Diaphanitas

"Verba Latina Significantia 'Know-It-All'"
"Latin Words Meaning 'Know-It-All'"

I was going to coin Latin words meaning "know-it-all":

omnisciolus (masculine), omnisciola (feminine).

It turns out that the masculine form of the word already exists:

http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~ramminger/words/2/008126.htm

Alleswisser = know-it-all.

What a coincidink!

"Animal: Darwinopterus!"
"A Critter: Darwinopterus!"

Look:

New flying reptile fossils found

Darwinopterus

Darwinopterus is a genus of pterosaur, discovered in China and named after biologist Charles Darwin. It is known from about 20 fossil specimens, all collected from the Tiaojishan Formation, which dates to the middle Jurassic period.^[1] The type (and only) species displays features of both long tailed (rhamphorhynchoid) and short tailed (pterodactyloid) pterosaurs, and has been described as a transitional fossil between the two groups.^[2]

The name Darwinopterus literally means "Darwin Wing." Randomosity!

"De Suffixis -trina, -ina, -ena"
"About the Suffixes -trina, -ina, -ena"

( Res de Illis Suffixis )

"De Nomine Animalis Ardipithecus"
"About the Name of the Critter Ardipithecus"

Interesting critter:

Ardipithecus ramidus

What a day to be stuck in airplanes for hours on end; I had to slurp in a bunch of files on my iPhone and then look at them on that itty-bitty screen, just to catch up on the story of Ardipithecus. Fortunately, you can just read Carl Zimmer's excellent summary to find out what's cool about it.

For a summary of a summary: it's another transitional fossil in our lineage. Ardipithecus ramidus is old, 4.4 million years or so — so it's well before Lucy and the australopithecines. The latest result is a thorough analysis of a large number of collected specimens that shows it is an interesting mosaic of traits: it was bipedal, but not quite so well adapted to terrestrial locomotion as we are, and it had feet with an opposable big toe. And of course it had a small brain, only a little larger than a chimpanzee's.

Wow, exciting stuff!

( Res )

At any rate, I find the name interesting!

From Wikipedia:

Pithecus means "ape" or "monkey" in both Greek and Latin.^[2] In the local Afar language:^[3]

• Ardi is "ground floor"
• ramidus comes from ramid or "root"
• kadabba is "basal ancestor"

That is a strange way of describing the word Pithecus. It is not exactly wrong, and I would not have put it that way. It is a Latin word, but it is a Latinization of the Greek word πίθηκος.

Okay, so Ardipithecus ramidus means "Ground Floor Ape (The) Root," and Ardipithecus kadabba means "Ground Floor Ape (The) Basal Ancestor," eh? It certainly all sounds much better in Neo-Latin, let me tell you!

LWotP: Ardipithecus -i m. "Ardipithecus."

"Origines Nominum Dierum Hebdomadis"
"The Origins of the Names of the Days of the Week"

Random girl explaining them:

( Pellicula )

LWotP: origo -iginis f. "origin."

"Nonnumquam Combinatio ii Fieri ie Potest"
"Sometimes the Combination ii Can Become ie"

( Res )

"Liber Excellens"
"An Excellent Book"

Very nice:

A Manual of Latin Word Formation for Secondary Schools by Paul Rockwell Jenks

"Paradigma Mutationis Verbi Coronopus"
"The Paradigm Shift of the Word Coronopus"

Moe moe.. Kuhn? (I am so funny, eh?)

Anyway, Coronopus is the generic name of certain plants. It comes from Greek κορωνόπους and contains the -πους ("foot") element.

It turns out that it may be declined in the second declension or in the third:

Corōnopus or Corōnopūs, -ī, m., second declension;


References: 1 (latinized the Greek letters ου to a long u), 2 (says that compounds of -pus, used in the second declension, have the u short, as in polypus), 3 (shows the forms Corōnopī, Corōnopum, Corōnopō), 4 (shows the forms Corōnopī, Corōnopum), 5 (shows the form Corōnopō), 6 (shows the form Corōnopī), 7 (shows the form Corōnopum).

Corōnopūs, -odis, m., third declension;


References: 1 (shows the form Corōnopodis), 2 (shows the form Corōnopodis), 3 (shows the form Corōnopodis), 4 (shows the form Corōnopodem), 5 (shows the form Corōnopodem), 6 (shows the form Corōnopode), 7 (shows the form Corōnopodī).

