Agricultural English by Georgeta Rata, Florin Sala, Ionel Samfira

Agricultural English
Agricultural English
Edited by
Georgeta RaĠă, Florin Sala and Ionel Samfira

Agricultural English,
Edited by Georgeta RaĠă, Florin Sala and Ionel Samfira
This book first published 2012
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2012 by Georgeta RaĠă, Florin Sala and Ionel Samfira and contributors
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-3890-X, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-3890-0

TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables.............................................................................................. xi
List of Illustrations ................................................................................... xiii
Foreword ................................................................................................... xv
Chapter One: Morphology
Practices Associated with Sustainable Agricultural Systems

Anica Perkoviü, Georgeta RaĠă and Florin Sala .......................................... 3
The Vocabulary of Ecology

Georgeta RaĠă ............................................................................................ 11
Compounds with and Derivatives of Cereal Names

Georgeta RaĠă and Laura-Constantina Micu ............................................. 19
Derivatives with -cide in the Vocabulary of Pesticides

Georgeta RaĠă and Anica Perkoviü............................................................ 25
Combining Forms: Bi(o)-

Alina-Andreea Dragoescu and Diana-Andreea Boc-SînmărghiĠan ........... 31
Combining Forms: Eco-

Anica Perkoviü and Georgeta RaĠă............................................................ 41
Compounds with Culture

Georgeta RaĠă, Ionel Samfira and Anica Perkoviü .................................... 49
Compounds with Tree

Georgeta RaĠă ............................................................................................ 53
English Verbs of Animal Communication: A Possible Classification

Georgeta RaĠă and Elena-Mirela Samfira.................................................. 57
vi Table of Contents
Chapter Two: Syntax
Agricultural Entomology: -ing Forms

Georgeta RaĠă ............................................................................................ 65
‘Verbal N + N’ Compounds in Agricultural Entomology

Georgeta RaĠă and Laura-Constantina Micu ............................................. 69
‘N + V-ing + N’ Compounds in Agricultural Entomology

Chapter Three: Lexis
Precision Agriculture Terminology

Georgeta RaĠă, Florin Sala and Anica Perkoviü ........................................ 83
Names of Weeds
The Vocabulary of Irrigation

Georgeta RaĠă, Cornelia Petroman and Ioan Petroman ............................. 95
‘Berry’ or ‘Berrylike’
Georgeta RaĠă and Anica Perkoviü.......................................................... 103
Special Types of Tourism: Tourism in the Countryside

Georgeta RaĠă, Anica Perkoviü and Ioan Petroman................................. 109
Chapter Four: Semantics
Language Traps: Vegetable or Fruit?

Oana Boldea ............................................................................................ 119
Homonymy and Synonymy

Oana Boldea ............................................................................................ 127
Defining Concepts and Practices Associated with Sustainable

Agricultural Systems
Agricultural English vii
Homonymy: Corn
Georgeta RaĠă .......................................................................................... 143
Coffee
Cornelia Petroman, Ioan Petroman and Snježana Toliü .......................... 149
Semantic Fields: Beef

Anica Perkoviü and Georgeta RaĠă.......................................................... 155
Chapter Five: Pragmatics
English Idioms Containing Names of Plants

Oana Boldea ............................................................................................ 165
Universal vs. Culture-Specific in the Discourse of Academic

and Professional Rhetoric
Georgeta RaĠă, Ioan Petroman and Scott Hollifield................................. 169
Creative Metaphors in Poisonous Plant Names

Alina-Andreea Dragoescu and Petru Dragoescu ..................................... 177
Chapter Six: Etymology
Words of Latin Origin in Botanical English

Georgeta RaĠă and Scott Hollifield.......................................................... 189
Seeds and Seedling

Georgeta RaĠă, Ionel Samfira and Anica Perkoviü .................................. 203
Common Names of Plant Diseases: The Latin Heritage

Georgeta RaĠă and Camelia Giuchici ...................................................... 209
Spices
Astrid-Simone Groszler........................................................................... 215
Land Measurement Units

Georgeta RaĠă and Florin Sala................................................................. 223
Words of Latin Origin in the English of Zoology

Georgeta RaĠă .......................................................................................... 229
viii Table of Contents
Chapter Seven: A Comparative Approach
Agricultural Terminology in Multicultural Communication

Andreea Varga......................................................................................... 249
Romanian Agricultural Terms and Their English Equivalents

Oana Boldea ............................................................................................ 255
English Loanwords in the Romanian Land Improvement Vocabulary

Agricultural Entomology in English and Romanian:

Colour and/or Coloration?
Georgeta RaĠă and Elena-Mirela Samfira................................................ 265
Names of Fodder Plants in English and Romanian

Oana Boldea ............................................................................................ 269
English and Romanian Names of Plants in Food Additives Guides

Oana Boldea ............................................................................................ 273
English Plants Names and Their German Counterparts

Astrid-Simone Groszler and Biljana Ivanovska ...................................... 279
English Plant Names and Their Romanian Counterparts

Astrid-Simone Groszler and Biljana Ivanovska ...................................... 285
Common Names of Yellow Wild Flowers in English and Romanian

Oana Boldea ............................................................................................ 291
True and False Berries in English and Romanian

Georgeta RaĠă .......................................................................................... 299
Metaphors in Compound English and Romanian Plant Names

Alina-Andreea Dragoescu ....................................................................... 305
Names of Pests in English and Romanian

Oana Boldea ............................................................................................ 317
Common Names of Plant Diseases in English and French

Georgeta RaĠă, Ionel Samfira and Camelia Giuchici............................... 321
Agricultural English ix
Common Names of Plant Diseases in Romanian and English

Georgeta RaĠă, Maria-Adriana Proca and Camelia Giuchici................... 327
Dog Breeds in Croatian and Romanian

Anica Perkoviü, Georgeta RaĠă and Martina Perkoviü ............................ 331
Verbs of Animal Communication in English, French, and Romanian

Georgeta RaĠă and Iasmina Iosim............................................................ 337
English Animal Idioms and Their Romanian Equivalents (I)

Andreea Varga and Astrid-Simone Groszler ........................................... 343
English Animal Idioms and Their Romanian Equivalents (II)

Astrid-Simone Groszler........................................................................... 347
English Loanwords in the Romanian of Agri-Tourism Internet Sites

Georgeta RaĠă, Cornelia Petroman and Ioan Petroman ........................... 355
Contributors............................................................................................. 359
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1-1. Compounds with cereal names .........................................................21

Table 4-1. Fruits traditionally considered vegetables .....................................123
Table 6-1. Types of integration of scientific names of plant diseases
in English, French, and Romanian ............................................................213
Table 7-1. Prepositions and their occurrence in agricultural terms ..............257
Table 7-2. Definitions of colour ........................................................................266
Table 7-3. Definitions of coloration .................................................................268
Table 7-4. Dog breed names borrowed by both Croatian and Romanian ...333
Table 7-5. Dog breed names borrowed only by Romanian ...........................334
Table 7-6. Dog breed names borrowed by neither Croatian nor
Romanian ......................................................................................................335
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1-1. Number of occurrences of cereals names in noun phrases: 28% corn,
17% barley, 12% rice and wheat, 10% maize and rye, 7% oat, 2% millet and
sorghum ............................................................................................................23
Figure 1-2. Number of occurrences of other nouns in cereals names: 11% grass,
10% bread, flour and meal, 7% cake and sugar, 5% bird, coal, corn, husk, oil,
starch, water, weevil, and whiskey ....................................................................24
Figure 1-3. Share of derivatives in -cide in the English of pesticides: 56% ‘the act
of killing a pest’, 26% ‘a substance that kills a pest’, 18% ‘the act of killing a
pest’ + ‘a substance that kills a pest’.................................................................29
Figure 1-4. Share of the English verbs of animal communication: 60% - Anglo-
Saxon etymon; 21% - imitative; 19% - borrowings ..........................................61
Figure 2-1. Distribution of -ing nouns and adjectives in agricultural entomology:
65% nouns, 35% adjectives...............................................................................67
Figure 2-2. ‘Verbal N + N’ Compounds in Agricultural Entomology: 73%
Participial Adjectives; 23% Verbal Nouns; 4% Participial Adjectives/Verbal
Nouns…. ...........................................................................................................73
Figure 2-3. Number of occurrences of the verbs used attributively in pest nouns:
12 eat; 5 bite and suck; 4 cut, roll, and spin; 3 weave; 2 bore, love, make,
mine, and spot; 1 cast, feed, fold, gnaw, harvest, mimic, pierce, poison,
silver, and web ..................................................................................................79
Figure 3-1. Names of weeds: 12% weed names designating weeds; 39% weed
names not designating weeds; 49% no-weed names designating weeds ...........92
Figure 3-2. Share of the terms specific to the English of irrigation: 32% types of
“devices”, 22% irrigation systems, 11% “organisations”, 8% irrigation projects,
5% methods of irrigation, 22% other cases .....................................................101
Figure 3-3. True and false berries: 91% true berry plants, 9% berry-like plants ...106
Figure 4-1. The concentric meanings of the word “vegetable”: a – plant, in general;
b – (herbaceous) plant whose parts are sued as food; c – plant part ................121
Figure 4-2. Functions of coffee: 51% - as a noun, 41% - as a noun modifier, 6% -
used attributively, 2% - special uses ...............................................................153
Figure 4-3. Semantic sub-fields of beef: 59% - dishes, 29% - processing, 12% -
animal husbandry ............................................................................................161
Figure 6-1. Share of land measurement units after ‘meaning’: 34% ‘amount’, 4%
‘instrument’, 62% unknown meaning .............................................................227
Figure 6-2. English formations in the English of Zoology: 60% backformations,
40% derivatives, 0% compounds, 0% portmanteaus …..................................244
Figure 7-1. Prepositions and their occurrence in agricultural terms: 311 de, 34 în,
27 cu, 18 la, 10 prin, 5 din, 5 pe, 5 pentru ......................................................258
Figure 7-2. Common names of plant diseases in English and French: 1 - plant
pathology; 2 - pathology; 3 - generic; 4 - descriptive/explanatory..................325
xiv List of Illustrations
Figure 7-3. Comparison between English, French, and Romanian verbs of animal
communication from the point of view of their attested etymon (1),
derivational character (2), and imitative character (3).....................................341
Figure 7-4. English Animal Idioms in Romanian: 20% - no Romanian counterparts;
34% - Romanian counterparts containing the same animal names; 23% -
Romanian counterparts not containing animal names; 23% - Romanian
counterparts containing different animal names..............................................353
FOREWORD
Agricultural English is a collection of essays on the English of

Agriculture. It would appeal to agriculturists, animal breeders,
lexicographers, professors, researchers, students, and translators from
Croatian-, English-, French-, German-, and Romanian-speaking countries,
active in their own countries or abroad.
The approach is a linguistic one with focus on stylistic features and
technical lexis. The different aspects of the English used in the field of
agriculture (agricultural practices, agricultural systems) and in some fields
related to agriculture (agricultural zoology, agri-tourism, biology, botany,
ecology, entomology, gastronomy, land measurement, plant pathology,
and zoology) are analysed from several points of view.
Any language for specific purposes relies on several morphological
ways of building up its own inventory of terms – abbreviation, affixation
(prefixation, suffixation, and multiple affixation), backformation, change
of morphological accent, composition / compounding, conscious / deliberate
coinage, contraction, conversion, corruption, deflection, derivation from
proper or personal names, folk / popular etymology. Only two of these
procedures seem to be extremely productive in Agricultural English:
affixation – the vocabulary of pesticides analysed by Georgeta RaĠă and
Anica Perkoviü; combination / compounding – some of the practices
associated with sustainable agricultural systems analysed by Anica
Perkoviü, Georgeta RaĠă and Florin Sala, the combining forms with bi(o)-
analysed by Alina-Andreea Dragoescu and Diana-Andreea Boc-
SînmărghiĠan, the combining forms with eco- analysed by Anica Perkoviü
and Georgeta RaĠă, the combining forms with culture analysed by
Georgeta RaĠă, Ionel Samfira and Anica Perkoviü, and the combining
forms with tree analysed by Georgeta RaĠă; or a combination of the two –
the vocabulary of ecology analysed by Georgeta RaĠă and the cereals
names analysed by Georgeta RaĠă and Laura-Constantina Micu. The
English verbs of animal communication analysed by Georgeta RaĠă and
Elena-Mirela Samfira are, no matter the source, the imitative /
onomatopoeic.
From a syntactical point of view, all three teams of authors focused on
agricultural entomology. Thus, Georgeta RaĠă focused on verbal nouns in -
ing, Georgeta RaĠă and Laura-Constantina Micu analysed ‘verbal Noun +
xvi Foreword
Noun’ compounds containing participial adjectives, verbal nouns, or

having both values, while Anica Perkoviü and Georgeta RaĠă focused on
the ‘Noun + Verbal nouns in -ing + Noun’ names of pests.
As far as the lexicology and lexicography are concerned, the authors
focused on the terminology of precision agriculture (Georgeta RaĠă, Florin
Sala and Anica Perkoviü), on the names of weeds (Anica Perkoviü and
Georgeta RaĠă), on the vocabulary of irrigation (Georgeta RaĠă, Cornelia
Petroman and Ioan Petroman), on the names of fruits ending in -berry
(Georgeta RaĠă and Anica Perkoviü), and on the various types of tourism
practiced in the countryside (Georgeta RaĠă, Anica Perkoviü and Ioan
Petroman).
Semantics is represented by papers in which the focus is on
homonymy (Georgeta RaĠă), homonymy and synonymy (Oana Boldea),
lexical meaning (Oana Boldea), semantic fields (Anica Perkoviü and
Georgeta RaĠă), specific meaning (Georgeta RaĠă and Anica Perkoviü;
Cornelia Petroman, Ioan Petroman and Snježana Toliü).
Three papers deal with pragmatics issues. Thus, Georgeta RaĠă, Ioan
Petroman and Scott Hollifield focus on the academic discourse and on
professional rhetoric in the field of botanical nomenclature, Oana Boldea
analyses English idioms containing names of plants, and Alina-Andreea
Dragoescu and Petru Dragoescu focus on creative metaphors in the
naming of plants.
Etymology is very much under scrutiny since it is an important tool in
understanding terminology. The Latin heritage is studied by Georgeta RaĠă
and Scott Hollifield in botanical English, by Georgeta RaĠă and Camelia
Giuchici in the field of plant pathology, and by Georgeta RaĠă in
zoological English, while Georgeta RaĠă, Ionel Samfira and Anica
Perkoviü analyse the vocabulary of seeds and seedling, Astrid-Simone
Groszler analyses the names of spices, and Georgeta RaĠă and Florin Sala
analyse the vocabulary of land measurement units – all from an
etymological perspective.
The contrastive approach is illustrated by a large number of essays.
Andreea Varga writes about agricultural terminology in the context of
multicultural communication. English, Croatian and Romanian are
compared by Anica Perkoviü, Georgeta RaĠă and Martina Perkoviü (who
analyse names of dog breeds); English and French are compared by
Georgeta RaĠă, Ionel Samfira and Camelia Giuchici (who write about
names of plant diseases); English, French and Romanian are compared by
Georgeta RaĠă and Iasmina Iosim (who analyse the verbs of animal
communication); English and German are compared by Astrid-Simone
Groszler and Biljana Ivanovska (who write about plant names); English
Agricultural English xvii
and Romanian are compared by Georgeta RaĠă and Anica Perkoviü (who
focus on the land improvement vocabulary), by Georgeta RaĠă and Elena-
Mirela Samfira (who analyse agricultural entomology), by Oana Boldea
(who studies names of fodder plants, names of wild flowers, names of
plants in food additive guides, names of pests), by Astrid-Simone Groszler
and Biljana Ivanovska (who focus on plant names), by Georgeta RaĠă
(who deals with true and false “berries”), by Andreea Varga and Astrid-
Simone Groszler (who deal with animal idioms), by Astrid-Simone
Groszler (who focuses on animal idioms), and by Georgeta RaĠă, Cornelia
Petroman and Ioan Petroman (who study the Romanian of agri-tourism
Internet sites); Romanian – English are compared by Oana Boldea (who
writes about agricultural terms), by Alina-Andreea Dragoescu (who
studies metaphorical plant names), and by Georgeta RaĠă, Maria-Adriana
Proca and Camelia Giuchici (who write about names of plant diseases).
The book would appeal to academic teaching staff, researchers and
students in the field of agriculture and of some related fields –
agricultural zoology, agri-tourism, biology, botany, ecology, entomology,
gastronomy, land measurement, plant pathology, and zoology – as well
as in the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP).
The Editors
CHAPTER ONE
MORPHOLOGY
PRACTICES ASSOCIATED WITH SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS
ANICA PERKOVIû, GEORGETA RAğĂ

