"fide" in authorship

[Thomas Lammers]

At 10:40 AM 6/26/02 -0700, you wrote:

>I recently came across a family name (Hyolithidae)
>with the authorship of Matthew fide Fisher, 1962.
>What exactly does the 'fide' mean?

Ablative singular of fides, faith, literally, "by the faith."   I take it
to mean that whoever wrote this is taking Fischer's word that Matthew was
the author.  In other words, he didn't check the original himself, but
trusts that Fischer did and got it right.   The word shows up in
non-nomenclatural contexts as well.  The OED even shows it as a rare
transitive verb in English, meaning to confide or entrust a thing to someone.


Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA

e-mail:       lammers at uwosh.edu
phone:      920-424-1002
fax:           920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and biogeography
of the Campanulaceae s. lat.

Webpages:
http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/biology/Lammers.htm
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Resort/7156/lammers.html
http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/biology/herbarium/herbarium.html
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