Latin names

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:29:33 PDT
Nhu wrote: “Assuming that Puro is a male, you have to go with the masculine
"purianus",

but it's not against the Code to go with "purii".”

 

Let’s take another look at this. 

 

First of all, Lou indicated that the genus in question will be feminine. 

 

The epithet purianus would be used with a masculine genus, not a feminine
genus. Purianus is an adjective and must agree with the noun it modifies (in
this case, a feminine noun). 

 

Words of the form purii are genitive nouns, not adjectives, and thus do not
have to agree with the noun with which they are associated. 

 

But here is something else to consider. What kind of name is Puro? If it is
a name derived from a language derived from Latin, a language which keeps
the distinction between the stem and the terminations which indicate case,
then the form purii will work [except that Lou seems to want to observe the
distinction sometimes made between the sort of honorifics which honor
non-botanists (the adjectival forms) and honorifics which honor botanists
(the genitive form)].  

 

If this name Puro is regarded as an aboriginal name (or a name derived from
a language itself not derived from Latin), I would suggest purona (puroiana
would have been used in the past). 

 

Jim McKenney

jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com

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