AND FLORIN SALA
Introduction
Sustainable agriculture has addressed, ever since the concept appeared,
ecological, economic, social, and philosophical issues in its battle against
the prevailing agricultural system, variously called “conventional
farming”, “modern agriculture”, or “industrial farming” that, it is true, has
delivered tremendous gains in productivity and efficiency, but also a series
of concerns. If agriculture profoundly affects many ecological systems
through the negative effects of current practices, if economic and social
problems associated with agriculture cannot be separated from external
economic and social pressures because of the barriers to a sustainable and
equitable food supply system, if there are potential hazards tied to sub-
therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal production, and pesticide and
nitrate contamination of water and food in humans, if the challenge of
defining and dealing with the problems associated with today’s food
production system is inherently laden with controversy and emotion,
things do not get simpler with the blooming of new agricultural concepts
and practices whose definitions are inevitably compromises among
differing world views, sets of values, etc. One thing is sure: we can
analyse the terms (words or phrases) defining them to make them easier to
understand.
Material and Methods

We have inventoried 79 such concepts and practices (some of which
are synonyms); we then selected only the words formed with combining
forms. The terms thus selected were analysed from the point of view of
their structure (combining form and basic word) to see if we can draw
any conclusion at all about the trends in modern agricultural nomenclature.
4 Practices Associated with Sustainable Agricultural Systems
Results and Discussion

Of the 79 concepts and practices associated with sustainable agricultural
systems, 9 are designated by words formed with combining forms (11%),
while the rest are compounds with 2, 3 or more elements (89%).
A combining form is, in grammar, ‘a linguistic form that occurs only
in combination with other forms’ (WEUDEL) (the definition does not
mention if it is placed before or after the basic word), or ‘a bound form (or
bound morpheme) used in conjunction with another linguistic element in
the formation of a word’ (Chalker & Weiner 1994).
In word formation, a combining form may conjoin with:
- an independent word (mini- + skirt);

- another combining form (photo- + -graphy), or
- an affix (cephal- + -ic).
This distinguishes it from an affix (prefix or suffix) that can be added to

either a free word or a combining form but not solely to another affix
(WEUDEL), adjusting the sense of a base (e.g. ex-, un-) or changing the
word-class of the base (e.g. -ation, -ise) (Chalker & Weiner 1994).
There are three types of combining forms:
- forms borrowed from Greek or Latin that are derivatives of

independent nouns, adjectives, or verbs in those languages: these
combining forms, used in the formation of learned coinages, often
semantically parallel independent words in English (e.g. cardio- in
relation to heart, -phile in relation to lover) and usually appear only in
combination with other combining forms of Greek or Latin origin
(bibliophile and not*bookophile);
- forms of free-standing English words: such combining forms usually
have only single, restricted senses of the free words, and may differ
from the words phonetically (-land, -man, -proof, -wide, -worthy);
- forms extracted from existing free words and used as bound forms,
typically maintaining the meaning of the free words, or some facet of
them (-aholic, -gate, heli-, mini-, -orama, para-).
The newly-formed words in our corpus are as follows:
- agrobiodiversity [?1997] (< agro- < Gk agrós ‘tilled land’, ‘a

combining form meaning ‘field’, ‘soil’, ‘crop production’ used in the
formation of compound words’ + bio- ‘a combining form meaning
Anica Perkoviü, Georgeta RaĠă and Florin Sala 5
‘life’ occurring in loanwords from Greek and used in the formation of

compound words’ + diversity ‘the state or fact of being diverse’) is
defined as ‘a fundamental feature of farming systems around the
world’ encompassing many types of biological resources tied to
agriculture, such as: genetic resources (the essential living materials of
plants and animals); edible plants and crops (including traditional
varieties, cultivars, hybrids, and other genetic material developed
breeders); livestock (small and large, lineal breeds or thoroughbreds)
and freshwater fish; soil organisms vital to soil fertility, structure,
quality, and soil health; naturally occurring insects, bacteria, and fungi
that control insect pests and diseases of domesticated plants and
animals; agroecosystem components and types (poly-cultural /
monocultural, small / large scale, rain fed / irrigated, etc.)
indispensable for nutrient cycling, stability, and productivity; ‘wild’
resources (species and elements) of natural habitats and landscapes that
can provide services (e.g. pest control and ecosystem stability) to
agriculture (Thrupp in Gold 1999);
- agroecology [?1987] (< agro- < Gk agrós ‘tilled land’, ‘a combining
form meaning ‘field’, ‘soil’, ‘crop production’ used in the formation of
compound words’ + ecology ‘the branch of biology dealing with the
relations and interactions between organisms and their environment,
including other organisms’) has a broad definition implying a number
of features about society and production that go well beyond the limits
of the agricultural field ‘a more environmentally and socially sensitive
approach to agriculture, one that focuses not only on production, but
also on the ecological sustainability of the productive system’, and a
narrow one ‘the study of purely ecological phenomena within the crop
field, such as predator/prey relations, or crop / weed competition’
(Hecht, in Gold 1999);
- bio-control [1920-1925] (< bio- ‘a combining form meaning ‘life’
occurring in loanwords from Greek and used in the formation of
compound words’ + control ‘prevention of the flourishing or spread of
something undesirable’) is defined by language dictionaries as ‘the
control of pests by interference with their ecological status, as by
introducing a natural enemy or a pathogen into the environment’
(WEUDEL) or as ‘man’s use of a specially chosen living organism
(predator, parasite, or disease) to control a particular pest (weeds, plant
pathogens, vertebrates and insects)’ (Orr, in Gold 1999);
- biodiversity [?] (< bio- ‘a combining form meaning ‘life’ occurring in
loanwords from Greek and used in the formation of compound words’
+ diversity ‘the state or fact of being diverse’) is, at its simplest level,
‘the sum total of all the plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms in
the world, or in a particular area; all of their individual variation; and
all the interactions between them (Raven, in Gold 1999);
- biodynamics [?](< bio- ‘a combining form meaning ‘life’ occurring in
loanwords from Greek and used in the formation of compound words’
+ dynamics ‘the branch of mechanics that deals with the motion and
equilibrium of systems under the action of forces, usually from outside
the system’) is defined by language dictionaries as ‘the branch of
biology dealing with energy or the activity of living organisms’
(WEUDEL) or as ‘a biodynamic method in which certain herbal
preparations that guide the decomposition processes in manures and
compost are central’ (1985-1986 Year End Report, in Gold 1999);
- biotechnology [1940-1945] (< bio- ‘a combining form meaning ‘life’
occurring in loanwords from Greek and used in the formation of
compound words’ + technology ‘the branch of knowledge that deals
with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation
with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as
industrial art, engineering, applied science, and pure science’) is
defined by language dictionaries as ‘the use of living organisms or
other biological systems in the manufacture of drugs or other products
or fro environmental management, as in waste recycling (micro-
organisms to degrade oil slicks or organic waste, genetically
engineered bacteria to produce human hormones, and monoclonal
antibodies to identify antigens)’ (WEUDEL). More recently, products
such as plants engineered for herbicide tolerance or insect resistance,
and bacteria engineered to produce drugs for livestock may point to
reduced chemical use and other sustainable applications in agriculture
(Shaping an Agriculture for the Twenty-First Century: Biotechnology,
in Gold, 1999);
- mini-farming [1995] (< mini- ‘a combining form obtained by
shortening of miniature, minimal, or minimum, with the meanings of
‘small or reduced size in comparison with others of its kind; limited ins
cope, intensity, or duration’ + farming ‘the business of operating a
farm’) is defined as ‘a production system (including double-dug, raised
beds, intensive planting, composting, companion planting, and whole
system synergy) that makes it possible for one person to grow all of his
or her family’s food using truly sustainable methods that maintain the
fertility of the soil without relying on non-renewable resources like
petrochemicals or imported organic matter’ (Jeavons in Gold 1999).
Two other coinages have been formed with combining forms that have
not yet acquired this status, but that behave as such:
- no-till(age) [1965-1970] (< no ‘used before a noun to convey the

opposite of the noun’s meaning’ + tillage ‘the operation, practice, or
art of tilling land’) is defined by language dictionaries as ‘the planting
of crops by direct seeding without ploughing, using herbicides as
necessary to control weeds’ (WEUDEL) or as ‘a specific type of
conservation tillage (a broad range of soil tillage systems that leave
residue cover on the soil surface, substantially reducing the effects of
soil erosion from wind and water, minimising nutrient loss, decreased
water storage capacity, crop damage, and decreased farmability,
leaving the soil undisturbed from harvest to planting except for nutrient
amendment, and accomplishing weed control primarily with
herbicides, limited cultivation, and, in more sustainable systems, with
cover crops’) (Conservation Technology Information Centre, in Gold
1999);
- permaculture [late 1970s] (< perm(a)- ‘permanent’ + culture ‘the art
or practice of cultivating the soil; tillage’) is defined as ‘an alternative
sustainable agriculture system emphasising the location of each
element in a landscape, and the evolution of landscape over time, and
aiming at producing an efficient, low-maintenance integration of
plants, animals, people and structure, etc., applied at the scale of a
home garden, all the way through to a large farm’ (Quinney, Jeeves,
and Mollison in Gold 1999).
The most productive combining form is bio- (4 occurrences), followed by

agro- (2 occurrences) and mini- (1 occurrence). Thus, there are 2
combining forms borrowed from Greek (bio- and agro-) with 6
occurrences (67%), and 1 combining form extracted from an existing free
word, mini- (1 occurrence). Though they have not yet acquired the status
of combining form, no- (1 occurrence) and perm(a)- (1 occurrence)
behave as such (22%). These combining forms have conjoined only with
independent words – control, culture, diversity (2 occurrences), dynamics,
ecology, farming, technology, and tillage – closely related to agricultural
practices, and never with other combining forms or with affixes.
Conclusions
All these concepts and practices have very literal meanings that have
been coloured by their historic use and practitioners’ experiences. Such as
they are, these terms designate concepts and practices that simply defy
definition, but that have provided ‘talking points’ not only for
agriculturists, but also for linguists. Most of the newly-formed words are,
naturally, learned coinages (67%) that continue the long-lasting tradition
of renewing scientific vocabulary “to supply new needs for technical
vocabulary that arose partly from the revival of learning in western Europe
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries known as the Renaissance, and
partly from the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century and its
scientific spin-offs” (Carstairs-McCarthy 2002). But the large share of
words formed with combining forms extracted from existing free words
or with developing combining forms (33%) shows that agricultural
English can also appeal to unorthodox means of enriching its vocabulary
in its seek for new words to designate new realities in agriculture, i.e. new
agricultural concepts and practices associated with sustainable agricultural
systems, proving, once again, “the versatility and vigour of English word-
formation processes” (Carstairs-McCarthy 2002).
References
Adams, Valerie. (1987). An Introduction to Modern English Word-
formation. London – New York: Longman.
Carstairs-McCarthy, A. (2002). An Introduction to English Morphology.
Words and Their Structure. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Chalker, Sylvia & Weiner, E. (1994). The Oxford Dictionary of English
Grammar. London - New York - Sydney - Toronto: BCA.
Gold, Mary. (1999). Sustainable Agriculture: Definitions and Terms.
Online: http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic.
LeviĠchi, L. & Bantaú, A. (1995). DicĠionar englez-român. [English-
Romanian Dictionary]. Bucureúti: Ed. Teora.
Perkoviü, Anica & RaĠă, Georgeta. (2006). On Word Formation in the
English of Agriculture: Practices Associated with Sustainable
Agricultural Systems. Lucrări útiinĠifice. Facultatea de Agricultură
XXXVIII: 475-480.
Plag, I. (2002). Word-formation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Sheehan, M. J. (2000). Word Parts Dictionary. Standard and Reverse
Listings of Prefixes, Suffixes, Roots and Combining Forms. Jefferson,
NC – London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.

Štekauer, P. & Lieber, Rochelle. (2005). Handbook of Word-Formation.
Dordrecht: Springer.
Webster Encyclopaedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language.
(1996). New York: Gramercy Books. (WEUDEL)
THE VOCABULARY OF ECOLOGY
GEORGETA RAğĂ

Words can take a new form and have a new grammatical function through
one of the following transformations: abbreviation, affixation
(prefixation, suffixation, and multiple affixation), backformation,
change of morphological accent, composition, conscious / deliberate
coinage, contraction, conversion, corruption, deflection, derivation
from proper or personal names, folk-etymology (LeviĠchi 1970). The
focus here is on transformations of these types that considerably enriched
contemporary English. Our analysis of the English of ecology has been
made on a corpus of English words and phrases used in ecology. To do so,
we have inventoried terms specific to the English of ecology in some of
the most comprehensive encyclopaedias and dictionaries of the world, and
in some basic works of ecology. We then have tried to see how these terms
formed.