"Mistaken assumption," indeed!

I included both Corōnopus and Corōnopūs in the second declension because there is evidence for both methods of latinization.

"Perscriptio Octopus apud Wikipedia Iterum!"
"The Octopus Entry at Wikipedia Again!"

It seems to have been changed the last time I looked at it:

( Res Plures )

Polypus (from Doric Greek) anciently set the precedent of an inflectional paradigm whereby a Latinized Greek word with that -πους ("foot") element may be declined in the second declension (if not regularly in the third declension), reflecting the Doric Greek genitive form πώλυπου and the Attic Greek genitive form πολύπου.

Octopi follows this precedent. And that is why octopi is a valid Latin form.

That is why I shall continue to use octopi without reservation!

"De Terminatione Universali -a et Pronominibus"
"Universal Termination -a and Pronouns"

One of the most regular formation patterns in the Latin inflection system is the use of the universal termination -a in the formation of the neuter nominative plural forms of nouns and adjectives.

( Res )

"Mea Culpa Homines, sed Faitheism et Faitheist Verba Iam Sunt!"
"Sorry Folks, but Faitheism and Faitheist Are Already Words!"

Jerry Coyne introduced some "new" words:

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/we-have-a-winner/

Provide a snappy, one-word name for those atheists who are nonetheless soft on faith (i.e., atheist accommodationists).  You know them — the kind of people, like Michael Ruse,  who say, “I am an atheist, but . . .”.   In other words, the folks who, says Daniel Dennett, have “belief in belief.” That’s a snappy phrase, but it ain’t one word.

RULES:  Contest open for one week, answers on this thread.  Only two submissions per person.  Be clever, as it’s the word I want to use on this website from now on.  PLEASE do not post anything on this thread except your entries.

And:

And that winner is . . . . .

** FAITHEISTS,** contributed by Divalent.

Also:

Almost immediately there were two cute responses, Jesuits (by Darkling) and Unitarians (by blueollie).  Funny, yes, but not good for discussing the problem, as these terms already refer to something else.

Cute word, but it also already refers to something else:

http://philosopedia.org/index.php/F

FAITH ATHEISM (Faitheism) Faith Atheism is a recent Internet coinage. According to its proponents the “faitheists” agree on the following:

• No God or gods exist. • Neither humans nor the universe was created by a “higher” power. • There is no immortal soul nor is there an afterlife.

Calling themselves religious, the faitheists differ from the standard variety of atheists, who do not regard atheism as a religion. Instead, faitheists realize that it is impossible to prove that no god or gods exist, just as theists cannot prove that a god does exist. The faitheists, however, have faith that no god exists.

http://ecstathy.blogspot.com/2007/10/faitheism-and-im-politically-active-by.html

http://philosophersplayground.blogspot.com/2007/01/faitheism-does-atheism-require-faith.html

Honestly, faitheist more easily brings to my mind the "FAITH ATHEISM" definition of the word, since so many theists construe atheism as just another belief system.

My word would have been FIDATHEISTS for the atheist accommodationists, from Latin fides (pronounced like "fee-days"), English fideist (the position that faith has some kind of actual and real epistemological value), and atheists.

I really do hope that Coyne's use of the word faitheist does not completely drown out the older use because I thought that the word was a cute and funny name for an irritatingly common and erroneous conception of atheism.

You know, I find it hilarious that some of the sites that link to Coyne's post are touting Faitheists as a "newly coined word."

"Res Plures de -ēla et -ella"
"More Stuff about -ēla and -ella"

I found this stuff in Charles H. Grandgent's An Introduction to Vulgar Latin:

e. CHANGE OF SUFFIX.

42. The popular language sometimes substitutes one suffix for another, as manuplus for manipulus. The principal types are: —

(I) Substitution of a new or common suffix for an old or rare one: —

-ēlus > -ĕllus (common in late Latin): camēlus > camĕllus, Cohn 213-216, R. 460; loquēla > loquĕlla, Corssen I, 227, R. 460; querēla > querĕlla, S. 131, R. 321, 460; suadēla > suadĕlla, R. 460. Cf. Caper (Keil VII, 96): “querela, loquela per unum l.”

About the >:

> indicates derivation, the source standing at the open end of the figure, whichever way it be turned.

