Taxacom: Tropicos and gender of names

Mon Feb 7 16:16:43 CST 2022

Dear Doug,
In Botany, the rule is that the original spelling should be maintained 
unless it is against one of the articles.
So e.g. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fipni.org%2Fn%2F77142913-1&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C387e07dc331b47de12cc08d9ea8789e8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798691143327708%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=Qa1geYPMzgHM3swWPm8zJrGYbfJfpbDP8Zlk9Bfxosw%3D&reserved=0
Zingiber tenuiscapus is not to be corrected to tenuiscapa as it is correct as a noun.

If a choice is possible, e.g. "nanus" in a masculine genus is transferred to a feminine genus and if the author uses "nanus" then that is not correctable as he treats it as a noun. Subsequent authors must then follow that.
Unless of course in the original publication it clearly indicated as an adjective.

There are many published books indicating the gender of genera, perhaps the best known is
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bgbm.org%2FIAPT%2Fncu%2Fgenera%2FImprintRegVegNCU3.htm&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C387e07dc331b47de12cc08d9ea8789e8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798691143327708%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=JaLynB1Ed8Aoe%2BvEz2ayfM29ncSht6%2B48F4QeJrg7qE%3D&reserved=0

Rafael Govaerts

-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Douglas Yanega via Taxacom
Sent: 07 February 2022 21:56
To: taxacom at lists.ku.edu
Subject: Re: Taxacom: Tropicos and gender of names

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On 2/7/22 12:33 PM, Richard Zander via Taxacom wrote:
> For those with problems determining proper gender endings for taxon names, Tropicos (botancal names) is a good resource.
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftropicos.org%2Fhome&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C387e07dc331b47de12cc08d9ea8789e8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798691143327708%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=Qohf678lL%2B7dHXUfpZN%2BFU8S1k%2BGnxrVVzFxnoTt1yk%3D&reserved=0
>
> How to:
>
> In the search box, you can use % as a wild card.
> Examples:
>
> Neo% gives you all names beginning with "Neo"
> Neo% fili% gives all genus and species starting thusly with with all endings.
> % %coma gives all epithets ending with "coma"
> % coma% gives all epithets starting with "coma"
> % %sis gives all epithese ending with "sis"
> %zz% gives all generic and higher names with "zz" in them.
>
> If you have a genus and want to name it with an epithet like oceanus or maybe oceana or maybe oceanum, see what other authors have used for your particular genus or try a genus with a similar ending....
>
> Rare endings are probably wrong and probably recent names, as most ancients knew their Latin.

While this is interesting in certain ways, it is - practically speaking
- not very useful for determining whether a name is properly gender-matched insofar as the rules of the Botanical Code (and there may be some very fundamental differences between the Botanical Code and the Zoological Code).

It doesn't actually tell a naive user, anywhere, whether a genus is masculine, feminine, or neuter; you can only make assumptions about this.

It doesn't actually tell a naive user whether a species epithet is a declinable adjective or a noun; you can only make assumptions about this.

For example, when I look up Crataegus succincta, am I supposed to assume that Crataegus is feminine, or to assume that "succincta" is a noun? I'm not a naive user, so I'm forced to assume that Crataegus is feminine (which is really confusing), but other people might not easily come to that conclusion.

As for differences between Codes, the ICZN specifies that if a name can be either a noun or an adjective, to treat it as a noun by default.
Accordingly, in zoology you can have names that are *apparent* mismatches, such as "Hemiopsida nanus", when the epithet is a term that can be a noun. I've looked at a lot of the same epithets in this Tropicos file, and can't find a single mismatch, suggesting that botanists assume everything is adjectival by default (either that, or this database automates gender agreement, which could be VERY misleading). As such, I would never recommend this resource to a zoological taxonomist who was interested in gender agreement.

Honestly, a taxonomist needing guidance can do better looking things up in Wiktionary, which - despite a distinct small percentage of errors and omissions - is *generally* pretty reliable in giving exactly the sorts of details needed to adhere to the Code.

For example:

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wiktionary.org%2Fwiki%2Fpumilus%23Latin&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C387e07dc331b47de12cc08d9ea8789e8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798691143327708%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=2AL1wdn8sw0%2B1RLZo4FAkyREdJDq1umrS9Lm%2BszAwfM%3D&reserved=0 correctly indicates that pumilus can be either a noun or an adjective in Latin, both meaning "dwarf". It does not, however, point out that "pumila" and "pumilum"
could also be nouns.

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wiktionary.org%2Fwiki%2Fnanus%23Latin&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C387e07dc331b47de12cc08d9ea8789e8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798691143327708%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=cSAZ%2Fd5KK3CAHRWTztPrQ7c2HMfRYelDlmnNskPHnAY%3D&reserved=0 indicates that nanus (and nana and nanum, all also meaning "dwarf") can only be a noun in Latin, but this runs counter to the overwhelming usage as an adjective by taxonomists, and at least a few lexicons say it can be an adjective.

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wiktionary.org%2Fwiki%2Fsagittarius&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C387e07dc331b47de12cc08d9ea8789e8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798691143327708%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=myULNa070f98SfgUXNpIERP%2BNuBR8%2F%2FxcjeP%2Bs1wHpE%3D&reserved=0 gives another example of a word that can be either a noun or an adjective, though again the feminine and neuter forms are not listed as nouns.

Perseus has another good resource, though also with quirks - for example:

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.perseus.tufts.edu%2Fhopper%2Fmorph%3Fl%3Dpumilus%26la%3Dla%23lexicon&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C387e07dc331b47de12cc08d9ea8789e8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798691143327708%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=XSfQGpge7Py2%2B7BSRJC1ke2C2iUOk3SjSK1qHq4H8Aw%3D&reserved=0 is fine, but it yields no response at all for either pumila or pumilum, not even as adjectives.

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.perseus.tufts.edu%2Fhopper%2Fmorph%3Fl%3Dsagittarius%26la%3Dla%23lexicon&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C387e07dc331b47de12cc08d9ea8789e8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798691143327708%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=9x%2BqOOiz242YXHAXtu8Hkm2eLt32GdCAPiTjgAfZfKg%3D&reserved=0
likewise shows that sagittarius can be either a noun or an adjective, and
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.perseus.tufts.edu%2Fhopper%2Fmorph%3Fl%3Dsagittarium%26la%3Dla%23lexicon&data=04%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C387e07dc331b47de12cc08d9ea8789e8%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637798691143327708%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=mYUPLpLgw9fMgQNB1A2pOivEp6T%2FqyG4AxK1iPnDWhs%3D&reserved=0
shows that sagittarium can be either a noun or an adjective, but gives no response at all for sagittaria.

The point is, there are resources, but they must be viewed with some circumspection, as they often conflict with one another, or even internally. This is one of the main reason I advocate making lists of actual published names available giving definitive statements of these parameters, rather than compelling taxonomists to do the work themselves; depending on one's training and one's sources, the conclusions will often be inconsistent or contradictory, and that is no help to the community.

Peace,

--
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
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