1. Affixation. An affix is, in grammar, ‘a bound element, as a prefix or
suffix, added to a base or stem to form a fresh stem or a word, as -ed
added to want to form wanted, or im- added to possible to form
impossible’ (RHDEL).
1.1. Prefixation. A prefix is, in grammar, ‘an affix placed before a
base or another prefix, as un- in unkind, un- and re- in unrewarding’
(RHDEL). Prefixes productive in the English of ecology are of different
origins (Latin, Greek, Middle English), and form both nouns and
adjectives. The only Noun-forming prefix is of Latin origin: trans- ‘a
prefix occurring in loan words from Latin (transcend, transfix); on this
model used with the meaning ‘across’, ‘beyond’, ‘through’, ‘changing
thoroughly’, ‘transverse’, in combination with elements of any origin:
transempirical, transvalue’: transpiration (1545-1555, trans- + L
spiration-) ‘Bot. the passage of water through a plant from the roots
12 The Vocabulary of Ecology
through the vascular system to the atmosphere’ (RHDEL), and ‘loss of

water vapour from a plant to the outside atmosphere’ (Smith & Smith
1998).
1.2. Suffixation. A suffix is, in grammar, ‘an affix that follows the
element to which it is added, as -ly in kindly’ (RHDEL). Suffixes
productive in the English of ecology are of different origins (English,
French, Germanic, Greek, Latin, Middle English, and Romance) and form
both nouns and adjectives.
1.2.1. Noun-Forming Suffixes are of Latin, English, French,
Germanic, Greek, and Romance origins: -ance ‘a [Romance] suffix used
to form nouns either from adjectives in - ant or from verbs’: abundance (<
ME < MF < L abundantia) ‘an extremely plentiful or over sufficient
quantity or supply; affluence, wealth’ (RHDEL), ‘an extremely plentiful or
over sufficient quantity or supply’ (Smith & Smith 1998), ‘the number of
individuals of a species in a given area’ (WCD); -(a)tion ‘a [Latin]
combination of -ate and -ion, used to form nouns from stems in -ate; on
this model, used independently to form nouns from stems of other origin’:
adaptation (< ML adaptation-) ‘Biol. any alteration in the structure or
function of an organism or any of its parts by which the organism becomes
better fitted to survive in its environment; a form of structure modified to
fit changed environment’ (RHDEL), ‘Biol. any alteration in the structure
or function of an organism or any of its parts that results from natural
selection and by which the organism becomes better fitted to survive and
multiply in its environment; a form of structure modified to fit a changed
environment; the ability of a species to survive in a particular ecological
niche, especially because of alterations of form or behaviour brought about
through natural selection’ (Smith & Smith 1998), and ‘a genetically
determined characteristic [behavioural, morphological, or physiological]
that improves an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce under
prevailing environmental conditions’ (WCD); assimilation (< L
assimilation-) ‘Bot. the total process of plant nutrition, including
absorption of external foods and photosynthesis’ (RHDEL), ‘Bot. The total
process of plant nutrition, including photosynthesis and the absorption of
raw materials’ (Smith & Smith 1998), and ‘transformation or
incorporation of a substance by organisms; absorption and conversion of
energy and nutrients into constituents of an organism’ (WCD); (biological
/ ecological or biodiversity / nature / species / wildlife) conservation
(activity / biology / practice or of ecosystems / individuals / populations),
(environment / nature / wildlife) protection; -cy ‘a [Latin] suffix used to
form abstract nouns from adjectives with stems in -t, -te, -tic, and
especially -nt, also forming nouns from other adjectives and from nouns’:
Georgeta RaĠă 13
(nature) conservancy; -ist ‘a suffix of nouns, often accompanying verbs

ending in -ise or nouns ending in -ism, denoting a person who practices or
is concerned with something, or holds certain principles, doctrines, etc.:
conservationist, ecologist, protectionist; -ity ‘a [Latin] suffix used to form
abstract nouns expressing state or condition’: community (< L comunitat-)
‘Ecol. the plant and animal populations occupying a given area’ (RHDEL),
‘Ecol. an assembling if interacting populations occupying a given area’
(Smith & Smith 1998), and ‘a group of interacting plants and animals
inhabiting a given area’ (WCD); -ment ‘a [Romance] suffix of nouns,
often concrete, denoting an action or resulting state, a product, or means’:
environment (1595-1605, environ + -ment) ‘the aggregate of surrounding
things, conditions, or influences’ (RHDEL), ‘the aggregate of all external
and internal conditions affecting the existence, growth, and welfare of
organisms’ (Smith & Smith 1998), and ‘the total surroundings of an
organism, including other plants and animals and those of its own kind’
(WCD).
1.2.2. The only Adjective-forming suffix is of Latin origin: -al ‘a
[Latin] adjectival suffix occurring in loan words from Latin; on this model,
used in the formation of adjectives from other sources’: ecological [as in
ecological action / commandment / complexity / consciousness /
conservation / criterion / culture / education / ethics / ground / knowledge
/ law / management / monitoring / movement / needs / perspectives /
phenomenon / philosophy / policy / process / pyramid / restoration /
retrogression / salvation / science / significance / space / study].
2. Composition is, in grammar, ‘the formation of compounds: the
composition of ‘bootblack’ consists of ‘boot’ and ‘black’’, i.e., of words
‘consisting of two or more parts that are bases, or that include a
combining form and a base (e.g., biochemistry), two combining forms
(e.g., ethnography), or a combining form and a non-inflectional affix
(e.g., aviary, dentoid)’. In everything that follows, only the first part of the
definition will be taken into account – the one referring to the semantic-
grammatical combination of two or more words (also called roots or
stems). Here again, only compound nouns and compound adjectives will
be taken into account, as there are no compound pronouns, verbs, adverbs
or prepositions in our list of the English of ecology words.
2.1. Compound Nouns are extremely numerous in contemporary
English of ecology. They are sometimes written in a single word,
sometimes in words written separately, or separated by means of a hyphen
- and no definite rules can be given in this respect.
The elements compound nouns are formed of are as follows:
- COMBINING FORMS + NOUN: agro- ‘a learned borrowing from

Greek meaning ‘soil’, ‘crop production’ used in the formation of
compound words’: agroecology ‘the branch of biology dealing with
the relations between organisms and their environment’ (RHDEL);
eco- from the Greek oƯko(s) ‘house’: ecodevelopment < eco- [short for
ecology?] a learned borrowing from Greek meaning ‘house’, ‘habitat’
+ development ‘the act or process of developing; progress’ and ‘a
developed state, form, or product’ (RHDEL), ecosystem (eco- +
system) ‘Ecol. a system formed by the interaction of a community of
organisms with their environment’ (RHDEL), ‘Ecol. a system formed
by the interaction of a community of organisms with their
environment’ (Smith & Smith 1998), and ‘the biotic community and its
abiotic environment functioning as a system’ (WCD); ecosophy, a
word developed in the second half of the 20th century (in the 1970’s)
ecosophy < eco- [short for ecology?] a learned borrowing from Greek
meaning ‘house’, ‘habitat’ + -sophy an element occurring in loan
words from Greek [philosophy, theosophy], on this model used with
the meaning ‘science of’ in the formation of compound words
[anthroposophy]’ (RHDEL); homeo- ‘a learned borrowing from Gk
homeo- ‘similar’ used in the formation of compound words:
homeostatic: homeostasis (1925-1930, homeo- + stasis) ‘the tendency
of a system, especially the physiological system of higher animals, to
maintain internal stability, owing to the coordinated response of its
parts to any disruptive situation or stimulus’ (RHDEL), ‘the tendency
of a system, especially the physiological system of higher animals, to
maintain internal stability, owing to the coordinated response of its
parts to any situation or stimulus tending to disturb its normal
condition or function’ (Smith & Smith 1998), and ‘maintenance of
nearly constant conditions in function of an organism or in interaction
among individuals in a population’ (WCD); meta- ‘a learned
borrowing from Greek meaning ‘after’, ‘along’ ‘with’, ‘beyond’,
‘among’, ‘behind’, and often denoting change, used in the formation of
compound words’: metaecology < meta- a learned borrowing from
Greek meaning ‘after’, ‘along with’, ‘beyond’, ‘among’, ‘behind’ and
often denoting change, used in the formation of compound words +
ecology ‘the branch of biology dealing with the relations between
organisms and their environment’ (RHDEL); micro- ‘a learned
borrowing from Greek, where it meant ‘small’: microcosm’:
microclimate (1820-1825, micro- + climate) ‘the climate of a small
area, as of confined spaces such as caves or houses, of plant
communities, or of urban communities’ (RHDEL), ‘the climate of a
Georgeta RaĠă 15
small area, as of confined spaces such as caves or houses

[cryptoclimate], of plant communities, wooded areas, etc.
[phytoclimate] or of urban communities, which may be different from
that in the general region’ (Smith & Smith 1998), and ‘climate on a
very local scale, which differs from the general climate of the area;
influences the presence and distribution of organisms’ (WCD); non- ‘a
combining [Latin] form meaning ‘not’, freely used as an English
formative, usually with a simple negative force as implying mere
negation or absence of something (rather than the opposite or reverse
of it, as often expressed by un-)’: nonecologist < non- ‘a combining
form meaning ‘not’, freely used as an English formative, usually with a
simple negative force as implying mere negation or absence of
something [rather than the opposite or reverse of it, as often expressed
by un-]’ + ecologist [it does not appear in language dictionaries];
photo- ‘a learned borrowing from Greek meaning ‘light’:
photoelectric: photosynthesis (1895-1900, photo- + synthesis) ‘Biol.
the synthesis of complex organic materials, especially carbohydrates,
from carbon dioxide, water, and inorganic salts, using sunlight as the
source of energy and with the aid of a catalyst, such as chlorophyll’
(RHDEL), ‘Biol. the synthesis of complex organic materials, especially
carbohydrates, from carbon dioxide, water, and inorganic salts, using
sunlight as the source of energy and with the aid of chlorophyll and
associated pigments’ (Smith & Smith 1998), and ‘use of light energy
by plants to convert carbon dioxide and water into simple sugars’
(WCD); -vore ‘a learned borrowing from Latin meaning ‘eating’, used
in the formation of compound words: carnivore’: detritivore (1975-
1980, detrit(us) + i + -vore) ‘Ecol. an organism that uses organic
waste as a food source, as certain insects’ (Smith & Smith 1998),
‘organism that feeds on dead organic matter; usually applies to
detritus-feeding organisms other than bacteria and fungi’ (WCD);
- COMBINING FORM + COMBINING FORM: eco- from the Greek
oƯko(s) ‘house’+ -logy ‘a combining form used in the names of
sciences or bodies of knowledge: palaeontology, theology’: ecology
‘the branch of biology dealing with the relations between organisms
and their environment’ (RHDEL), ‘the branch of biology dealing with
the relations and interactions between organisms and their
environment, including other organisms’ (Smith & Smith 1998), and
‘the study of relations between organisms and their natural
environment functioning as a system’ (WCD); meso- ‘a learned
borrowing from Greek meaning ‘middle’ used in the formation of
compound words: mesocephalic’ + -phyll ‘final element of compound
words: chlorophyll’: mesophyll (1830-1840, meso- + -phyll) ‘Bot. the

parenchyma, usually containing chlorophyll, that forms the interior
parts of a leaf’ (RHDEL), ‘Bot. the parenchyma, usually containing
chlorophyll, that forms the interior parts of a leaf’ (Smith & Smith
1998), and ‘specialised tissue located between the epidermal layers of
a leaf’ (WCD).
2.2. Compound Adjectives. A compound part of speech (e.g., free-

market) or a free combination (e.g., just-in-time) is often used
attributively with a noun, characterising it and becoming adjectives.
The elements compound adjectives are formed of are: COMBINING
FORMS + ADJECTIVE: antiecological [as in antiecological activity] <
anti- a prefix from Greek meaning ‘against’, ‘opposite of’, freely
combining with elements of any origin and used here with the meaning
‘not’, ‘un-’ + ecological [it does not appear in language dictionaries]; eco-
from the Greek oƯko(s) ‘house’: ecological (action / bad / commandment /
complexity / consciousness / conservation / criterion / culture / education /
ethics / ground / knowledge / law / management / monitoring / movement /
needs / perspective / phenomenon / philosophy / policy / process / pyramid
/ restoration / retrogression / salvation / science / significance / space /
study).
Conclusions
Of the transformations resulting in new forms, only the following two are
represented in the English of ecology: affixation (prefixation and
suffixation) and composition. In affixation, there is only one Noun-
forming prefix (trans-), and no Adjective-forming prefix. There are also a
lot of Noun-forming suffixes (-ance, -ation, -cy, -ist, -ity, -ment), but only
one Adjective-forming suffix (-al). Composition is illustrated only by the
COMBINING FORM (agro-, eco-, homeo-, meta-, micro-, non-, photo-,
and -vore) + NOUN, and the COMBINING FORM (eco-, meso-) +
COMBINING FORM (-sophy, -phyll) types to produce nouns, and by the
COMBINING FORMS (anti-, eco-) + ADJECTIVE (ecological, logical)
type to produce adjectives. They are all technical terms of scientific
vocabulary, coined self-consciously out of non-English elements, mostly
from Latin and Greek (Carstairs-McCarthy 2002). All this accounts for
English for special purpose information, which is not surprising, if we
bear in mind that ECOLOGY as a science has only emerged recently.
Georgeta RaĠă 17
References
Benson, M., Benson, Evelyn & Ilson, R. (1990). The Combinatory
Dictionary of English. Amsterdam – Philadelphia: John Benjamins
Publishing Company.
Grzega, J. & Schöner, Marion. (2007). English and General Historical
Lexicology. Materials for Onomasiology Seminars. Katholische
Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories. Interpretation
and Application of the Protected Area Management Categories in
Europe. IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, and
EUROPARC Federation with the assistance of the World Conservation
Monitoring Centre. (1999).
Johnson, B. R. & Hill, K. (Eds.). (2001). Ecology and Design.
Frameworks for Learning. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
LeviĠchi, L. (Ed.). (2004). DicĠionar englez-român. [English-Romanian
Dictionary].Bucureúti: Ed. Univers Enciclopedic.
LeviĠchi, L. D. (1970). Limba engleză contemporană. Lexicologie.
[Contemporary English. Lexicology]. Bucureúti: E.D.P.
Liu, J. & Taylor, W. W. (Eds.). (2002). Integrating Landscape Ecology
into Natural Resource Management. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture (2003). London:
Longman.
Maarel, E. van der. (Ed.). (2004). Vegetation Ecology. Hoboken, NJ:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Perkoviü, Anica & RaĠă, Georgeta. (2005). On the Vocabulary of Ecology:
Ageing and Renewing. Lucrări útiinĠifice. Facultatea de Agricultură,
XXXVII: 633-634.
University Press.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Anica. (2006). Environmental Language
and/or Medical Language? Proceedings. Linguistics and Theory of
Literature. Pedagogy and Psychology 45, Rousse, Bulgaria: 55-60.