According to this, I am right that the -ella suffix is a later variant of -ēla one.

"Battagliae Virology: Terms and Etymology et Mea Responsa"
Battaglia's Virology: Terms and Etymology et My Responses

E. Battaglia's article about the etymology and uses of the words virus and virology has some interesting insight. However, there are some parts in which he (?) seems to go astray. I have been wanting to post my comments on his article for months, but I never had the time to do so. And so, finally, I have my responses ready:

( Res )

"De Participio Praesenti Verbi Esse"
"About the Present Participle of the Verb Esse"

As any Latinist knows, the verb esse, "to be," lacks a readily available participle form.

( Res )

"De -iēs Finali et -ē- Longa"
"About Final -iēs and Long -ē-"

I suspect that there is some sort of phonetic law in Latin that make it so that the -ē- in final -iēs is (apparently) always long. (This may or may not apply to latinized Greek words.) The problem is that I have not been able to find anything on this in the Latin books about morphology.

There are the words of the fifth declension in -iēs (e.g. faciēs), the numeral adverbs in -iēs (e.g. septiēs), and words of the third declension in -iēs (e.g. pariēs), and even in verb forms in -iēs (e.g. audiēs).

Perhaps that -i- has something to do with it.

More research needs to be done on this.

"Verba et Suffixum -t-"
"Verbs and the Suffix -t-"

( Res )

"Forma Coniungens -ses e Verbo Sedere"
"The Combining Form -ses from the Word Sedere"

There are a few Latin compound words that have the -ses (genitive in -sidis) word element. It derives from sedere, "to sit," and has the basic meaning of "-sitter" if in a compound noun, and "-sitting" or "sitting-" if in a compound adjective.

( Res de -ses )

Wow, what a useful word element! From now on, I am going to use this -ses when creating Latin words for the ideas of "-sitter" and "-sitting"!

"De Suffixo Neolatino -ōn- Nominibus Particularum Elementariarum"
"About the Neo-Latin Suffix -ōn- for Names of Elementary Particles"

"Analogia Falsa Verbi Aeroplanīga"
"The False Analogy of the Word Aeroplanīga"

"Verba Adiectiva Derivata e Lingua Graeca cum Elemento -pus"
"Greek-Derived Adjectives with the Element -pus"

( Res )

"Praecepta Tutorialia Formationis Verborum Latinorum"
"Latin Word Formation Tutorials"

I am excited to announce that I finally finished my Latin word formation tutorials:

• The Formation and Meaning of Latin Stem Compounds
  
  
• The Formation and Latin Stem Compounds with Special Forms of Primae
  
  
• The Formation and Meaning of Latin Syntactic Compounds
  
  
• The Formation of Latin Diminutives of Nouns and Adjectives
  
  
• Latin Stems and Latin Suffixes Beginning with Vowels
  
  
• The Forms and Meanings of Latin Prefixes

These took years for me to finish. For most of that time, whenever I worked on this stuff, I was gathering together words, looking carefully at the methods of word formation, and trying to come up with some general principles if not rules.

It really is nice to know that I am finally finished with them. But that does not mean that I will not be adding and changing them in the future. That means comments and corrections are always welcome.

"De Elemento -cola"
"On the Element -cola"

There has been quite a bit of discussion about the nature of the Latin word element -cola in the various areas of scientific taxonomy. Some of the articles that I have in mind are Dan H. Nicolson's "Species Epithets Ending in -cola, a Retraction concerning -colus, -colum" and R. E. Buchanan's "Verbal Stems in Latin Composition."

( Res )

"Verba Rebus cum Elemento -cid-"
"Words for Things with the -cid- Element"

Morgan's Latin Lexicon has some words for non-human killing agents:

fungicide / (venênum) fungicidale* (Helf.)
pesticide, insecticide / (venenum) pesticidale* (Helf.)
weed-killer / (venenum) herbicidale* (Helf.)
insecticide / (venênum) insecticidale*; insecticidium* [Vox Lat.] (Helf.)
insecticide / venenum insectis internecivum (LRL)
herbicide / (venênum) herbicidale* (Helf.)

The words with -cid- seem to follow this pattern:

venenum + [stem of word] + i + -cidale

So:

• venenum + rodent(i) + i + -cidale = venenum rodenticidale, rodenticide
  
• venenum + germin- + i + -cidale = venenum germinicidale, germicide
  
• venenum + viro- + i + -cidale = venenum viricidale, viricide

Mreow!

