Take modern to be after 1608. Why? Because 1608 is the OEDs first modern use of species which is relevant to recent D&D changes and the year given for the spyglass which is in
Not sure that I would go with "modern use" of species. It seems you are selecting the earliest use in the sense of zoology or biology. But in a fantasy game, even older uses of the term are arguably more appropriate. That could move the date back another half-century.
I. Senses relating to outward appearance or form.
†
1.
a. Appearance; outward form.
Obsolete.This sense is partly represented in the legal use of the word: see quots.
1651,
1765-8 at specification n. 1b.
1559 P. Morwyng tr. C. Gesner
Treasure of Euonymus 400 An other very good wine with the same species, but in other weight.
1651 T. Hobbes
Leviathan iv. xliv. 338 A Divinity under their
species, or likenesse.
II. Senses relating to groups or classes.
7.
a. Logic. The second of the five Predicables (
predicable n. 1a), connoting the common attributes or essential qualities of a class of persons or things as distinguished from the genus on the one hand and the individual on the other.
1551 T. Wilson
Rule of Reason sig. Bvj Species is a common word that is spoken of many whiche differ only in number, as manne is spoken of Socrates,..and of euery proper name belonging to any man. As Socrates is a man.
1567 J. Jewel
Def. Apol. Churche Eng. iii. v. 343 What adoo was made in daily disputations..aboute Genus and Species, and the reste of the Vniuersals.
8.
a. A class composed of individuals having some common qualities or characteristics, frequently as a subdivision of a larger class or genus.
1629 W. Prynne
Church of Englands Old Antithesis 98 This kind of argument from euery indiuiduall to the speecies will not hold.
1653 tr. J. Stegmann
Brevis Disq. in
Phenix (1708) II. 324 Are you not yet sure whether..if you reject all the Species, the whole Genus be taken away?
1690 J. Locke
Ess. Humane Understanding iii. vi. 211 The Individuals that are ranked into one Sort, called by one common Name, and so received as being of one Species.
9.
a. A distinct class, sort, or kind, of something specifically mentioned or indicated. Frequently const.
of.The separate groups of quotations illustrate the chief varieties of context.
(a)
1561 T. Hoby tr. B. Castiglione
Courtyer iii. sig. Cc.iii Both the one and the other is conteined vnder the Species of
Homo.
1660 R. Coke
Justice Vindicated ii. 26 If the Scriptures be true,..that since Adam..the species of Mankind was continued by generation.
c. Applied to individuals as unique or as typical of a class.
1644 J. Cleveland
Char. London Diurnall 7 As the Angels, each of them makes a severall
Species; so every one of his Souldiers is a distinct Church.
1656 A. Cowley
Praise of Pindar in
Pindaric Odes i Pindar is imitable by none; The Phœnix Pindar is a vast Species alone.