RaĠă, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Anica. (2006). Environmental Management
Categories in Europe: A Lexicological Approach. Proceedings of The
3rd Conference Energy efficiency and agricultural engineering, June 7-
9, 2006, Rousse, Bulgaria: 99-103
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2005). On the Vocabulary of Ecology: Renewing through
New Forms. Scientific Works L (6), Plovdiv, Bulgaria: 137-142.
Schulze, E.-D., Beck, E. & Muller-Hohenstein, K. (2005). Plant Ecology.
Berlin - Heidelberg: Springer.
Slobodkin, L. B. (2003). A Citizen’s Guide to Ecology. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Smith, R. L. & Smith, T. M. (1998). Elements of Ecology. San Francisco:
Benjamin/Cummings Science Publishing.
The Random House Dictionary of the English Language. (1968). New
York: Random House. (RHDEL)
Webster Comprehensive Dictionary. (1995). Chicago: J. G. Ferguson
Publishing Company. (WCD)
(1996). New York: Gramercy Books.
Webster’s Universal Dictionary & Thesaurus (2003). New Lanark:
Geddes & Grosset.
COMPOUNDS WITH AND DERIVATIVES
OF CEREAL NAMES
GEORGETA RAğĂ
AND LAURA-CONSTANTINA MICU
Introduction
A quick look at the dictionary definition of the word corn will be enough
to justify our motivation in carrying out the present research. Thus,
according to English language dictionaries, corn is defined as ‘1. Also
called Indian corn; especially technical and British, maize, U.S.,
Canadian, Australian. a. a tall, annual cereal plant, Zea mays, having a
jointed, solid stem and bearing the kernels on large ears. b. the kernels,
used as food. c. the ears. 2. The edible seed of certain other cereal plants,
especially wheat in England and oats in Scotland. 3. The plants
themselves. 4. U.S. (loosely) sweet corn. 5. Corn whiskey. 6. Slang. Old-
fashioned, trite, or mawkishly sentimental entertainment material’
(Webster Comprehensive Dictionary, 1995). This dictionary entry alone
creates problems because of the ambiguity of corn ‘maize’ and corn
‘cereal’. We focused on cereal compounds and derivatives to see if there
is any pattern at all that could be used in approaching the vocabulary
specific to cereals.
Material and Method

We have inventoried 170 compound and derivative forms (i.e.
entries) of cereal nouns in some of the most outstanding language
dictionaries. We then compared the different forms and draw a few
conclusions. The method we used was quantitative. We started from the
hypothesis that the different compound and derivative forms of cereal
names must share certain patterns which are the result of a long process of
creating words and/or phrases and assimilating them in English.
20 Compounds with and Derivatives of Cereal Names

Cereals or grains appear in the following collocations:
- barley (17): barley bird, barley bread, barley-bree / barleybree, barley

broth, barley coal, barley corn / barleycorn, barley candy, barleyhood,
barley meal, barley mill, barley sack, barley sorting, barley stripe,
barley sugar, barley water, barley wine, French / peeled barley;
- corn (92): cornball, corn beef, Corn Belt, corn binder, corn border,
(European) corn borer, corn bread, corn broom, corn cake, corn
chandler, corn chip, corn cleaner, corn cob / corncob, corncob (pipe),
corn cockle, corn colour, corn cracker, corn crake, corncrib, corn
cutter, corn dealer, corn dodger / corndodger, corn dog, corn
earworm, corned, corned beef, corned leather, corn exchange, corn
factor, corn failure, corn fed / cornfed, corn-field / cornfield, cornfield
ant, corn flag / cornflag, corn flakes / cornflakes, corn floor, corn
flour, corn flower / cornflower, corn gluten, corn grass, corn grit(s),
corn harvester, corn house / cornhouse, cornhusk, corn husker / corn-
husker / cornhusker, Cornhusker State, cornhusking, corning, Corn
Law / corn laws, corn lift, corn lily, corn loft, corn liquor, corn
marigold, corn market, corn meal / cornmeal, corn middlings, corn
mill, corn mint, corn muffin, corn oil, corn picker, corn picking, corn
pimpernel, corn-pipe, corn plant, corn planter, corn pone / corn-pone,
corn poppy, corn reaper, corn rent, corn-root aphid, corn rootworm,
cornrow, corn salad, corn shock, corn silk, corn sieve, corn smut,
corn snake, corn snow, corn stack, corn stalk / cornstalk, cornstarch,
corn stick, corn sugar, corn syrup, corn van, corn weevil, corn
whiskey, corny;
- maize (5): maize flour, maize husk, maizena, maize oil, maize starch;
- millet (3): millet ale, millet beer, millet grass;
- oat(s) (10): oat-cake / oatcake, oaten, oater, oat grass, oat like, oat
malt, oatmeal, bearded / Hungarian / oriental / Tartarian oat, false
oat, wild oat;
- rice (18): rice bean, ricebird, rice blast, rice coal, rice corn, rice
paddy, rice paper, rice-paper tree, rice plantation, rice pudding, ricer,
rice rat, rice-water, rice weevil, ricey, ground rice, husked rice, rough
rice;
- rye (6): rye bread, rye flour, ryegrass, ryepeck, rye whiskey, perennial
ryegrass;
- sorg(h)o / sorghum (2): sugar sorghum, sweet sorghum;
- wheat (17): wheat berry, wheat bran, wheat bread, wheat cake, wheat
Georgeta RaĠă and Laura-Constantina Micu 21
dampener, wheatear, wheaten, (soft coated) wheaten terrier, wheat

flour, wheat germ, wheat grass, wheat meal, wheat paddock, wheat
rust, wheat separator, wheat worm, Turkey / Turkish wheat.
It is interesting to see that a series of 15 nouns seem to be more productive

than other nouns (they have produced 2 and more than 2 compound forms
with cereals names in English) in compounding (Table 1-1).
Table 1-1. Compounds with cereal names
Nouns Name of the cereal

forming
sorghum
the
barley
wheat
maize
millet
corn
rice
rye
oat
compound
bird + +
bread + + + +
cake + + +
coal + +
corn + +
flour + + + +
grass + + + + +
husk + +
meal + + + +
oil + +
starch + +
sugar + + +
water +
weevil +
whiskey + +
The compounds can be grouped depending on the common element in a

series of cereal compounds as follows:
- cereal + bird (2): barley bird (Jynx torquilla), ricebird ‘Southern U.S.
the bobolink (a common North American passerine songbird,
Dolichonyx oryzivorus);
- cereal + bread (4): barley bread, corn bread ‘a bread made of corn
meal’, rye (bread) ‘bread made entirely or partly from rye flour, often
with caraway seeds; rye’, wheat bread;
- cereal + cake (3): corn cake ‘a cake made of corn meal’, oatcake ‘a
cake, usually thin and brittle, made of oatmeal’, wheat cake ‘a pancake
made of wheat flour’;
- cereal + coal (2): barley coal ‘anthracite in sizes ranging from 1.2 mm
to 4.8 mm’, rice coal ‘anthracite in sizes ranging from 0.79 cm to 0.48
cm’;
- cereal + corn (2): barleycorn ‘1. Barley or a grain of barley; 2. A
measure equal to 1/3 of an inch’, rice corn (Sorgum vulgare);
- cereal + flour (4): corn flour ‘1. Flour prepared from corn. 2. Chiefly
Brit. cornstarch’, maize flour, rye flour, wheat flour;
- cereal + grass (5): corn grass (Aira caespitosa), millet grass (Panicum
milliaceum), oat grass ‘1. Any of certain oat like grasses. 2. Any wild
species of oat’ (Avena fatua)’, rye grass ‘any of several European
grasses of the genus Lolium, as L. perenne (perennial ryegrass) grown
for forage in the U.S.’, wheat grass ‘ any of several wheat-like grasses
of the genus Agropyron, grown for forage in the western U.S.
(Triticum repens)’;
- cereal + husk (2): cornhusk ‘the husk of an ear of corn’, maize husk;
- cereal + meal (4): barley meal, corn meal / cornmeal ‘1. Meal made of
corn. 2. Scot. Oatmeal’, oatmeal ‘1. Meal made from oats. 2 a cooked
breakfast food made from this. 3. Made with or containing oatmeal:
oatmeal cookies’, wheat meal;
- cereal + oil (2): corn oil ‘the oil obtained by expressing the germs of
corn kernels, used in the preparation of foods, especially salad
dressing, lubricants, soaps, and hairdressings’, maize oil ‘corn oil’;
- cereal + starch (2): cornstarch ‘a starch or a starchy flour made from
corn and used for thickening gravies and sauces, making puddings,
etc.’, maize starch;
- cereal + sugar (3): barley sugar (there is also barley candy) ‘a brittle,
amber-coloured, citrus-flavoured candy, usually twisted into strips or
moulded into a variety of shapes’, corn sugar ‘dextrose’, sugar
sorghum ‘sorgo’;
- cereal + water (2): barley water ‘a decoction of barley, used especially
as a medicament in the treatment of diarrhoea in infants’, rice-water;
- cereal + weevil (2): corn weevil (Colandra granaries), rice weevil ‘a
brown weevil, Sitophitus oryzae, that infests stored grains, especially
rice’;
- cereal + whiskey (2): corn whiskey ‘whiskey made from a mash having
at least 80 percent corn’, rye whiskey ‘a straight whiskey distilled from
a mash containing 51 percent or more rye grain; a blended whiskey’.
In all these compounds, the word cereal ranks first, except for the
compounds with sugar, in which they rank twice first ad once second.
Conclusions
The number of occurrences of “cereal” names in noun phrases shows
the importance of particular cereals in the life of the English people over
the centuries. Thus, corn (28% of the compounds and derivatives) must
have always been the most important of all, because of its rarity. Second
comes barley (17%), followed by rice and wheat (12% of the compounds
and derivatives each), maize and rye (10% of the compounds and
derivatives each), oat (7% of the compounds and derivatives), millet and
sorghum (2% of the compounds and derivatives each) (Figure 1-1).
28%
17%
12% 12%
10% 10%
7%
2% 2%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Figure 1-1. Number of occurrences of cereals names in noun phrases: 28% corn,
17% barley, 12% rice and wheat, 10% maize and rye, 7% oat, 2% millet and
sorghum
The number of occurrences of other nouns in the compounds with cereals

names shows the importance of the “objects” in the everyday life of the
English people. Thus, grass comes first (11% of the compounds),
followed by bread, flour, and meal (10% of the compounds each), cake
and sugar (7% of the compounds each), and by bird, coal, corn, husk,
oil, starch, water, weevil, and whiskey (5% of the compounds each)
(Figure 1-2). To note that flour and meal are synonyms, which ranks them
first (8 occurrences).
11%
10%
10%
10%
7%7%
5%5%5%5%5%5%5%5%5%5%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Figure 1-2. Number of occurrences of other nouns in cereals names: 11% grass,
10% bread, flour and meal, 7% cake and sugar, 5% bird, coal, corn, husk, oil,
starch, water, weevil, and whiskey
References
Publishing Company.
ChiĠoran, D. (1973). Elements of English Structural Semantics. Bucureúti:
E.D.P.
DicĠionarul explicativ al limbii române. [The Explanatory Dictionary of
the Romanian Language]. (1998). Bucureúti: Editura U.E.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Micu, Laura-Constantina. (2004). Notes on Cereal
Compounds and Derivatives: A Lexicological Approach. TradiĠie úi
modernitate în útiinĠele umaniste úi sociale. Timiúoara: Editura Mirton.
127-132.
RaĠă, Georgeta, Samfira, I., Boc-SânmărghiĠan, Diana-Andreea &
Butnariu, Monica. (2012). Compendium of Forage Technical Terms in
English, French and Romanian. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing.
Publishing Company.
DERIVATIVES WITH –CIDE
IN THE VOCABULARY OF PESTICIDES
GEORGETA RAğĂ AND ANICA PERKOVIû
Introduction
The study of any subject should start with the study of its specific
terminology. Thus, in the study of pesticides, “Understanding the proper
use of pesticides is imperative to their effectiveness and to your safety.”
(Arizona Master Gardener Manual: An Essential Reference for Gardening
in the Desert Southwest). Mentions such as “The wording ‘insecticides and
pesticides’ is incorrect because insecticides are pesticide.” (Idem) or
“herbicides kill plants, not just weeds” (Idem) are also important for a
better understanding of the terms.
Therefore, any introduction to the terminology specific to the field of
pesticides should include the following:
- the types of pesticides according to their effect: acaricides (that control

mites, ticks, and spiders), avicides (that control birds), bactericides
(that control bacteria), fungicides (that control fungi), herbicides (that
control plants), insecticides (that control insects), miticides (that
control mites), molluscicides (that control molluscs, such as slugs and
snails), nematicides (that control nematodes), piscicides (that control
fish), predacides (that control pest animals), rodenticides (that control
rodents), on the one hand, and antitranspirants and antidesiccants
(that reduce water loss from plants), attractants (that lure pests),
desiccants and defoliants (that remove or kill leaves and stems),
growth regulators (that stop, speed up, or otherwise change normal
plant processes), and repellents (that keep pests away), on the other
hand;
- the types of pesticides according to the way they work: contact
poisons (that kill pests simply by touching them), fumigants (that kill
when they are inhaled or otherwise absorbed by pests), nonselective
pesticides (that kill most plants or animals), selective pesticides (that
26 Derivatives with -cide in the Vocabulary of Pesticides
kill only certain kinds of plants or animals, e.g. 2, 4-D used for lawn
weed control, kills broadleaved plants but does not harm grass),
stomach poisons (that kill when swallowed), systemics (that kill best
by being taken into the blood of the animal or sap of the plant upon
which the pest is feeding), and translocated herbicides (that move
from the point of initial application to circulate throughout the plant,
the circulation of toxin ensures the kill of the entire plant);
- the types of pesticides according to the time they are applied: post-
emergent (used after the crop or weeds have germinated), pre-
emergent (used before plants emerge from soil), and pre-planting
(used before crop is planted by applying to the soil);
- the terms describing how to use pesticides: band (application to a strip
over or along each crop row), broadcast (uniform application to an
entire, specific area by scattering), dip (immersion of a plant in a
pesticide), directed (aiming the pesticide at a portion of a plant, animal
or structure), drench (saturating the soil with a pesticide), foliar
(application to the leaves of plants), in-furrow (application to or in the
furrow in which a plant is growing), side-dress (application along the
side of a crop row), and spot treatment (application of a pesticide to a
small section or area of a crop).
Material and Method

We have analysed the terms ending in -cide ‘to kill’, ‘killer’, ‘to
murder, to cause death, to slayer, to cut down’, a Latin suffix that should
not be mistaken for -cide ‘to cut’, although the two suffixes are related.
We have left aside 71 of these derivatives that have nothing to do with
the killing of any organisms dangerous for humans, crops, or domestic
animals (algiocide ‘pain killer’, cytocide ‘the killing of cells’,
episcopacide ‘the killing of a bishop, etc.).
We have also left aside the derivatives avenicide, botrycide, corvicide,
graminicide, limacide, ovicide, tileticide, and zoocide, as well as any other
possible derivatives in -cide that, though used in the field of agriculture,
are not mentioned in our corpus (Arizona Master Gardener Manual: An
Essential Reference for Gardening in the Desert Southwest).