"Liber Mirans"
"Interesting Book"

That's right:

A Manual of Etymology

"Prefixum Latinum Ex: '-less'"
"Latin Prefix Ex: '-less'"

Greek has the well-known prefix ἀ- (a-), or ἀν- (an-) before a vowel, to denote "without," "lacking," "un-," "-less."

There are the words ἄθεος (atheos), "godless," from θεός (theos), "god," and ἀνορεξία (anorexia), "without an appetite," from ὄρεξις (orexis), "appetite."

Latin has a similar prefix.

( Res )

"Verba Umbella et Umbrella"
"The Words Umbella and Umbrella"

I found something interesting in the Umbrella part of the Vicipaedia:Taberna/Tabularium 5 page:

Hi I tried to find this word a the notre dam latin dictionary and to no avail. I need to find out a translation for this since one of the old names of a province , Palawan is paragua . Your help would be appreciated.--Jondel 09:13, 22 Maii 2007 (UTC)

Umbrella -ae is latin already!--Rafaelgarcia 09:52, 22 Maii 2007 (UTC)

But Umbella without the r is more correct. --Iustinus 10:00, 22 Maii 2007 (UTC)

It is more correct in the sense that umbella is old enough to have been used by certain ancient writers.

But in terms of formation, both umbrella and umbella are acceptable. It really depends on whether you use the -la form of the suffix or the -e-lla form with the word umbra, "shadow."

With -la [umbra + -la] [umbra- + -la-] stems [umbr- + -la-] a disappears [umber- + -la-] e appears [umbel- + -la-] r to l [umbella-] new stem [umbella] nominative singular

With -ella [umbra + -ella] [umbra- + -ella-] stems [umbr- + -ella-] a disappears [umbrella-] new stem [umbrella] nominative singular

Personally, I like umbrella better becomes it is the same spelling as the English word.

Umbella might be acceptable, but it still seems to me like a misspelling.

"De Verbi Domifex"
"About the Word Domifex"

I was going to make the word domifex (-icis com. "homemaker"), but it turns out that the word already exists, and it is the specific epithet of a spider:

http://www.canadianarachnology.org/data/spiders/17814

Anyway:

( Etymologia )

"Formae Passivae Verbi Esse"
"Passive Forms of the Verb Esse"

( Res )

"De Nomine Limusaurus Inextricabilis"
"About the Name Limusaurus Inextricabilis"

Someone else said something about the name Limusaurus:

http://mm.dvdmoviesave.com/2009Jun/msg00179.html

( Res )

"Animal Mirans, Nomen Insolitum"
"Interesting Critter, Weird Name"

PZ was talking about a certain critter:

Limusaurus inextricabilis

My previous repost was made to give the background on a recent discovery of Jurassic ceratosaur, Limusaurus inextricabilis, and what it tells us about digit evolution. Here's Limusaurus—beautiful little beastie, isn't it?

Wow, neat critter! Look at the image.

The generic name (or genus name, whatever) bothers me, though. Limusaurus apparently means "mud lizard." Limus, a Latin second-declension word, means "mud." But why is the u used as the connecting vowel instead of the regular i or o?

It doesn't do one any good to argue that u was used instead of i like in words like manuscriptus, because that first u in manuscriptus is not really a connecting vowel but a case form, and the word itself is a syntactic compound, not a "stem" compound like other words ending in -saurus. It also isn't good to argue that u is sometimes used instead of i, as in pontufex and manupretium, because this i/u interchange really only applied when the vowel appeared before labials (b, f, m, p, v) and l. That interchange was not very common before s when those letters were used as connecting vowels (and the old genitive forms in -us like Venerus wouldn't refute my argument, anyway: the u before the s instead of i is not an interchange between i and u, but rather an interchange between o and u, where the -us is a variant of the -os genitive ending that is like the -ος in Greek).

And so Limusaurus should be Limisaurus, like limicola, "dweller in the mud," and limigenus, "produced in mud."

"De Verbo Coulrophobia"
"About the Word Coulrophobia"

It has been claimed that coulrophobia is the fear of clowns.

