Spore elements
J.E. Shields (Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:49:28 PDT)

I was a bit snippy in my reply, for which I apologize. I did not want
persons with English as a 2nd or 3rd language to use the article as a
language guide. Many of the chemical terms were incorrect or not English.

German is my 2nd language, and I have trouble writing in it whenever I
try. Fortunately, the world's universal language for science is now
English (it was German when I was in grad school), so I have not had much
trouble on that score in the last several decades.

Jim Shields

At 08:52 PM 8/23/2012 +0100, you wrote:

Fair comment Jim,
I see various other articles I find via google seem to use the term "spore
elements" though I scanned them only briefly. Those articles appear to have
German or Dutch origins too. A quick search of the term "spoor elements"
did not reveal, for me,the term in connection with what I am used to
calling "trace elements".
However incorrect -the use of the term "spore elements" seems to be around,
albeit through mistranslation, and I admit that I have not heard it before.
When I read the term first, I expected it to refer to something mycorrhizal.
Peter (UK)

On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 7:49 PM, J.E. Shields <jshields@indy.net> wrote:

I think I see the tracks of this usage. In German, Spur means track (e.g.,
bear tracks in the woods) and trace (very small amounts). Spoor is
Afrikaans for track, from old Dutch "spor."

The article cited by Peter seems to have been translated from a German
original, and contains numerous mis-spellings and incorrect usages. It is
not a suitable reference for English usages or spellings.

Jim Shields

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