The 91 derivatives ending in -cide and concerning the field of “pests”
(we understand by “pests” any living organism damaging animals and/or
humans, in any way possible) have the following meanings:
Georgeta RaĠă and Anica Perkoviü 27
- 51 derivatives (58%) designate ‘the act of killing pests’: adulticide

‘the killing of adult insects (as opposed to larvae)’, anophelicide ‘the
killing of anopheles mosquitoes’, antharcocide ‘the killing of anthrax
bacteria’, aphicide / aphidicide ‘the killing of aphids’, apicide ‘the
killing of bees’, apricide ‘the killing of boars’, arachnicide ‘the killing
of spiders, scorpions, etc.’, avicide ‘the killing of birds’, cervicide ‘the
killing of deer’, ceticide ‘the killing of whales or other cetaceans’,
cimicide ‘the killing of bedbugs’, elephanticide ‘the killing of
elephants’, felicide ‘the killing of cats’, formicicide / formicide ‘the
killing of ants’, gallinicide ‘the killing of hens, turkeys, or poultry, in
general’, gametocide ‘the killing of malarial parasites’, gonoccocide /
gonococcide ‘the killing of gonococci’, helminthicide ‘the killing of
intestinal worms’, herpecide / herpicide ‘the killing of reptiles’,
hiricide ‘the killing of goats’, hirudicide ‘the killing of leeches’,
imagicide / imagocide ‘the killing of adult insects, especially
mosquitoes’, leporicide ‘the killing of hares / rabbits’, lumbricide ‘the
killing of roundworms’, lupicide ‘the killing of wolves’, microbicide
‘the killing of microbes’, muricide ‘the killing of mice’, muscacide /
muscicide ‘the killing of flies’, myrmecide ‘the killing of ants’,
perdricide ‘the killing of partridges’, plasmodicide ‘the killing of
malarial parasites’, poultrycide ‘the killing of poultry’, protozoacide
‘the killing of protozoans’, pulicide / pilicicide ‘the killing of fleas’,
scabicide / scabieticide ‘the killing of organisms that cause scabies’,
schistosomacide / schistosomicide ‘the killing of schistosomes or
blood flukes’, schizonticide ‘the killing of malarial parasites’,
serpenticide ‘the killing of serpents’, sporicide ‘the killing of spores’,
staphylocide / staphylococcicide / staphylococcide ‘the killing of
organisms that cause staphylococcus injections’, streprococcicide ‘the
killing of streptococci’, talpicide ‘the killing of moles’, tauricide ‘the
killing of bulls’, treponimicide ‘the killing of parasitical bacteria’,
trichomonacide ‘the killing of parasites that cause trichomoniasis /
diarrhoea’, trypanocide / trypanosomacide ‘the killing of organisms
that cause sleeping sickness’, tuberculicide / tuberculocide ‘the killing
of tuberculosis bacilli’, ursicide ‘the killing of bears’, vaccicide ‘the
killing of cows’, vespacide ‘the killing of wasps’, and vulpicide ‘the
killing of foxes’;
- 24 derivatives (23%) designate ‘the agent (substance) that kills pests’:
acaricide ‘a substance that kills mites or ticks’, amebicide /
amoebicide ‘a substance that kills amoebae’, bacillicide ‘a substance
that kills bacilli’, bacteriacide / bactericide / bacteriocide ‘a substance
that kills bacteria’, biocide ‘a substance that kills micro-organisms’,
biopesticide ‘a natural substance that kills insects’, culicide ‘an agent

that kills mosquitoes, especially culicide mosquitoes’, floricide ‘a
substance that kills flowers’, gallicide ‘a substance that kills fowls’,
germicide ‘a substance that kills germs’, herbicide ‘a substance that
kills plants’, larvicide ‘a substance that kills larvae’, miticide ‘a
substance that kills mites’, molluscicide ‘a substance that kills
molluscs’, mosquitocide ‘an agent that is destructive to mosquitoes’,
mycocide ‘an agent that destroys fungi, nemacide / nematicide /
nematocide ‘a substance that kills nematodes’, ovicide ‘a substance
that kills insects’ eggs’, parasiticide ‘an agent or preparation that
destroys parasites’, pesticide ‘a substance that kills pests, especially
insects’, phytocide ‘a substance that kills plants’, predacide ‘a
substance that kills epsts’, silvicide ‘a substance that kills trees or
forests’, and spirillicide ‘an agent that is destructive to spirilla’;
- 16 derivatives (20%) designate both ‘the act of killing pests’ and ‘the
agent (substance) that kills pests’: algaecide / algicide ‘the killing of
algae’ + ‘a substance that kills algae’, arboricide ‘the killing of trees’ +
‘a substance that kills trees’, ascaricide ‘the killing of roundworms’ +
‘a substance that kills worms of the genus Ascaris’, canicide ‘the
killing of dogs’ + ‘a substance that kills dogs’, epozoicide ‘the killing
of external-animal parasites’ + ‘a substance that kills epizoa’,
fungicide ‘the killing of fungi’ + a substance that kills fungi’,
insecticide ‘the killing of insects’ + ‘a substance that kills insects’,
microbicide ‘the killing of microbes’ + ‘a substance that kills
microbes’, oxyuricide ‘the killing of worms of the genus Oxyurus’ + ‘a
substance that kills pinworms’, pediculicide ‘the killing of lice’ + ‘a
substance that kills lice’, piscicide ‘the killing of fish’ + ‘a substance
that kills fish’, rodenticide ‘the killing of rodents’ + ‘a substance that
kills rodents, especially rats and mice’, spirochaeticide / spirocheticide
‘the killing of spirochetes’ + ‘a substance that kills spirochetes’,
taeniacide / teniacide / tenicide ‘the killing of tapeworms’ + ‘a
substance that kills tapeworms’, vermicide / verminicide ‘the killing of
vermin or intestinal worms’ + ‘a substance that kills worms’, and
viricide / virudice / viruscide ‘the killing of viruses’ + ‘a substance that
kills viruses.’
Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn from the analysis above:
- the number of derivatives in -cide that have nothing to do with the use
of pesticides (i.e., 71) is almost equal to that of the derivatives in -cide
designating pesticides (i.e., 91), pointing to an astonishing prolificacy
of this suffix in modern English (particularly in the second half of the
20th century, as mentioned by English language dictionaries);
- the number of derivatives in -cide designating ‘the act of killing a
pest’ is almost twice larger (51 + 16 = 67) than that of the derivatives
in -cide designating ‘a substance that kills a pest’ (24 + 16 = 40)
(Figure 1-3);
- the scarce presence of the derivatives in -cide in English language
dictionaries points to the recentness of these terms, which have not
acquired yet the status of English words, despite their frequent use in
Agricultural English.
Here again, the main influence of Greek has been in its use in the coinage
of scientific and technical words (Carstairs-McCarthy 2002).
18%
56%
26%
Figure 1-3. Share of derivatives in -cide in the English of pesticides: 56% ‘the act
of killing a pest’, 26% ‘a substance that kills a pest’, 18% ‘the act of killing a pest’
+ ‘a substance that kills a pest’
References
Arizona Master Gardener Manual: An Essential Reference for Gardening
in the Desert Southwest. Cooperative Extension, College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Arizona. Online:
http://ag.arozona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/index/html.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (2011). Online:
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary.
University Press.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Anica. (2008). The Vocabulary of Pesticides:
A Terminological Approach. Proceedings of the 43rd Croatian and 3rd
International Symposium on Agriculture, 18-21 February 2008,
Opatija, Croatia: 725-729.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. (2008).
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
York: Random House.
Publishing Company.
Words ending in -cide. Online:
http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit.
COMBINING FORMS:
BI(O)-
ALINA-ANDREEA DRAGOESCU
AND DIANA-ANDREEA BOC-SÎNMĂRGHIğAN
Introduction
In the general context of globalization, when English has become the
language of reference in science and in numerous other areas of
communication and technology, it is interesting to note that most words,
even newly coined ones, are based on the previous lingua franca, i.e.
Latin. Unsurprisingly, the Neo Latin element becomes the cornerstone on
which both English and other European languages are based, thus
generating an easy understanding of different linguistic corpora.
Moreover, organic and biodynamic methods of farming, as well as
ecological issues have become ever more imperative exigencies in the
world we live in. All of the latest trends in biology, ecology, and
agriculture underline the importance of life and protecting biotic systems.
Therefore, notions such as bioconversion, biodegradation, biodiversity,
etc., all based on the combining form bi(o)-, are an indispensable input
for all the students in the fields mentioned above.
From a linguistic point of view, this paper deals with word formation,
especially by means of compounding, based on the combining form
bi(o)- ‘life’, which is fundamental to several fields of science. According
to Carstairs-McCarthy (2002), a compound is ‘a word containing more
than one root or combining form producing a new meaning’. A
combining form is a bound base or ‘a modified form of an independent
word in English or in a language such as Greek or Latin from which
English has borrowed that occurs only in combination with other forms’
(The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2008). It
combines with other combining forms, affixes, or free words, to form
compounds. As a result, the classical compounds they help form may be
paraphrased (e.g. biology ‘the science of life’, or bioprocess ‘a biological
process’). Elements of compounds can be considered combining forms if
32 Combining Forms: Bi(o)-
they cannot stand alone as free words. However, there are several
exceptions, especially in the late 20th century, when short forms are very
recurrent. Our goal here is to prove that bi(o)- is, actually, a combining
form.
Material and Method

The issue of language enrichment has been the target of our analysis,
as language is enhanced by means of compounding and derivation. We
have inventoried 80 words with bi(o)- in The American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language (2008), leaving aside very recent
words with bio- such as biodiesel [< bio- + diesel (< Rudolf Diesel,
German mechanical engineer and inventor)], biofuel ‘fuel such as methane
produced from renewable biological resources such as plant biomass and
treated municipal and industrial waste’ [< bio- + fuel], or bioterrorism [<
bio- + terrorism]. The words in our corpus are of utmost importance to
students, researchers, or anyone working in the fields of biology,
agriculture, and ecology. Their meanings, as well as their etymology are
useful tools in understanding notions that specialists in the field must
certainly be aware of. The main sources that have been used for this
purpose are English language dictionaries and encyclopaedias, as well as
literature in the field of linguistics. The methods used in this research
pertain to applied linguistics, namely etymological and morphological
analysis.
Results
Bi(o)- (< Gk bios ‘life’), a first element in the Modern Latin words of
our corpus of 80 terms, generally indicates or involves life or living
organisms. It is considered by linguists:
- a combining form ‘a modified form of an independent word in

English or in a language such as Greek or Latin from which English
has borrowed that occurs only in combination with other forms: it
combines with words, affixes, or other combining forms to form
compounds or derivatives, as electro- (from electric) in electromagnet
or geo- in geochemistry’ (The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language, 2008) by Collins English Dictionary (2003);
- a prefix ‘an affix, such as dis- in disbelieve, put before a word to
produce a derivative word or an inflected form’ (The American
Alina-Andreea Dragoescu and Diana-Andreea Boc-SînmărghiĠan 33
Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2008) by The American

Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2008).
In our corpus, there are also, beside compounds (words that consist either
of two or more elements that are independent words, such as loudspeaker,
baby-sit, or high school, or of specially modified combining forms of
words, such as Gk philosophia, from philo- ‘loving’ and sophia, ‘wisdom’
– The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2008),
blends or portmanteaus (words produced by combining parts of other
words, as smog from smoke and fog – The American Heritage Dictionary
of the English Language, 2008), borrowings or loanwords (words
adopted from another language and completely or partially naturalized, as
very and hors d’oeuvre, both from French – The American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language, 2008), and calques or loan
translations (borrowings from one language to another whereby the
semantic components of a given term are literally translated into their
equivalents in the borrowing language: English superman, for example, is
a loan translation from German Übermensch – The American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language, 2008). Thus:
- 59 of the words in our corpus (72.50%) are compounds of the

‘combining form bio- + Noun’ type: bioaccumulation ‘the
accumulation of a substance, such as a toxic chemical, in various
tissues of a living organism’ [< bio- + accumulation]; bioacoustics ‘the
study of sounds produced by or affecting living organisms, especially
those sounds involved in communication’ [< bio- + acoustics];
bioactivity ‘the effect of a given agent, such as a vaccine, upon a living
organism or on living tissue’ [< bio- + -activity]; bioassay
‘determination of the strength or biological activity of a substance,
such as a drug or hormone, by comparing its effects with those of a
standard preparation on a test organism’ [< bio- + assay];
bioastronautics ‘determination of the strength or biological activity of
a substance, such as a drug or hormone, by comparing its effects with
those of a standard preparation on a test organism’ [< bio- +
astronautics]; bioavailability ‘the degree to which a drug or other
substance becomes available at the physiological site of activity after
administration’ [< bio- + availability]; biobibliography ‘a book or
article combining an account of a person’s life with a discussion of
works written by or about that person’ [< bio- + bibliography];
biocatalyst ‘a substance, especially an enzyme, that initiates or
modifies the rate of a chemical reaction in a living body; a biochemical
catalyst’ [< bio- + catalyst]; biocenose / biocenosis ‘a community of
biologically integrated and interdependent plants and animals’ [< bio-

