From: mdhangton@gmail.com
Brian M. Scott wrote:
> On Sun, 10 May 2015 20:02:23 -0400, William Vetter
> wrote
> in in
> rec.arts.sf.composition:
>
>> Brian M. Scott wrote:
>
>>> On Sun, 10 May 2015 13:15:00 -0400, William Vetter
>>> wrote
>>> in in
>>> rec.arts.sf.composition:
>
>>>>>>> aileuromorphic
>
>>> Should be , to match other similar
>>> compounds, or , if you want to use a more
>>> accurate transcription of Greek αἴλουρος (ailouros) as
>>> basis; there’s no basis for .
>
>> Nevertheless, the only way I've seen it spelled in print
>> has eu in it.
>
> Then you’ve only seen it used by people who didn’t know
> what they were doing.
>
There are a lot of big words that are wrong in relation to their Greek
or Latin roots, but have become impossible to change. Epitaxial should
be epitactic, but you would never be allowed to publish a book with
*Epitactic Growth* on the cover.
>>>> Some of them are not in 2nd Ed. OED., but there are no
>>>> subsitutes.
>
>>> The OED has in lieu of the more recent
>>> . The only one that it lacks altogether is
>>> , the OED does have its Latinate
>>> counterpart, .
>
>> When I look feliform up, it doesn't say anything like
>> "(esp. in relation to a deity)," so I don't think it's
>> equivalent.
>
> Of course it is: both mean simply ‘cat-shaped’. The term
> has no particular connection with deities.
>
>>>> The last 2 refer to parts of extended hind foot of
>>>> animals of order Carnivora.
>
>>> Among other things. Both metatarsals and metacarpals are
>>> metapodia, and mammals in general (and some reptiles) have
>>> calcanea.
>
>> Metapodia is the _collection_ of foot-bones that, when
>> elongated by Evolution, result in the long hind feet of
>> carnivores, and also the only word for the part of the
>> hind feet exclusive of the toes, which toes digitigrade
>> animals walk upon.
>
> It’s simply the plural of metapodium and can be used as
> such. Your metatarsals are metapodia. The posterior lobes
> of mollusks are metapodia.
>
>> Calcaneus is the name of the heelbone, and also a word
>> for heel, the only effective word for the heel-end of
>> the metapodia.
>
> Hardly, as your sentence itself demonstrates.
>
>> I have a bunch of dictionary programs that are supposed
>> to be based on the OED database. One of them is similar
>> to the 2nd OED. The closest word it gave me was
>> "metapodialia", as the collection of foot-bones. But it
>> is not the word for the part of the animals' foot that,
>> in comparative anatomy, is linked to its mode of hunt,
>> its speed and gait, its posture, its aboreality, the
>> grasping ability.... The development of the musculature
>> and connection points of the ligaments in the metapodia
>> is involved with the degree to which the toes will curl.
>> So the sense of metapodia is important.
>
> It has a number of senses, and the sense in which you
> appear to be using it is by no means the most salient.
>
>>>> The 1st is similar in meaning to teliomorphic and is used
>>>> to describe godesses Bastet and Bubasis.
>
>>> Bubastis was an Egyptian city; its Egyptian name
>>> means ‘House of Bast’, and it was,
>>> unsurprisingly a centre of worship of Bast(et).
>>> is a later form of her name, with a redundant feminine
>>> suffix <-et> -- the <-t> of was already a feminine
>>> suffix -- but I believe that it’s the one most often used
>>> by Egyptologists; in fiction I’ve more often.
>
>> In my understanding, Bubastis is the form of Bastet that
>> was adopted into the Isis cult exported to the Roman
>> Empire, in that case considered to be an incarnation of
>> Isis.
>
> The Hellenized form of the city-name was indeed sometimes
> applied to the goddess.
>
>> Bastet was the cat-headed goddess in Ancient Egypt, often
>> depicted with her four kittens at her feet.
>
> Grandmothers. Eggs. Actually, she began as a lioness
> deity, not a cat deity.
>
>> Bubastis was associated with cats in the later Isis cult;
>> they were her symbol and black was her special color.
>> This cult persisted into Medieval times especially among
>> rural folk, and eventually the Catholic Church
>> identified it with witchcraft, launching an inquisition
>> to stamp it out.
>
> Evidence, please.
>
>> This witch hunt decided cats, especially black ones, as
>> demons and witches' familiars, the burning of cats and
>> their owners...the extermination of village cats
>> throughout Christendom was a factor that enabled the
>> Black Plague.
>
> It may have made some contribution, but not a very large
> one. At this point it appears that the primary impulse was
> climate change in Asia.
>
These are the arguments in _Classical Cats_, by Donald Engels. It is a
book that tries to infer the roles of kitties in human life in the
Classical world by various means, even from the frequency of the
sex-linked red allele for coat color in the Loire Vallley. He is the
one who uses "aileuromorphic" throughout to discuss the goddess
"Bastet" and her images in artifacts of the Ancient World. I don't
actually remember how he spelled Bubastis. I've used your spelling
above. I have a lot of PDF files on my hard drive, and I'm almost sure
I have one of _Classical Cats_, but I can't find it.
I have read a couple of his books..._Alexander the Great, and the
Logistics of the Macedonian Army_. You can read his books and write
him some angry letters, if you want.
I do have _The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives_ here, which uses
"metapodia" and "calcaneus" in the ways you say are wrong above. These
fellows who reconstruct animals and speculate one animals based on
their skeletons will talk about the bones and the fleshed-out
representations and the anatomy of extant animals with the same
language.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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