[Taxacom] Tegula, tegulae, tegulum, etc.

[Paul van Rijckevorsel]

Oh, sure. It was introduced (formally at least) at the 1950,
Stockholm Congress, at the suggestion of  H.J.Lam, as a
shorthand notation for "taxonomic group". Given the exact
phrasing (" Taxonomic groups of any category will, in this Code,
be referred to as taxa (singular: taxon)." ) one might say that the
introduced term is the plural "taxa", with taxon the singular form.

The French rendition of the botanical Code at first followed this, 
but switched to the plural form "taxons" in the 1972 edition.

Zoology also adopted the term taxon, although with a slightly
different definition. The French rendition of the zoological Code
switched to the plural form "taxons" only with the 1999 edition.

Paul

From: "Curtis Clark" lists at curtisclark.org
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 7:07 AM

> On 2011-05-09 11:31, dipteryx at freeler.nl wrote:
>> It looks safe to me to say that taxons is the French plural form of 
>> taxon.
>
> Although I prefer "taxa", it is my understanding that "taxon" is a
> coined word without classical use.