+ Gk koinǀsis ‘a mingling’]; biochemistry ‘the study of the chemical
substances and vital processes occurring in living organisms;
biological chemistry; physiological chemistry’ [< bio- + chemistry];
biochip ‘a computer chip made from organic molecules rather than
silicon or germanium’ [< bio- + chip]; bioclimatology ‘the study of the
effects of climatic conditions on living organisms’ [< bio- +
climatology]; biocompatibility ‘the property of being biologically
compatible by not producing a toxic, injurious, or immunological
response in living tissue’ [< bio- + compatibility]; bioconversion ‘the
conversion of organic materials, such as plant or animal waste, into
usable products or energy sources by biological processes or agents,
such as certain microorganisms’ [< bio- + conversion]; biodiversity
‘the variety of organisms found within a specified geographic region’
[< bio- + diversity]; biodynamics ‘1. The study of the effects of
dynamic processes, such as motion or acceleration, on living
organisms. 2. The science of the force or energy of living matter and
physiological processes. 3. A method of organic gardening and crop
cultivation in which certain factors, such as planetary and seasonal
cycles, are considered’ [< bio- + dynamics]; bioelectricity ‘an electric
current that is generated by living tissue, such as nerve and muscle’ [<
bio- + electricity]; bioelectronics ‘1. The application of the principles
of electronics to biology and medicine. 2. The study of the role of
intermolecular electron transfer in physiological processes’ [< bio- +
electronics]; bioenergetics ‘the study of the flow and transformation of
energy in and between living organisms and between living organisms
and their environment’ [< bio- + energetics]; bioengineering ‘1. The
application of engineering principles to the fields of biology and
medicine, as in the development of aids or replacements for defective
or missing body organs. Also called biomedical engineering 2. Genetic
engineering’ [< bio- + engineering]; bioethics ‘the study of the ethical
and moral implications of new biological discoveries and biomedical
advances, as in the fields of genetic engineering and drug research’ [<
bio- + ethics]; biofeedback ‘the technique of using monitoring devices
to furnish information regarding an autonomic bodily function, such as
heart rate or blood pressure, in an attempt to gain some voluntary
control over that function’ [< bio- + feedback]; bioflavonoid ‘any of a
group of biologically active substances found in plants and functioning
in the maintenance of the walls of small blood vessels in mammals’ [<
bio- + flavonoid]; biogas ‘a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide
produced by bacterial degradation of organic matter and used as a fuel’
[< bio- + gas]; biogenesis ‘1. The principle that living organisms
develop only from other living organisms and not from nonliving
matter. 2. Generation of living organisms from other living organisms.
3. Biosynthesis. 4. The supposed recurrence of the evolutionary stages
of a species during the embryonic development and differentiation of a
member of that species’ [< bio- + genesis]; biogeochemistry ‘the study
of the relationship between the geochemistry of a region and the
animal and plant life in that region’ [< bio- + geochemistry];
biogeography ‘the study of the geographic distribution of organisms’
[< bio- + geography]; biohazard ‘1. A biological agent, such as an
infectious microorganism, or a condition that constitutes a threat to
human beings, especially in biological research or experimentation. 2.
The potential danger, risk, or harm from exposure to such an agent or
condition’ [< bio- + hazard]; bioinstrumentation ‘1. Use of
instruments for the recording or transmission of physiological
information, such as breathing rate or heart rate. 2. The instruments so
used’ [< bio- + instrumentation]; bioluminescence ‘emission of visible
light by living organisms such as the firefly and various fish, fungi, and
bacteria’ [< bio- + luminescence]; biomarker ‘a specific physical trait
used to measure or indicate the effects or progress of a disease or
condition’ [< bio- + marker]; biomass ‘1. The total mass of living
matter within a given unit of environmental area. 2. Plant material,
vegetation, or agricultural waste used as a fuel or energy source’ [<
bio- + mass]; biomathematics ‘the application of mathematical
principles to biological processes’ [< bio- + mathematics];
biomechanics ‘1. The study of the mechanics of a living body,
especially of the forces exerted by muscles and gravity on the skeletal
structure. 2. The mechanics of a part or function of a living body, such
as of the heart or of locomotion’ [< bio- + mechanics]; biomedicine ‘1.
The branch of medical science that deals with the ability of human
beings to tolerate environmental stresses and variations, as in space
travel. 2. The application of the principles of the natural sciences,
especially biology and physiology, to clinical medicine’ [< bio- +
medicine]; biometeorology ‘The study of the relationship between
atmospheric conditions, such as temperature and humidity, and living
organisms’ [< bio- + meteorology]; biophysics ‘the science that deals
with the application of physics to biological processes and phenomena’
[< bio- + physics]; biopic ‘a film or television biography, often with
fictionalized episodes’ [bio- + pic ‘motion picture’]; biopolymer ‘a
macromolecule, such as a protein or nucleic acid, that is formed in a
living organism’ [< bio- + polymer]; bioprocess ‘a. A technique that
produces a biological material, such as a genetically engineered

microbial strain, for commercial use. b. Production of a commercially
useful chemical or fuel by a biological process, such as microbial
fermentation or degradation’ [< bio- + process]; biopsychology
‘psychobiology’ [< bio- + psychology]; bioreactor ‘1. A container,
such as a large fermentation chamber, for growing living organisms
that are used in the industrial production of substances such as
pharmaceuticals, antibodies, or vaccines. 2. A living organism, such as
a bacterium or yeast, that is used in the biotechnological production of
substances such as pharmaceuticals, antibodies, or vaccines’ [< bio- +
reactor]; bioregion ‘An area constituting a natural ecological
community with characteristic flora, fauna, and environmental
conditions and bounded by natural rather than artificial borders’ [<
bio- + region]; bioregionalism ‘The belief that social organization and
environmental policies should be based on the bioregion rather than on
a region determined by political or economic boundaries’ [< bio- +
regionalism]; bioresearch ‘research in the biological sciences’ [< bio-
+ research]; biorhythm ‘an innate, cyclical biological process or
function’ [< bio- + rhythm]; biosatellite ‘an artificial, recoverable
satellite that is designed to carry and support humans, animals, or other
living organisms’ [< bio- + satellite]; bioscience ‘life science’ [< bio-
+ science]; biosensor ‘1. A device that detects, records, and transmits
information regarding a physiological change or process. 2. A device
that uses biological materials to monitor the presence of various
chemicals in a substance’ [< bio- + sensor]; biosphere ‘1. The part of
the earth and its atmosphere in which living organisms exist or that is
capable of supporting life. 2. The living organisms and their
environment composing the biosphere’ [< bio- + sphere]; biostatistics
‘application of statistics to the analysis of biological and medical data’
[< bio- + statistics]; biosynthesis ‘formation of a chemical compound
by a living organism’ [< bio- + synthesis]; biosystematics ‘the use of
data obtained from cytogenetic, biochemical, and other experimental
studies to assess the taxonomic relationships of organisms or
populations, especially within an evolutionary framework’[< bio- +
systematics]; biotechnology ‘1. The use of microorganisms, such as
bacteria or yeasts, or biological substances, such as enzymes, to
perform specific industrial or manufacturing processes. 2. a. The
application of the principles of engineering and technology to the life
sciences; bioengineering. b. Ergonomics’ [< bio- + technology];
biotelemetry ‘The monitoring, recording, and measuring of a living
organism’s basic physiological functions, such as heart rate, muscle
activity, and body temperature, by the use of telemetry techniques’ [<

bio- + telemetry]; biotherapy ‘Treatment of disease with biologicals,
such as certain drugs, vaccines, or antitoxins’ [< bio- + therapy];
biotope ‘an area that is uniform in environmental conditions and in its
distribution of animal and plant life’ [< bio- + Gk topos ‘place’];
biotransformation ‘chemical alteration of a substance within the body,
as by the action of enzymes’ [< bio- + transformation]; and biotype ‘a
group of organisms having the same genotype’ [< bio- + type];
- 11 of the words in our corpus (13.75%) are compounds of the
‘combining form bio- + affix’ type: biocide ‘a chemical agent, such as
a pesticide, that is capable of destroying living organisms’ [< bio- + -
cide ‘killer; act of killing’]; biogeny ‘biogenesis’ [< bio- + -geny];
biographee ‘the subject of a biography’ [< biograph(y) + -ee ‘one that
performs a specified action’]; biography ‘1. An account of a person’s
life written, composed, or produced by another. 2. Biographies
considered as a group, especially when regarded as a genre. 3. The
writing, composition, or production of biographies’ [< bio- + -graphy];
biolysis ‘1. Death of a living organism or tissue caused or accompanied
by lysis. 2. The decomposition of organic material by living organisms,
such as microorganisms’ [< bio- + -lysis]; biome ‘a major regional or
global biotic community, such as a grassland or desert, characterized
chiefly by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate’
[< bi- + -ome]; biometrics ‘the statistical study of biological
phenomena’ [< bio- + -metrics]; biopsy ‘the removal and examination
of a sample of tissue from a living body for diagnostic purposes’ [< bi-
+ -opsy]; bioscope ‘an early movie projector’ [< bio- + -scope];
bioscopy ‘medical examination of a body to determine the presence or
absence of life’ [< bio- + -scopy]; biotron ‘a climate-control chamber
used for studying a living organism’s response to specific
environmental conditions’ [< bio- + -tron];
- 5 of the words in our corpus (6.25%) are compounds of the blend or
portmanteau type: bioc(o)enology ‘the branch of ecology concerned
with the relationships and interactions between the members of a
natural community ‘ [< biocen(osis) + -o- + -logy, a blend word (The
Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 1968); or < bio- +
ceno- < Gk koinos ‘common’ + -logy (English Collins Dictionary,
2003)]; biographer ‘one who writes, composes, or produces
biography’ [< biograph(y) + -er]; biomaterial ‘a biocompatible
material that is used to construct artificial organs, rehabilitation
devices, or prostheses and replace natural body tissues’ [<
bio(compatible) + material]; biometry ‘biometrics’ [< biometr(ics) + -
y]; bionics ‘application of biological principles to the study and design

of engineering systems, especially electronic systems’ [< bi- +
(electr)onics]; some sources suggest that bioethics also belongs to this
type of word formation: bioethics ‘the study of the ethical and moral
implications of new biological discoveries and biomedical advances, as
in the fields of genetic engineering and drug research’ [< bio(logy) +
ethics];
- 4 of the words in our corpus (5.00%) are loanwords from French,
German and Greek: biology ‘1. The science of life and of living
organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin,
evolution, and distribution. 2. The life processes or characteristic
phenomena of a group or category of living organism. 3. The plant and
animal life of a specific area or region’ [< G Biologie < bi- + -logie ‘-
logy’]; bionomics ‘ecology’ [< bionomic probably < F bionomique < F
bionomie ‘ecology’ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2011)]; biota ‘the
combined flora and fauna of a region’ [< NL < Gk biotƝ ‘life’]; biotite
‘a dark-brown to black mica, found in igneous and metamorphic rocks’
[< F biotite < Jean Baptiste Biot (1774-1862), French mineralogist and
physicist];
- 1 word of our corpus (1.25%) is a calque (or loantranslation): biotin
‘a colourless crystalline vitamin of the vitamin B complex’ [< vitamin].
Discussion
After analyzing the structure of the words with bi(o)- in our corpus, we
have come to the conclusion that bi(o)- is a combining form and not a
prefix because it can combine not only with other words, but also with
affixes (there are 11 such compounds in our corpus).
Several of the compounds we have analyzed may be considered
portmanteau or blend words because they combine other words or parts
of words with the meaning not merely of bio- “life”, but also of other
words composed with bi(o)-, which the latter replaces as a clipped form.
Such is the case with bioassay, which may be considered a blend of
biology + assay, rather than a compound from the two combining forms
bi(o)- + -assay. It is more accurate to consider the meaning of bioassay
‘conducting a test to determine the biological activity of a substance’, i.e. a
biological trial, more closely connected to the applied adjective biological
than to the abstract form bi(o)-. Likewise, biodegradation might be
considered a clipping of “biological degradation”. Also, though debatable,
The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (1968) considers
that biocenology is made up from a condensed variant of biocenosis + -o-

+ -logy, which makes it a portmanteau word.
We have come to the conclusion that bi(o)- is a significant and
meaningful combining form. It has both a traditional straightforward
meaning and a modern telescopic one. For instance, in biology, bio- means
‘life’, but in biodegradable, it telescopes “biologically”. This is also the
case with present-day shortened forms like bio-, used as a free morpheme,
which is, however, a telescopic abbreviation of another word. This may
also be considered an instance of lexicalization, as in this particular case,
bio (especially referring to food and agriculture) acquires independent
lexical status and sometimes functions as a free form. However, this is
merely an exception to the rule, as in all the other cases bi(o)- is a bound
morpheme. This discussion proves that it is indeed a combining form,
which can combine with bound roots and with words to make up new
words. Thus, the question whether bi(o)- should be considered a
combining form or an affixal formation has hopefully been settled. A
final remark is that language is surely enriched by the huge productivity of
this combining form. Various compounds based on such combining
forms as bio- may be more easily understood if etymological analysis is
considered.
Conclusions
The major effect of compounding is undoubtedly the enrichment of
language. Studying combing forms and compounds which make up the
vocabulary of biology and of related areas of research highlights various
origins of modern English language, especially Latin and ancient Greek
(Carstairs-McCarthy 2002), as well as French and German. Obviously, it
may be remarked that the classical compounds have been acquired into
English by three means: through French from Latin and Greek, directly
from Latin and Greek, or by coinage in English, but still essentially based
upon Greek or Latin patterns. Therefore, the combining form bi(o)- and
the compounds built with it are not only part of English as well as Latin
and Greek, but also part of French, Italian, Romanian and other Indo-
European languages which employ them. In conclusion, it is important to
be aware of this international linguistic resource, to study it accordingly
and to make an informed use of such words.
References
Collins English Dictionary. (2003). Online: http://www.thefreedictionary.com.
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. (2004). Online: http://www.reference.com.
Dragoescu, Alina-Andreea & Boc-SînmărghiĠan, Diana-Andreea. (2011).
The Combining Form Bio-. A Linguistic Approach. Agrobuletin Agir
1(8): 113-117.
Harper, D. (2009). Online Etymology Dictionary. Online:
http://www.etymonline.com.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (2011). Online:
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary.
Perkoviü, Anica & RaĠă, Georgeta. (2008). Notes on the Combining Form
eco-. Journal of Linguistic Studies 1: 9-14.
University Press.
York: Random House.
Publishing Company.
COMBINING FORMS:
ECO-
ANICA PERKOVIû AND GEORGETA RAğĂ
Introduction
Strengthening training in agribusiness, rural development, and agricultural
public administration can no longer be conceived without strengthening
training in environmental protection. From this perspective, it is
imperative to get the necessary knowledge and know-how in the field of
ecology. It is no longer possible for any E.U. Member State to improve
competitiveness for farming and forestry, quality of life and diversification
of rural economy, and the environment and countryside in the frame of
strategic approaches and options without properly understanding “the
language of environment and ecology” (both as English for special
purpose).
Materials and Methods

