Latin word for Comma-shaped

[Richard Zander]

A colleague of mine writes:

"    You might want to consider use of the actual word 'comma.' This word
is, apparently, a perfectly good Latin word originally used classically in
rhetoric, grammar and prosody, then in punctuation. It is a neuter third
declension word: comma,-atis (s.n.III), abl.sg. commate, nom. & acc. pl.
commata, etc.
    That it has already been used in biological nomenclature can be seen in
its use for the comma bacillus, Vibrio comma (Spirillum cholerae asiaticae),
because the body of the beast is comma-shaped (the epithet 'comma' is a noun
in apposition here) although the picture I have makes the bacillus look more
like a kidney bean.
    Also the comma butterfly, Polygonia comma, which has "a silvery
comma-shaped mark on the underside of the hind wings", the epithet here also
in apposition; both epithets refer to shapes that resemble the punctuation
mark.
    So there is a precendent for you to say 'semen in aspectu commatis,' the
seed in the appearance of a comma, if you wanted to.
    [references from Webster's Third International Dictionary, unabridged.]
P.M. Eckel  pmeckel at sciencebuff.org
"


---------
Richard H. Zander
Curator of Botany
Buffalo Museum of Science
1020 Humboldt Pkwy
Buffalo, NY 14211 USA
email: rzander at sciencebuff.org
voice: 716-895-5200 x 351



----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex Buchanan Tasmanian Herbarium" <abuchanan at TMAG.TAS.GOV.AU>
To: <TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG>
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2000 12:47 AM
Subject: Latin word for Comma-shaped


> Can a latin scholar help with this one?
>
> Is there a latin term for a solid object, in this case a seed, which is
> comma-shaped, i.e. with a more or less rounded head curving into a pointed
> tail?
>
> Thanks,  Dennis Morris
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Alex M. Buchanan                abuchanan at tmag.tas.gov.au
> Assistant Curator
> Tasmanian Herbarium             Phone: (03) 62262635
> GPO Box 252-04                    Fax:   (03) 62267865
> HOBART Tas. 7001
> AUSTRALIA