It is also interesting that in constructing the name Chicoreus, Montfort changed the gender of the original word. "cichoreum" is a valid Latin noun, designating the plant known in english as chicory (and also endive, which is a variety of chicory). Not surprisingly, Cichoreum is also the genus name for these plants. cichoreum is a neuter noun, as indicated by its -um ending. I wonder why Montfort, in rearranging the word, also changed the ending to -us, making it a masculine noun? I guess when you are fabricating a word, you can make it any way you want to. Presumably the similarity between the slender, multi-pointed leaves of endive and the slender, multi-pointed spines of the shell inspired the name. It is also interesting that Lamarck, in 1822, applied the name "Murex endivia" to the same species. On the one hand, he must have believed he was dealing with something other than the species named by Gmelin. On the other hand, he surely must have been influenced by Gmelin's choice of the name cichoreum. The shell doesn't look THAT much like endive, that two different taxonomists would independently choose two different names, both meaning "endive", for the same species??