We have inventoried all the terms containing the combining form (‘a
bound form or bound morpheme used in conjunction with another
linguistic element in the formation of a word’ – Chalker & Wiener 1994)
eco- and its variants oec(o)- and oik(i)(o)- (from the Greek for ‘house’,
‘household affairs’ [environment, habitat], ‘home’, ‘dwelling’; used in one
extensive sense as environment) in one of the best English language
dictionaries ever (Webster Comprehensive Dictionary 1995) and on the
Internet (Eco-words. Online: http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index.E).
We have analysed them from a semantic (i.e. from the point of view of
their meaning) and lexicological (i.e. from the point of view of the stock of
words being built on the same basis) perspective (Chalker & Wiener
1994).
42 Combining Forms: Eco-
Results
We have identified 114 terms containing the combining form eco- and
its variants oec(o)- and oik(i)(o)-.
A. Among them, 25 (22%) have nothing to do with ecology, though
they contain eco- and its variants oec(o)- and oik(i)(o)-: ecofugic /
oikofugic ‘in psychiatry, a reference to or swayed by the impulse to
wander or travel away from home’; ecomania / oecomania / oikomania
‘1. a morbid attitude toward the members of one’s family [domineering
behaviour at home and humility toward other persons in authority]; 2. a
pathological dislike of the members of one’s family often resulting in a
feeling that one must get away from them’; econometric(al) ‘1. the branch
of economics concerned with the application of mathematical economics
to economic data by the use of statistical methods; 2. of, or relating to, or
characterized by, the application of mathematics to economic data or
theories’; econometrician ‘a student of, or specialist in, econometrics’;
econometrics ‘the branch of economics concerned with the application of
mathematical economics to economic data by the use of statistical
methods’; econometrist ‘econometrician’; economic(al) ‘1. pertaining to
the management of a household, or to the ordering of private affairs; 2.
relating to the science of economics; relating to the development and
regulation of the material resources of a community or nation; 3. the
science relating to the production and distribution of material wealth;
sometimes used as equivalent to political economy, but more frequently
with reference to practical and specific applications’; economically ‘with
economy’; economics ‘the study of the production, distribution, and
consumption of goods and services’; economise / economize ‘to practice
economy’; economiser ‘a person who economises’; economism ‘the
theory or practice of assigning primary importance to the economy or to
economic achievement’; economist ‘1. one who manages a household; a
housekeeper; 2. someone who studies, works, or is an expert in the field of
economics’; economization ‘the action or process of economizing (force,
material, etc.)’; economy / oeconomy ‘1. the production and consumption
of goods and services of a community regarded as a whole; 2. the prudent
managing of resources to avoid extravagant expenditure or waste; 3. a
saving or attempt to reduce expenditure; 4. originally, the management of
a household; 5. current usage is sometimes a reference to that which is
intended to be less expensive or to give better value’; ecophobia /
oik(i)ophobia ‘1. a morbid dislike of home or an abnormal fear of being
home or in one’s house; 2. a fear of home life or surroundings, including
house-hold appliances, equipment, electricity, bathtubs, household
Anica Perkoviü and Georgeta RaĠă 43
chemicals, and many other common objects in the home’; ecotropic /

oikotropic ‘1. homesick; a strong desire to return to one’s home; 2. in
virology, a retrovirus that can replicate only in the host of the species in
which it originated’; macroeconomic ‘related to macroeconomics’;
macroeconomics ‘1. a branch of economics that focuses on the general
features and processes that make up a national economy and the ways in
which different segments of the economy are connected; 2. a branch of
economics dealing with the broad and general aspects of an economy;
such as, the relationship between the income and investments of a country
as a whole’; macroeconomist ‘a specialist in macroeconomics’;
macroeconomy ‘the economy viewed as a whole and in terms of all those
factors that control its overall performance’; microeconomic ‘related to
microeconomy’; microeconomics ‘the study of specific or localized
aspects of an economy’; microeconomist ‘a specialist in microeconomics’;
oecophobia / oikophobia ‘a fear of home surroundings and certain items
in the home (electrical, etc.)’.
B. Other 88 terms (77%) containing eco- and its variants oec(o)- and
oik(i)(o)- are closely related to ecology. They are as follows:
agroecological ‘related to agroecology’; agroecologist ‘an expert in or a
student of agroecology’; agroecology ‘1. the study of the relationship
between the environment and agricultural crops; 2. ecology as applied to
agriculture’; aut(o)ecological ‘related to aut(o)ecology’; aut(o)ecology ‘1.
the ecology of an individual organism or species; 2. the study of the
ecology of an individual plant or species; the opposite of synecology’;
bioecologic(al) ‘related to bioecology’; bioecologically ‘from the point of
view of bioecology’; bioecologist ‘1. a specialist who studies the
relationships of organisms to their natural environments; 2. one who
favours or specializes in bioecology; an ecologist’; bioecology ‘the science
of organisms as affected by the factors of their environments; study of the
environment and life history of organisms; also, ecology’; di(o)ecious ‘in
biology, having the male and female reproductive organs in separate
individuals; most animal species are dioecious, as are some plants, such as
asparagus’; dioeciously ‘in a dioecious way’; dioeciousness ‘the property
of being dioecious’; dioecism ‘dioeciousness’; dioecy ‘dioeciousness’;
ecoactivist ‘one who actively opposes the pollution, or destruction by
other means, of the environment’; ecobabble ‘using the technical language
of ecology to make the user seem to be ecologically aware; ecobiology
‘the study of the relationships of organisms to their natural environments;
ecobiosis ‘the conditions pertaining to a mode of life within a specific
habitat’; ecobiotic ‘related to ecobiology’; ecocatastrophe /
ecocatastrophy ‘major damage to the environment, especially when
caused by human activity’; ecocentric ‘1. centring on the environment;

emphasizing the importance of protecting the environment rather than the
needs or rights of human beings; of or relating to ecocentrism; 2. an
adherent or advocate of ecocentrism’; ecocentrism ‘the view or belief that
environmental concerns should take precedence over the needs and rights
of human beings considered in isolation’; ecocidal ‘designed or tending to
destroy the environment’; ecocide ‘destruction or damage of the
environment; especially intentionally, e.g., by herbicides in war’;
ecoclimate ‘the climate as an ecological factor; the climate of a habitat’;
ecoclimatology ‘the science of ecoclimate’; ecocline 1. reflecting
ecological conditions in general; 2. a more or less continuous character
variation in a sequence of populations distributed along an ecological
gradient, with each population exhibiting local adaptation to its particular
segment of the gradient; 3. the differences in community structure
resulting from changes in slope aspect around a mountain or ridge’;
ecodeme ‘a sub-specific group capable of interbreeding within a
population’; ecofact ‘in archaeology, a natural object or substance that has
not been technologically altered but that has cultural significance; such as,
a shell carried from the ocean to an inland settlement’; ecofallow ‘a
method of farming that diminishes weeds and conserves water by rotating
crops and reducing or eliminating tillage’; ecofeminism ‘a socio-political
theory and movement that associates ecological (especially,
environmental) concerns with feminist ones; especially, while regarding
both as resulting from male dominance and exploitation’; ecofeminist ‘of,
relating to, or characteristic of ecofeminism; advocating or adhering to
ecofeminism’; ecofreak ‘a fanatical conservationist or environmentalist’;
eco-friendliness ‘the property of being eco-friendly’; eco-friendly
‘ecologically “friendly”; not harmful to the environment; also applied to
products manufactured with explicit regard to the environment’;
ecogeographer ‘a specialist in the geographical aspects of the ecology’;
ecogeographic(al) ‘related to the geographical aspects of ecology’;
ecogeographically ‘from the point of view of the geographical aspects of
the ecology’; ecohazard ‘any activity or substance that may constitute a
threat to a habitat or environment’; ecolaw ‘legislation dealing with the
environment’; ecoline ‘the rate of genetic change that occurs in an
environment due to the merging of different varieties of a plant species’;
ecologic(al) ‘1. of or relating to the environment or to the science of
ecology; 2. relating to the wise use or beneficial management of natural
resources and of the natural environment’; ecologist ‘one who specializes
in biological sciences that deal with the relationship between organisms
and their environment’; ecology / oecology ‘1. the branch of the biological
sciences that deals with the relationship between organisms and their
environment, including their relationship with other organisms; 2. the
science concerned with interactions between organisms and the
environment on spatial scales ranging from parts of individuals to the
biosphere as a whole’; ecomorphology ‘the study of the relationship
between the ecological relations of an individual and its morphology’;
econiche ‘niche’; ecoparasite ‘a microparasite to which the host is
normally immune or well adapted’; ecophysiological ‘related to
ecophysiology’; ecophysiologist ‘a specialist in ecophysiology’;
ecophysiology ‘the study of the interrelationship between an organism’s
physical functioning and its environment’; ecopo(i)etist ‘an aesthete in the
introduction and selective elimination of species within a new or fractured
ecology with the end goal of producing a self-sustaining dynamically
balanced ecosystem that provides beauty and usefulness to humans’;
ecopoiescience ‘the scientific study of the breakdown of ecosystems and
the processes involved in the re-diversification of species’; ecopoiesis ‘1.
origin of ecosystems; 2. a type of planetary engineering that can be a
major stage of terra formation’: the primary stage of ecosystem creation is
usually restricted to the initial seeding of microbial life; 3. the human
creation of a self-sustaining ecosystem, or biosphere, on a lifeless planet’;
ecosite / oecosite / oikosite ‘an ecoparasite’; ecospecies ‘1. a taxonomic
species considered in terms of its ecological characteristics and usually
including several interbreeding ecotypes; 2. an index species that is
characteristic of a particular biome or ecosystem’; ecospecific ‘related to
ecospecies’; ecospecifically ‘from the point of view of ecospecies’;
ecosphere ‘1. in ecology, the earth and the living organisms that inhabit it,
along with all the environmental factors that operate on these organisms;
biosphere; 2. in astronomy, the region of space around a star that is
considered to be capable of supporting life; 3. the region of space,
including planets, whose conditions are not incompatible with the
existence of living things’; ecospheric ‘related to the ecosphere’;
ecosystem ‘a system formed by the interaction of community of organisms
with their environment’; ecotage ‘sabotage aimed at polluters or
destroyers of the natural environment’; ecotelemetry ‘measurement and
transmission of vital information; biotelemetry’; ecoterrorist ‘a person
involved in ecoterrorism’; ecoterrorism ‘1. the threat to use violent acts
that would harm the quality of the environment in order to blackmail a
group or society. It also includes the actual carrying out of the threats; 2.
the sabotage of the activities of individuals or corporations, e.g., industrial
companies, considered to be polluting or destroying the natural
environment’; ecotonal ‘related to ecotone’; ecotone ‘1. in ecology, a
transition zone between two distinct habitats that contains species from
each area, as well as organisms unique to it; 2. in anthropology, such an
area of transition in which certain game or vegetation overlap; a region of
primary importance for human subsistence’; ecotourism ‘a form of
tourism that strives to minimize ecological or other damage to areas
visited for their natural or cultural interest’; ecotoxicologist ‘a specialist in
the harmful effects of chemicals to the natural environment’;
ecotoxicology ‘the scientific study of harmful effects caused by manmade
chemicals to the natural environment, especially effects on populations,
communities, and ecosystems; an essential part of ecotoxicology is the
study of the movement of potentially toxic substances through food webs
and through the water cycle, etc.’; ecotype ‘1. an organism that has
adapted to its local environment through minor, genetically induced
changes in its physiology; yet can still reproduce with other members of its
species from other areas that have not undergone these changes; 2. a
locally adapted population of a species with limited tolerance to changes
in environmental factors’; ecotypic ‘related to ecotype’; ecotypically ‘from
the point of view of an ecotype’; ecowarrior ‘an activist who takes direct,
often unlawful, action on an environmental issue’; ecozoiatry ‘a branch of
veterinary medicine dealing with domestic animals’; genecology ‘in
biology, the study of intraspecific variations and genetic compositions in
relation to the environment’; heteroecious ‘1. a parasite occupying two or
more different hosts at different stages of a life cycle; 2. a non hostspecific
parasite; 3. a reference to a unisexual organism in which male and female
gametes are produced by different individuals’; heteroeciously ‘from the
point of view of heteroecism’; heteroecism ‘the development of different
stages of a parasitic species on different host plants’; macroecology ‘the
ecology of a macrohabitat or larger generalized area’; microecological
‘related to microecology’; microecology ‘the ecology of a microhabitat
(very small area)’; paleoecology ‘ecology that deals with fossil
organisms’; synecologic(al) ‘related to synecology’; synecologically ‘from
the point of view of synecology’; synecologist ‘a student of synecology’;
synecology ‘1. the structure, development, and distribution of communities
in relation to their environments; 2. the study of plant or animal
communities’; zooecological ‘related to zooecology’; zooecology ‘the
study of the relationships between animals and their environments; animal
ecology’.
C. A single term (1%), ecopolitics ‘1. the study of politics as
influenced by economy; 2. the study of the interrelation between politics
and ecological issues and problems’, can be ranged in either of the two
groups above.
Discussion
As far as the terms containing the combining form eco- and its
variants oec(o)- and oik(i)(o)- are concerned, 28 (32%) of them are either
compound words, derivatives or backformations (Chalker & Wiener
1994).
The compound words in our corpus are words formed with the help of
a combining form (‘a linguistic form that occurs only in combination with
other forms’) (Chalker & Wiener 1994) and of an independent word.
There are 8 such combining forms and 18 (64%) compound words in
our corpus: bio- ‘a combining form meaning life, used in the formation of
compound words’ (4): bioecologic(al), bioecologically, bioecologist, and
bioecology; agro- ‘a combining form meaning field, soil, crop production,
used in the formation of compound words’ (3): agroecological,
agroecologist, and agroecology; hetero- ‘a combining form meaning
different, other, used in the formation of compound words; also, before a
vowel, heter-’ (3): heteroecious, heteroeciously, and heteroecism; aut(o)-
‘a combining form meaning self, same, spontaneous, used in the formation
of compound words; also, before a vowel, aut-’ (2): aut(o)ecological and
aut(o)ecology; micro- ‘a combining form with the meanings small, very
small in comparison with others of the kind, too small to be seen by the
unaided eye, dealing with extremely minute organisms, organic structures,
or quantities of substance, localised, restricted in scope or area,
containing or dealing with texts that require enlargement to be read, one
millionth’ (2): microecological and microecology; zoo- ‘a combining form
meaning living being or animal, used in the formation of compound
words’ (2): zooecological and zooecology; macro- ‘a combining form
meaning large, long, great, excessive, used in the formation of compound
words’ (1): macroecology; paleo- ‘a combining form meaning old or
ancient, especially in reference to former geologic time periods, used in
the formation of compound words’ (1): paleoecology.
Other 9 words in our corpus are derivatives, i.e. words formed with
the help of an affix (in our case, a prefix ‘an affix placed before a base or
another prefix’) (Chalker & Wiener 1994). There are 2 such prefixes and
9 (32%) derivatives in our corpus: di- ‘a prefix meaning two, twice,
double, used in the formation of compound words and in chemical terms’
(5): di(o)ecious, dioeciously, dioeciousness, dioecism, and dioecy; syn- ‘a
prefix meaning with or together, used in the formation of compound
words’ (4): synecologic(al), synecologically, synecologist, and
synecology.
A single word (4%) in our corpus is a backformation (‘a word formed
from another word that appears to be a derived form of the first by

modification’) (Chalker & Wiener 1994): genecology (that must have had
initially the form geneecology and that must have dropped one e maybe
for spelling reasons).
The word ecopolitics, though the only one to share both large groups
of words containing eco- and its variants oec(o)- and oik(i)(o)-, points by
itself to the fact that ecology and politics are so intertwined that no policy
of rural development could ever ignore environmental matters.
Conclusions
Though representing only 22% of the total number of terms containing
the combining form eco- and its variants oec(o)- and oik(i)(o)-, the terms
having nothing to do with ecology and, therefore, nothing to do with the
environment, are numerous enough to be a nuisance for any non-native
English-language speaking undergraduate or specialist in environmental
matters. Therefore, this corpus of words should be taught as such to
undergraduates in environmental ecology, underlying, at the same time,
the huge richness of the English vocabulary and the wide range of means
the English language can rely on in enriching its vocabulary.
References
Eco-words. Online: http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index.E.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2005). On the Vocabulary of Ecology: Ageing and
Renewing. Lucrări útiinĠifice. Facultatea de Agricultură XXXVII: 633-
634.
—. (2005). On the Vocabulary of Ecology: Renewing Through New
Forms. Scientific Works L (6): 137-142.
RaĠă, Georgeta, Petroman, Cornelia, Petroman, I. & Perkoviü, Anica.
(2008). Eco-tourism Terms: A Hybrid Vocabulary. Lucrări útiinĠifice.
Facultatea de Agricultură 40 (3): 313-316.
Publishing Company.
COMPOUNDS WITH CULTURE
GEORGETA RAğĂ, IONEL SAMFIRA

