Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Self-Use of Ethnic Insults (was: Re: Ebonic Christmas )

From:BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Tuesday, January 18, 2000, 20:08
At 22:58 -0600 16.1.2000, Herman Miller wrote:
>On Sat, 16 Jan 0100 01:40:16 -0500, John Cowan <cowan@...> >wrote: > >>Raymond Brown scripsit: >> >>> As you well know, 'swede' has a very positive meaning >> >>I *think* it was on another mailing list that someone asked >>what the meaning of "L." after the scientific names of certain >>plants was. I explained that this meant the name had been >>assigned by "that crafty old Swede (but no turnip), Carolus >>Linnaeus himself." >> >>(In the case of more recent names, the name of the namer >>appears instead. Zoologists do not appear to use this convention.) > >I've seen "L." in a book on butterflies. More frequently, "Linnaeus" is >written out like any other name.
FYI he didn't even call himself Linnaeus for most of his life! His father came from a place called Linde, and was therefore called Linder when enrolled at university, which he then changed to Linnaeus when becoming clergy. The son inherited the name in this form, but became knighted as von_Linné, which was Latinized as a_Linné. This might be part of the reason why his name is customarily abbreviated. I've often wondered why English sticks to "Linnaeus", while his countrymen say "Linné", but the most probable reason is that he was still styled _Carolus Linnaeus_ on the title page of _Systema Naturalis_! (BTW there is a big street in this city called Linnégatan. It used to be flanked with plantations and trees -- linden of course! -- but the powers that be decided to remove the plantations and pave the ground right up to the stems of the poor trees. Some way to treat a Via Linnaei! :-[) /BP B.Philip Jonsson <mailto: bpj@...> <mailto: melroch@...> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__ Anant' avanaute quettalmar! \ \ __ ____ ____ _____________ ___ __ __ __ / / \ \/___ \\__ \ /___ _____/\ \\__ \\ \ \ \\ \ / / / / / / / \ / /Melroch\ \_/ // / / // / / / / /___/ /_ / /\ \ / /Melarocco\_ // /__/ // /__/ / /_________//_/ \_\/ /Eowine__ / / \___/\_\\___/\_\ I neer Pityancalimeo\ \_____/ /ar/ /_atar Mercasso naan ~~~~~~~~~Cuinondil~~~\_______/~~~\__/~~~Noolendur~~~~~~ || Lenda lenda pellalenda pellatellenda cuivie aiya! || "A coincidence, as we say in Middle-Earth" (JRR Tolkien)