However, I see some problems with the formation of the word. I was going to comment on the formation, but someone else already did:

Clownish Greek on Super Millionaire

( Res )

"Alius Liber Excellens"
"Another Excellent Book"

Very nice:

An Etymological Analysis of Latin Verbs

LWotP: alius -a -ud "another."

"Verbum Ideae Studii Scientiae Iterum!"
"A Word for the Idea of the Study of Science Again!"

Months ago, I mentioned that I was thinking of a term for the study of science. The word I wanted to avoid was Scientology for obvious reasons. After I made that post, I started to think that the word that I suggested, Scientiology, would easily be confused with the other word, and that would be unfortunate. Now I want to suggest a new term:

( !!! )

"Commentatio de Virus"
"Article about Virus"

I have working on an article for my Pāginae Latīnitātis section about the Latin plural forms of virus. It has been taking me a long time to get it finished because there is so much that needs to be said about this. There are some misconceptions about the word that I keep seeing repeated on Wikipedia articles and forums.

( Res Plures )

"De Odontochelye"
"About Odontochelys"

PZ was talking about a certain critter:

Odontochelys, a transitional turtle

I love the name!

Look:

How the turtle's shell evolved

The fossilised turtle ancestor, which has been named Odontochelys semitestacea, meaning half-shelled turtle with teeth, probably inhabited the river deltas or coastal shallows of China's Nanpanjiang trough basin - the area where the fossil was unearthed.

Odontochelys means something more like "Tooth Turtle"

( Etymologia )

"Mihi Titulus Ioculatorimagi"
"Jokermage's Title for Me"

Apparently, I am part of a Secret Society!

http://jokermage.livejournal.com/504384.html

My title: Etymophant Acolyte

Etymophant is a great word!

Etymophanta -ae m. "Etymon-Informer"
( Etymologia a Etymophanta )

And:

Etymophantaster -tri m. "Etymophant Acolyte"
( Etymologia )

Archetymophanta -ae m. "Etymophant Master"
( Etymologia )

"De Verbis Blogis et Blogīre"
"About the Words Blogis and Blogīre"

A certain thread at the Latin Forum inspired me to write a post about two proposed words: blogis, "blog," and blogīre, "to blog."

Substantive: blogis -is m. "blog"
( Formatio Verbi - Word Formation )

Verb: blogīre -ō -īvī -ītum "to blog"
( Formatio Verbi - Word Formation )

( Regulae Formationis - Rules of Formation )

( Index Verborum Derivativorum - Index of Derivative Words )

"De Etymologia Verbi Theonoma"
"On the Etymology of the Word Theonoma"

PZ mentioned a new word that is relevant to my interests: theonoma

The author of this post coined it:

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2008/08/freethinker_sunday_sermonette_110.php

My view, though, is that small pains in the body politic like this are emblematic of a deeper cancer within. I'll even be so bold as to coin a term for it: a theonoma. Like a lot of debilitating diseases, theonomas are best prevented rather than treated. We've known how to do this since the Enlightenment -- separate theology from civil political discourse.

So, this word is a tumor-related word like melanoma or carcinoma, except it has the combining form theo-, "god" or "deity," at the beginning.

Since I am an etymology geek, after I realized what the coiner of the word had in mind, I began to wonder to myself: "But shouldn't it be theoma, from theo- and -oma, where the o in theo- drops out before the o in -oma?" The tumor-related combining form in words like carcinoma, melanoma, sarcoma, steatoma, ecchymoma is -oma (from Greek -ωμα), not -noma.

Someone was apparently suggesting that there is an extra n in theonoma because it is used to separate the two word elements, as in the word melanoma (as in mela- + -n- + -ma). However, the n in melanoma is not there to separate the two word elements -- it is part of melan-, the first word element! The Greek word μέλας (melas), "dark," is a contraction of the form μελανς (melans), where the μελαν- (melan-) is the stem of the word, and -ς (-s) is a grammatical ending. The final ν of the stem dropped out before -ς to form the word μέλας. The stem μελαν- is added to -ωμα to get the word μελάνωμα, and the two word elements are latinized to melan- and -oma and make the word melanoma. The n in carcinoma is also part of the combining form carcino-. There is a good reason that the n is in those words, and it really does not explain why there is an n in theonoma.

