Talk:Microtis globula

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Etymology of globula

Andrew Brown gives the etymology of "globula" as:

"from the Latin globulus (globe, round like a ball) alluding to the rounded flowers.^[1]

Brown's book is available here.

Sharr gives:

globulus: L g. a globule (refers to 1 the fruit 'like a button': Eucalyptus; 2 the flower Microtis (page 208)^[2]

Sharr's book is available here.

Stearn gives:

Globulus (s.m.II): a little ball, globule.^[3]

Short gives:

globulus (noun m.2); globule; ^[4]

The differences between nouns and adjectives in Latin, is that nouns have usually only one gender and adjectives can have up to three genders. Pulchellus is for example the masculine, puchella the feminine and pulchellum the neuter. In case an author is using pulchella (feminine), you can easily connect this form to the masculine 'pulchellus. The diminutive of bulbus is bulbulus and is not an adjective, but a noun. When an author is using bulbula, you can not easily connect this form to bulbulus as this change of gender is not considered as "normal". Short and George write in their Primer to Botanical Latin on p. 62:

The best way to determine the gender of a genus is to look at the names of other species in that genus and see what other botanists have done, but again we have to preach caution here as a noun in apposition might resemble a masculine adjective. A case that springs to mind is Eucalyptus globulus (which confused one of the authors, newly arrived in Australia), where Eucalyptus is feminine and globulus looks masculine, but is a noun meaning ‘little ball’. By referring to a list of species, you will see that, for example, Eucalyptus miniata, E. caesia and E. marginata are obviously feminine, so any epithet chosen by you will also have to be feminine.

It seems that Short and George indicate that globulus is actually is not an adjective and globula is simply not the feminine form of a supposed masculine adjective globulus. As this relationship is more complicated, we have to use a source that explicitely mentions that globula is related to globulus. Stearn and Short and George does not seem to address this issue and do not mention globula. You should only mention sources, that refer to globula and not to globulus in general. Although there is a medieval Latin form globula, my suspicion is that the describing author (just as one of the authors as described by Short and George) mistook globula for a feminine adjective. Wimpus (talk) 13:18, 2 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Brown, Andrew; Dundas, Pat; Dixon, Kingsley; Hopper, Stephen (2008). Orchids of Western Australia. Crawley, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press. p. 287. ISBN 9780980296457.
^ Francis Aubie Sharr (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and their Meanings. Kardinya, Western Australia: Four Gables Press. p. 208. ISBN 9780958034180.
^ Stearn, William T. (1992). Botanical Latin (4 ed.). Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. p. 420. ISBN 0881923214.
^ Short, Emma; George, Alex (2013). A Primer of Botanical Latin with Vocabulary. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. p. 180. ISBN 9781107693753.

[Brown-1] Brown, Andrew; Dundas, Pat; Dixon, Kingsley; Hopper, Stephen (2008). Orchids of Western Australia. Crawley, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press. p. 287. ISBN 9780980296457.

[Sharr-2] Francis Aubie Sharr (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and their Meanings. Kardinya, Western Australia: Four Gables Press. p. 208. ISBN 9780958034180.

[Stearn-3] Stearn, William T. (1992). Botanical Latin (4 ed.). Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. p. 420. ISBN 0881923214.

[Short-4] Short, Emma; George, Alex (2013). A Primer of Botanical Latin with Vocabulary. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. p. 180. ISBN 9781107693753.

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