how to write the plural of latin and greek words in english publications

[Thomas G. Lammers]

At 01:41 PM 10-24-98 EST, Thomas Schlemmermeyer wrote:
>  Folks, I have a small problem:
>
>  In the english language the plural is formed, most commonly, by appending
>  a "s", in greek and latin the equivalent transformations are different.
>
>  So, "taxon" gets "taxons" in english, but "taxa" in greek.

To the best of my knowledge, botanists at least retain the Greek plural for
taxon, i.e., taxa.  I don't believe I have ever seen "taxons" used in the
botanical literature.  This even extends to the derivative term "novon",
recently coined by Missouri Botanical Garden for nomenclatural innovations
(new taxa, new combinations, replacement names, etc.), from novus and taxon
(ordinarily one shouldn't compound Greek and Latin roots, but this isn't
really a compound, so I guess we'll let it slide).  Anyway,  I believe I've
seen its plural given as "nova", in parallel to taxon/taxa.

In general, I think botanists tend to retain original plurals; "calyces"
seems to occur more often than "calyxs", though "corollas" is almost always
preferred to "corollae".


Thomas G. Lammers

Classification, Nomenclature, Phylogeny and Biogeography
of the Campanulaceae, s. lat.

Department of Botany
Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496 USA

e-mail:    tlammers at fmnh.org
office:          312-922-9410 ext. 317 (voice-mail)
home:     630-759-4280
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http:    www.fmnh.org/candr/academic_affairs/collection_report/cv_lammers.htm

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