I think that the best explanation is that the coiner simply wanted to make a portmanteau word of theo- and words like melanoma and carcinoma rather than a real compound word from the proper combining forms theo- (or the-) and -oma. It seems to me that the coiner intended the theonoma to be a fun word, not a word to be used in science. The scientific word would be theoma.

"Atheus Sum, sed..."
"I'm an Atheist, but..."

"De Verbo Pedophilia"
"About the Word Pedophilia"

Melissa once pointed out that pedophilia could technically refer to the nonsexual love for children. It is a shame that the usual definition of pedophilia has become so hated that you can't use it to mean what Melissa suggested.

For "nonsexual love of children," one could use philopedia, from Greek φιλοπαιδία ("love of one's children"). Are you a philopedist?

Then there is the hatred of children: misopedia or misopedy. Are you a misopedist?

Miso! Do you like miso soup?

"Polysexuality apud Wikipedia"
"Polysexuality at Wikipedia"

I was looking at this article this morning:

Polysexuality

The name made me think: "Why Polysexuality instead of Multisexuality?" It seems strange to me to use the Greek-derived poly- combining form (of πολύς, "much" or "many") with the Latin-derived sexuality when there is already a Latin-derived multi- combining form (of multus, "much" or "many").

Although the word homosexuality also has a Greek-derived element as the first part of the compound, the use of the Greek-derived homo- combining form (of ὁμός, "same") works in that word because Latin lacks a productive combining form for "same." There is the Latin word idem, "same," but I can't find any native Latin word that uses it as a combining form, and the OED lists only two English words that use it: idemfaciend and idempotent. The Greek-derived homo- can be used to satisfy the deficiency.

The Greek-derived -ectomy combining form (of -εκτομια, "cutting out of...") is another one that seems to satisfy a deficiency because Latin does not have a productive equivalent.

"Gynephilia and androphilia apud Wikipedia"
"Gynephilia and androphilia at Wikipedia"

Look at the Etymology section there:

Gynephilia and androphilia

Gynephilia is philologically inconsequent, as it takes the nominative instead of the root, and would have as its counterpart anerphilia (From Greek anēr, "men," + -philia), not androphilia; while gynophilia is formed in violation of Greek word formation rules, cf. gynaecology/gynecology (From Greek gynaiko-, "female," + logos)

This could be written better.

I wonder what "philologically inconsequent" means.

Gynephilia takes its gyne- from the nominative form of the Greek word (γυνή [gyne]) instead of its stem (γυναικ- [gynaik-]), not root.

The "is formed in violation of Greek word formation rules" part probably should be changed to something like "deviates from the usual Greek word formation procedures by using the shortened combining form." There are a number of Greek words that use shortened versions of their usual combining forms.

The word γυνή is irregular in Greek, and while it really is of the third declension, with a stem of γυναικ-, its nominative form is thought to be and treated as a word of the first declension, with a stem of γυνη-, and so we have a combining form of gyne- in English words instead of the full gynaeco- version. Additionally, this gyne- may be changed to gyno-, where the e becomes the usual connecting vowel o. Moreover, in English, we have words ending in -gynous (from Greek words ending in -γυνος [-gynos]), such as monogynous, instead of -gynaecous.

This means that γυνή has two sets of combining forms: one with gyn- and the other with gynaec- (sometimes the a isn't written).

Personally, I like gynephilia in English because it's easier to say than gynaecophilia.

"Cur Belonephobia, Non Belonophobia?"
"Why Belonephobia, Not Belonophobia?"

The Afraid Of Needles entry at the Television Tropes & Idioms site mentions this word:

belonephobia

I wonder why it is belonephobia, and not belonophobia.

( ... )

But I think I know the real reason!

( ... )

"Verba Stulta in Indice Phobiarum"
"Stupid Words in the Phobia List"

( Res de Indice )

"Argumenta contra Amazones Quartet"
"Arguments against Amazones Quartet"

I finished this thing this morning. Some of these arguments are so... 2000, 2001.

I just might rework it and then use that version as a replacement for one of my articles at DIES GAUDII.

( De アマゾネス )

"Res Polemicae"
"Polemic Stuff"

I'm feeling a bit polemic right now.

( Et... )

"Verbum Ideae Studii Scientiae"
"A Word for the Idea of the Study of Science"

I have been thinking of an "-ology" word for the study of science.

More often than not, words of that type tend to have elements derives from Greek and Latin.

