The term hybrid is derived from Latin hybrida

             The term hybrid is derived from Latin hybrida

The term hybrid is derived from Latin hybrida, meaning the "offspring of a tame sow and a wild boar", "child of a freeman and slave", etc The term came into popular use in English in the 19th century, though examples of its use have been found from the early 17th century.

There is a popular convention of naming hybrids by forming portmanteau words. The template forthisis the naming of tiger-lion hybrids as liger and tigon in the 1920s. This was playfully (but unsystematically) extended to a number of other hybrids, or hypothetical hybrids, such as beefalo (1960s), humanzee (1980s), cama (1998).Interspecific hybrids are bred by mating two species, normally from within the same genus. The offspring display traits and characteristics of both parents. The offspring of an interspecific cross are very often sterile; thus, hybrid sterility prevents the movement of genes from one species to the other, keeping both species distinct. Sterility is often attributed to the different number of chromosomes the two species have, for example donkeys have 62 chromosomes, while horses have 64 chromosomes, and mules and hinnies have 63 chromosomes. Mules, hinnies, and other normally sterile interspecific hybrids cannot produce viable gametes, because differences in chromosome structure prevent appropriate pairing and segregation during meiosis, meiosis is disrupted, and viable sperm and eggs are not formed. However, fertility in female mules has been reported with a donkey as the father.Most often other processes occurring in plants and animals keep gametic isolation and species distinction. Species often have different maticourtship patterns or behaviors, the breeding seasons may be distinct and even if mating does occur antigenireactions to the sperm of other species prevent fertilization or embryo development. Hybridisatiomuch more common among organisms that spawn indiscriminately, like soft corals and amonplants.While it is possible to predict the genetic composition of a backcross on average, it is not possible to accurately predict the composition of a particular backcrossed individual, due to random segregation of chromosomes. In a species with two pairs of chromosomes, a twice backcrossed individual would be predicted to contain 12.5% of one species' genome (say, species A). However, it may, in fact, still be a 50% hybrid if the chromosomes from species A were lucky in two successive segregations, and meiotic crossovers happened near the telomeres.