What is "taxonomy" in the fzp file?

there is an element in some fzp files called “taxonomy”, e.g.:

<taxonomy>part.dip.14.pins</taxonomy>

what is this used for and what is the significance of the value? a quick scan shows this as the full list of values that appear in the standard parts library (excluding obsolete and parts-factory parts):

discreteParts.capacitor.ceramic
discreteParts.capacitor.elecrtolytic
discreteParts.capacitor.electrolytic
discreteParts.pcb.plain.arduino_mega_r3_shield
discreteParts.pcb.plain.arduino_shield
discreteParts.pcb.plain.arduino-intel-galileo-pcb
discreteParts.pcb.plain.arduino-intel-galileo-pcb/2
discreteParts.pcb.plain.raspberrypi-pcb-shape
discreteParts.pcb.plain.sparkcore-pcb-shape
discreteParts.power.power.acpower
discreteParts.power.power.dcpower
discreteParts.resistor.220
discreteParts.resistor.fsr
discreteParts.resistors.adjustable.potentiometer
discreteParts.sensor.heat.thermistor
discreteParts.servo
discreteParts.switches.pushbutton
microcontroller
part.devmod.36.pins
part.dip.108.pins
part.dip.128.pins
part.dip.14.pins
part.dip.16.pins
part.dip.26.pins
part.dip.4.pins
part.dip.44.pins
part.dip.50.pins
part.dip.54.pins
part.dip.6.pins
part.dip.8.pins
part.mystery.magical.7.pins
part.sip.2pins
prototyping.breadboard.breadboard.breadboard0
prototyping.breadboard.breadboard.halfbreadboard
prototyping.breadboard.breadboard.halfminusbreadboard
prototyping.breadboard.breadboard.tiny

(making that list also highlighted a couple typos and format inconsistencies, which leads me to believe that this value isn’t all that important. also, it seems… short.)

I’m not sure there is anyone left that knows what this was originally aimed at, obviously a classification scheme of some kind. I’m not sure the code currently does anything with it except accept it although I also have not looked closely.

Peter