Serval along with the caracal and the African golden cat, forms one of the eight lineages of Felidae. According to a 2006 genetic study, the "Caracal" lineage came into existence 8.5 mya, and the ancestor of this lineage arrived in Africa 8.5–5.6 mya. The phylogenetic relationships of the serval are as follows: The name "Leptailurus" may have been constructed from the medieval Greek λεπταλέος or λεπτός meaning "fine, delicate". The name "serval" could have been derived from the Medieval Latin words "Lupus cervalis" ("deer-like wolf") or from its Portuguese equivalent "lobo-cerval" (referring to the Iberian lynx). The first recorded use of
What Is a Nation? and continues to be invoked. Political historian Karl Deutsch, in a quote sometimes mistakenly attributed to Renan, said that a nation is "a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours". Benedict Anderson's 1983 work Imagined Communities, which states that a nation is an "imagined political community", argues that Renan contradicts himself when he says French people must have forgotten the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, yet does not explain what it is. In other words, Renan assumes that all his readers will remember the very massacre he says they have forgotten.