museum designations

[John McNeill]

At 7:19 AM on 10/12/98, "JOSEPH E. LAFERRIERE" <josephl at AZTEC.ASU.EDU> wrote:

> It stands to reason that there should be some word
> useful in referring to any of these groups of letters
> from any of the four aforementioned categories. Someone
> suggested "codex;"

In fact, the word referred to was CODEN (or, I suppose,
coden).  It is presumably derived from CODE N(ame) and
has been used for many years to apply to the set of
letters (traditionally upper case) used to distinguish
serial titles in, for example, BIOSIS publications, such
as Biological Abstracts.


...................

> The term "Codon," coined to parallel the arbitrary term "taxon."
> might be useful if this did not already have another meaning in
> biochemistry. How about "designon?"

Are you not confusing "codon" with "culton" (see _Taxon_ 44: 161-175.
1995 -- or, for a critique of the word, _Hortax News_ 1(4): 9-22. 1998)?
For what it is worth _Index Herbariorum_ uses the word "abbreviation",
which is perfectly accurate.

John McNeill

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      John McNeill, Director Emeritus, Royal Ontario Museum,
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--
Dr. Joseph E. Laferriere
"Computito ergo sum ...  I link therefore I am."