Re: CHAT Almost well-formed southern ape (wasRe: Teknonyms)

R A Brown skrev:
> Wesley Parish wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:24, Jim Henry wrote:
>
>
> [snip]
>
>>> ................... "Matronym"
>>> seems to be one of those Greek/Latin hybrids
>>> like "television".
>>>
>>
>> Or like Australopithecus Africanus, which raised more than a few
>> eyebrows when it was first coined.
>
>
> Indeed - yet there is only one letter in Australopithecus that makes it
> 'ill-formed' - sigh!
>
> Latin readily borrowed from Greek, and the ending -us as well as the
> spelling with |c| suggests a Latinized _pithecus_ rather than Greek
> _pithe:kos_. What is more _pithecus_ is actually attested in late
> Classical Latin; it is found in a 3rd CE collection of abbreviations
> ascribed to Cicero's freedman, Tiro, who was a great user of shorthand.
>
> _australis_ "southern" is a perfectly good Latin adjective. But if this
> were a properly formed Latin compound, it would be 'Australipithecus'
> "southern ape".
>
> Sigh.
>
"Notiopithecus" had not only been perfect Greek, it had also
precluded the notion that the critter lived in Australia!

--

/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

         Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!
                                             (Tacitus)

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