The Modern Greek word for "science" is επιστήμη (transliteration: episteme), and the Neo-Latin word for the modern idea of science is scientia.

Unfortunately, epistemology and Scientology are already taken. Some purists might complain about the formation of the word Scientology because it is a Latin-Greek hybrid word.

But Scientology looks like it derives from sciens ("knowing," base scient- with connecting vowel o), not scientia (base scienti- with connecting vowel o). An argument could be made, however, that Scientology was formed from scientia by dropping the -ia ending much like how scientist was formed in the same manner. Although that argument certainly is compelling, it doesn't really reflect the formation of classical-style compounds and derivatives.

The -ist suffix could knock out the final a in scientia and appear with the remaining scienti- to form scientiist, but the ii combination would appear as i, making scientist. The unnecessary double-letter combination is avoided. (The same can be said about the related suffix -ism. The Greeks wrote ἰουδαϊσμός [transliteration: ioudaismos], "Judaism," instead of ἰουδαιισμος [transliteration: ioudaiismos] to avoid the ιι [transliteration: ii] combination.) But scientia wouldn't normally drop its -ia to make Scient and then add the -ology element to make Scientology. It would normally drop its -a and then put the scienti- part to -ology to make scientiology. The main reason for this difference is that o is not handled the same way as i. The io combination is more acceptable than the ii combination, so the latter would be avoided while the other would be kept.

The new word I have in mind for "study of science" is scientiology (perhaps pronounced "skee-ehn-tee-AH-luh-jee"). It is a hybrid word, but I don't think that should be too much of a problem for us.

What do you think?

"Linguae Insolitae Sunt! Iterum!"
"Languages Are Weird! Again!"

They sure are.

The words divide and divisor are related in an odd way (common root VID "split"):

( Etymologia )

The words fluid and reflux are related (common root FLUGV "overflow"):

( Etymologia )

"Quomodo Latine 'Blog' et Cetera Dicuntur?"
"How Are 'Blog' et Cetera Said in Latin?"

There has been some discussion about how blog and its various forms should be Latinized. I have decided to offer out my duos denarios to the discussion.

The author of the post I linked to prefers the noun blogis and the verb blogere. Those are not my first choices, but I think they are at least workable.

Blogis was formed by adding the stem vowel i to the English word blog, and then adding the nominative singular ending -s. That is pretty simple. Perhaps the Romans would have not even added that i, but instead added -s directly to blog to get blox (g + s = x), which would be a third-declension g-stem like rex, "king," and declined as such. Blogum could be formed by adding the common Latinizing nounal suffix -o-m (stem vowel o, nominative singular ending m), which becomes -um.

I do not think that blogere (-ere, -evi, -etum) is an optimal verb form from blog or blogis. Second-conjugation verbs (called denominative verbs) formed from nouns generally conjugate like moneo, monere, monui, monitum instead of -ere, -evi, and -etum like in deleo. In fact, only four (widely-used) non-compounded verbs of the second-conjugation and compounds of -plere (also second conjugation) conjugate like -evi and -etum. Many of such verbs lack the perfect and supine stems, so albeo, -ere does not have something like albui or albevi and albetum or albitum or whatever the supine might be. I cannot give an example of a pure i-stem verb like blogis becoming a second-conjugation verb like blogere. There is sordere from sordes, but not only is sordes a mixed i-stem (d-stem in the singular, i-stem in the plural), but it conjugates as sordui and sorditum. (Perhaps the choice of making it a second-conjugation verb with the stem vowel e was that it seems that the Romans sometimes thought of mixed i-stems ending in -es, like vulpes, were "honorary" e-stems, hence vulpecula as a diminutive of vulpes like recula as a diminutive of res.)

Pure i-stem nouns usually denominate in three ways. One way is to add the first-conjugation stem vowel a directly to the stem blogi- to get blogiare, which is conjugated like amare. Breviare was formed from brevis. Another way is add that a, but drop the i of the stem to get blogare, which is how levo was formed from levis. Finally, there is the way that finire was formed from finis: lengthen the final i of the stem and conjugate the entire stem as a fourth-conjugation verb: blogire.

So, while I think blogis is not bad, I do suggest blogire as its verb.

"De Verbo Insolito Astrogation"
"About the Weird Word Astrogation"

Not too long ago, I came upon this word:

astrogation

( Res Plures )