Talk:Silaum

A fact from Silaum appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 6 January 2014 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that whilst the exact etymology is uncertain, the colour yellow and the Italian mountainous plateau La Sila have been offered as possible etymologies for Silaum, a genus of flowering plants?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2014/January. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Silaum.

Wikipedia

"Sil" is not a Latin word

The suggestion, drawn from Online Guide To Umbelliferae Of The British Isles "that Silaum may be derived from the yellow ochre - related to the colour of the plant's flowers" seems to ber in error. There is no Latin word sil, contrary to what you may see online. William T. Stearn, Botanical Latin (I have the revised edition) gives no clue to the error, though it gives many Latin and neo-Latin adjectives for yellows, beyond luteus, flavus, aureus. The Latin for "ochre" Stearn gives as ochreus. I fear that this online reference is less than dependable, though Wikipedia has given it prominence in DYK. I have not commented out the assertion for the time being...

but can anyone work out how this assertion came about?--Wetman (talk) 18:40, 6 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Wetman: The reliability of the source was discussed on the nomination page, and seemed to be accepted. I'm no expert on this by any stretch of the imagination, but FWIW the claim is also repeated here and on a couple of other websites of a less reputable nature. Acather96 (click here to contact me) 17:04, 9 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Mirrors reflecting mirrors. At least Pliny's use, apparently not previously taken into account, is now part of the article. Applying a plant name found in Theophrastus or Pliny to an actual plant was a familiar practice among classically informed botanists, late 16th through 19th centuries. --Wetman (talk) 00:22, 10 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]