimens that have been used in research to support the claims of the research. Voucher can also mean such things as to summon someone to court to give evidence, etc. But if you think of <i>voucher</i> as "a thing that confirms something," its meaning in the phrase <i>voucher specimen</i> is clear.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">There is an equivalent word for <i>voucher</i> in Spanish, <i>comprobante</i>, but I have noticed that most Spanish speakers (at least those in Latin America) prefer to use the word <i>voucher</i> when referring to scientific specimens because it carries a more specific meaning and because it is derived from Latin, it is easily adapted to Spanish.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">I am curious to know what a <i>voucher specimen</i> is called in other languages. German, French, Norwegian, Japanese, Chinese?<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">--John</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br clear="all"></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">John E. Simmons<br>Writer and Museum Consultant</span></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Museologica<br><i>and</i><br>Associate Curator of Collections<br>Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery<br>Penn State University<br><i>and</i><br>Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia<br>Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima</span></font><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Nov 3, 2022 at 8:23 AM Callomon,Paul <<a href="mailto:prc44@drexel.edu">prc44@drexel.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-1713699492109581949">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span>To “vouch for” something or someone means “to support their claim to truth”. If I vouch for your trustworthiness, I support your claim to that quality.
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Voucher specimens also support claims to truth that are either published or in some way codified. For example: if I write a paper about mollusks from Bermuda, then all the specimens I mention in it
become vouchers for that paper. In the future, anyone who is interested can look at them and see what I was working with.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Vouchers need not be for a published work, but usually refer to a defined study or event. All the material collected in a field survey, for example, are vouchers for that survey – even if nothing about
it is published. They support the claim that the survey was carried out and that those species were collected.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Specimens in a general collection, even fine ones, are therefore not vouchers until someone has said something specifically about them or they belong to a named group such as material from an expedition.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>A loose definition of “voucher”, then, might be “material evidence for a claim to truth”.
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>PC<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Paul Callomon<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates<i><u></u><u></u></i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA<br>
<i><a href="mailto:prc44@drexel.edu" target="_blank">prc44@drexel.edu</a> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170</i><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><b><span>From:</span></b><span> Nhcoll-l <<a href="mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces@mailman.yale.edu" target="_blank">nhcoll-l-bounces@mailman.yale.edu</a>>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Lennart Lennuk<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, November 3, 2022 3:03 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu" target="_blank">nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Nhcoll-l] voucher<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p><b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;font-variant:small-caps;color:black">External.</span></b><b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;font-variant:small-caps"><u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">Hi!<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">Just to clear it up in my mind. What is word „voucher“ used for?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">There is voucher specimens – that means top specimens of a certain species?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">Then vouchers when we speak a parts of specimen, like feathers, bloodsamples – is it only in zoology?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">And then also eDNA Voucher.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">Sorry for a little messy wording.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">Best regards!<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">Lennart Lennuk<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">Head of collections<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">Estonian Museum of Natural History<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span style="color:black" lang="ET">+372 6603404, 56569916<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in"><span lang="ET"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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