AND ANICA PERKOVIû
Introduction
One of the first questions arising when reading a text in a foreign language
is whether there is complete correspondence between a certain unit in
one’s mother tongue and the unit in the foreign language. From this point
of view, the English language, which is a Germanic language, has different
patterns of building up words, the relatively small number of words with a
Latin etymology emerging in the late 18th and the 19th centuries, when
scientific language was submerged by Latin and Greek terms called to fill
linguistic voids caused by the emergence of new realities.
Material and Method

Teaching English for Special Purposes reveals the existence of a great
number of nouns designating agricultural practices. Our feeling is that
nouns coined with -culture (most of which have a Latin origin) are less
numerous than derivative lexemes or than compound lexemes, two very
common procedures of enriching vocabulary in English. We have used the
quantitative and the comparative methods in our analysis of the terms in -
culture. We have inventoried all the terms we could from both language
dictionaries and agriculture-related literature or to its practice (be it type of
product or farming method). We have used some of the most prominent
English language dictionaries and encyclopaedias to better illustrate the
field of nomenclature in the different agricultural branches.

There are a lot of nouns related to the practice of “agriculture” in
English. Such nouns designating either “product types” or “farming
methods” are: agronomy, beekeeping, farming, forestry, gardening,
50 Compounds with Culture
husbandry, hydroponics, plantation, pomology, ranching, etc. It is easy

to notice that, with a few exceptions (agronomy), all these nouns are
English derivatives.
Beside these nouns, there is also a series of noun phrases related to the
practice of “agriculture”. Such phrases designating either the “type of
agriculture” or the “type of products” are compounds with agriculture.
As for the word culture ‘1. The act or practice of cultivating the soil;
tillage. 2. The raising of plants or animals, especially with a view to their
improvement’, it has produced a considerable number of compound
lexemes. The compound lexemes (compound words whose meaning
cannot be deduced from their parts or similar combinations of words)
related to agricultural practices are of two types: of the form fruit culture
‘all fruit production from trees, shrubs, and vines’ and greenhouse culture
‘the growing of plants throughout the year’, but their number must be
larger if we take into account the fact that in theory, at least, one can
associate the word “culture” with no matter what other word belonging or
not to the field of agriculture and of the form agriculture (in which we
identify a combining form, agri-, and a free word, culture).
The 17 compounds of the latter type we inventoried are as follows:
agriculture [< L agricultǌra] ‘1. The science or art of cultivating land in
the raising of crops; husbandry; farming. 2. The production of crops,
livestock, or poultry’; citriculture [< ?] ‘the cultivation of citrus fruits’;
apiculture [< L api(s) ‘bee’ + culture] ‘beekeeping, especially on a
commercial scale for the sale of honey’; aquaculture [< L aqua ‘water’ +
(agri)culture] ‘farming of aquatic organisms (fishes, crustaceans, molluscs,
algae, and aquatic plants) in fresh, brackish or salt water’, ‘hydroponics’,
aquiculture [< L aqui- (combining form of aqua ‘water’) + (agri)culture]
‘farming of aquatic organisms (fish such as mullet)’, ‘hydroponics’;
arboriculture [< L arbori- (stem of arbor ‘tree’) + culture] ‘the cultivation
of trees and shrubs’; aviculture [< ?] ‘The rearing or keeping of birds’;
floriculture [< ?] ‘cultivation of ornamental flowering plants for aesthetic
purposes, whether grown in window boxes, greenhouses, or gardens’, ‘the
cultivation of flowers or flowering plants, especially under glass’;
horticulture [< L hort(us) ‘garden’ + (agri)culture] ‘science and art of
growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, shrubs, and trees’, ‘1. The cultivation
of flowers, fruits, vegetables, or ornamental plants. 2. The science and art
of cultivating such plants’; monoculture [< ?] ‘the use of land for growing
only one type of crop’; olericulture [< L oleri- (stem of olus or holus)
‘vegetable, kitchen herb’ + culture] ‘production of vegetable crops’, ‘the
cultivation of vegetables’; pisciculture [< ?] ‘fish farming, the raising of
fish in ponds’, ‘the breeding, rearing, and transplantation of fish by
Georgeta RaĠă, Ionel Samfira and Anica Perkoviü 51
artificial means’; sericulture [< Gk s͇r ‘silkworm’ + i + culture] ‘the

raising of silkworms’, ‘the raising of silkworms for the production of raw
silk’; silviculture [L sylvi (combining form of silva ‘woodland’) + culture]
‘study of the relationship of a forest to its environment, involving the
development, care, and reproduction of stands of timber’, ‘the cultivation
of forest trees; forestry’ or sylviculture [L sylv- (stem of L sylva, silva
‘forest’) + i + culture] ‘silviculture’; viniculture [< ?] ‘the science or study
of making wines’; viticulture [< L vƯti(s) ‘vine’ + culture] ‘wine growing’,
‘the culture or cultivation of grapevines; grape growing’.
Conclusions
The 17 compounds with -culture in English is rather small compared
to languages such as French (RaĠă 2005a and 2005b), where there are 22
compounds designating different types of “culture”, be it type of product
(algae, aquatic plants and animals, bulbs, carps, crustaceans, flax, fruit
trees, geese, maize, molluscs, mushrooms, mussels, oysters, pearl oysters,
pigeons, rabbits, salmon and trout, snails, trees for wood, and truffles) or
farming method (practice of controlling sanitary status of future potato
crops, practice of cultivating in greenhouses, practice of cultivating
several crops on a single farm, use of engines in agriculture, and use of
plastic in agriculture), or even with Romanian. It is interesting to see that
language dictionaries indicate the etymology for only 11 compounds with
-culture (agriculture, apiculture, aquaculture, aquiculture,
arboriculture, horticulture, olericulture, sericulture, silviculture,
sylviculture, and viticulture), and not for other 6 compounds, perceived
probably as easy to understand and to explain (citriculture, aviculture,
floriculture, monoculture, pisciculture, and viniculture). Again, it is
interesting to note that only 10 of the 11 compounds for which the
language dictionaries provide the etymology are Latin (agriculture,
apiculture, aquaculture, aquiculture, arboriculture, horticulture,
olericulture, silviculture, sylviculture, and viticulture), while only 1
(sericulture) has a Greek etymology. Of the 17 English compounds, 14
(82%) indicate the type of product (agriculture, citriculture, apiculture,
arboriculture, aviculture, floriculture, horticulture, olericulture,
pisciculture, sericulture, silviculture, sylviculture, viniculture, and
viticulture) while only 3 (18%) indicate the farming method (aquaculture,
aquiculture, and monoculture). The 17 English compounds are, in fact,
15, as 2 of the compounds have two different spelling forms (aquaculture
and aquiculture, silviculture and sylviculture). The compounds
aquaculture and aquiculture have both common and different meanings.
52 Compounds with Culture
References
Publishing Company.
New Standard Encyclopedia. (1995). Chicago: Standard Educational
Corporation.
Perkoviü, Anica, RaĠă, Georgeta & Petroman, I. (2008). The English of
Agriculture: Compounds and Derivatives with Culture. Scientific
Papers. Faculty of Agriculture 40 (2): 289-292.
University Press.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Anica. (2006). On Combining Forms with
Culture in the English of Agriculture. Proceedings. Linguistics and
Theory of Literature. Pedagogy and Psychology 45, Rousse, Bulgaria:
52-54.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Anica. (2008). Compounds with ‚Culture’: A
Semantic Approach. Proceedings of the 43rd Croatian and 3rd
International Symposium on Agriculture, 18-21 February 2008,
Opatija, Croatia: 715-719.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2005a). Notes sur le français de l’agriculture: les
composés avec culture. [Notes on Agricultural French : Compounds
with culture]. Lucrări útiinĠifice. Seria Horticultură 1 (48): 1061-1064.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2010). Compuse cu termenul -cultură în lexicul românesc
al agriculturii. [Compounds with -culture in Romanian Agricultural
Vocabulary]. Agrobuletin AGIR 6: 15-19.
York: Random House.
Webster Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language.
COMPOUNDS WITH TREE
GEORGETA RAğĂ
Introduction
The word tree ‘a perennial plant having a permanent, woody, self-
supporting main stem or trunk, ordinarily growing to a considerable
height, and usually developing branches at some distance from the ground’
may appear as a free word in hyphemes (hyphened compound words
such as tree-bordered) or solidemes (solid compound words such as
treetop), or as first or second element in two-word phrases (such as tree
guard).
Material and Method

We have inventoried a number of 70 such compounds (i.e. entries) of
tree in some very outstanding language dictionaries. We then grouped
these combinations according to their type of composition.

Among the 70 entries inventoried, 32 are hyphemes, 1 is a solideme,
25 are two-word phrases, and 12 are different other combinations of
tree.
Hyphemes. There is considerable variation and inconsistency in the
use of hyphens – the sign (-) used to join semantically or syntactically – in
compounds (e.g. coal field, coal-field, and coalfield). Basically, hyphens
are meant to aid comprehension. One useful convention is to separate with
a hyphen vowels that would otherwise be run together in a word (e.g. co-
occur). Another useful convention is to hyphenate words that would not
normally be hyphenated in order to avoid ambiguity (e.g. a spare room-
heater is not the same as a spare-room heater). Hyphens are also useful
for showing a close connection between words that might otherwise be
understood as separate and equal (e.g. a black-bearded pilot) and are
normal when a sequence of words is, unusually, used in attributive
54 Compounds with Tree
position before a noun (e.g. a tree-bordered alley). Are hyphenated 32

compounds of tree. In 21 of them, tree is used attributively together with
a present/past participle and the result is an attribute: tree-bordered
‘bordered with trees’, tree-boring ‘(about insects) boring trees’, tree-clad
‘protected by trees’, tree-covered ‘covered with trees’, tree-crowned
‘bearing a tree in front’, tree-dotted ‘dotted with trees’, tree-dwelling
‘dwelling in trees’, tree-feeding ‘feeding on trees’, tree-fringed ‘fringed
with trees’, tree-garnished ‘garnished with trees’, tree-girt ‘girt by trees’,
tree-haunting ‘haunting in trees’, tree-inhabiting ‘inhabiting trees’, tree-
lined ‘having a line or lines of trees’, tree-locked ‘locked by trees’, tree-
loving ‘loving trees’, tree-marked ‘(of a road, etc.) marked with trees’,
tree-planted ‘having trees planted on it’, tree-ripened ‘ripened while still
on the tree’, tree-shaded ‘shaded by trees’, and tree-skirted ‘bordered with
trees’; in 11 compounds, tree is still used attributively, but the result is a
noun designating an ‘object’, an ‘operation’, or an ‘actor’: tree-climbing
‘getting to the top of a tree’, tree-hewing ‘the hewing of trees’, tree-holder
‘a device for holding trees’, tree-hopping ‘hopping over a wooden
obstacle’, tree-nail (also, trenail, trunnel) ‘a wooden peg or nail of dry,
hard wood which swells when wet, used for fastening timbers, especially
in shipbuilding’, tree-planting ‘the planting of trees’, tree-protector ‘a
small fence protecting a tree’, tree-pruning ‘the cutting or lopping
superfluous undesired twigs, branches, or roots from’, tree-sawing ‘the
sawing of trees’, tree-spraying ‘spraying trees to treat or prevent disease’,
and tree-trimmer ‘one who trims trees’.
Solidemes. There is a single solideme in our corpus of compounds of
tree: treetop ‘the top of a tree; the uppermost branches of a tree’.
Two-word phrases. There are 25 two-word phrases in our corpus of
compounds of tree, and 24 of them are nouns denoting ‘objects’ and
‘operations’: tree agate ‘an agate with ramified traces’, tree brier ‘an
evergreen shrub of southern Europe (Erica arborea) about 4 feet high,
with white flowers’, tree calf ‘a calf skin bounding’, tree creeper ‘any
animal creeping trees’, tree culture ‘the culture of trees’, tree dweller ‘any
animal dwelling in trees’, tree farm ‘a tree-covered area managed as a
business enterprise under a plan of reforestation that makes continuous
production of timber possible’, tree fern ‘any of various ferns (families
Cyathacaee and Dicksoniaceae) with large fronds and woody trunks that
often attain a treelike size’, tree frog ‘an arboreal amphibian (Family
Hylidae), having the toes dilated with viscous, adhesive disks’, tree goose
(also barnacle) ‘any marine crustacean of the group Cirripedia, usually
having a calcareous shell, being either stalked and found attached to ship
bottoms and floating timber, or stalk-less and found attached to rocks,
Georgeta RaĠă 55
especially in the intertidal zone; a thing or person that clings tenaciously’,

tree guard ‘a small fence for protecting a tree’, tree heath ‘tree brier’, and
tree house ‘a small house, especially one for children to play in, built or
placed in the branches of a tree’, tree insulator ‘a fence insulating a tree’,
tree ivy ‘a species of ivy’, tree kangaroo ‘any of various kangaroos (genus
Dendrolagus) of Australia and New Guinea adapted for tree-dwelling’,
tree planter ‘a person who plants trees’, tree resin ‘a resin obtained by
distilling wood’, tree ring ‘a growth ring’, tree sparrow (also Canada
sparrow) ‘a North American sparrow (Spizella arborea) which nests in
Canada and migrates southward in winter’, tree surgeon ‘one skilled in
tree surgery’, tree surgery ‘the treatment of disease conditions and decay
in trees by operative methods’, tree tag ‘a piece of strip of strong paper,
etc., attached by one end to a tree as a mark or label’, tree toad ‘tree frog’,
and tree trunk ‘the main stem of a tree; in 1 two-word phrase, tree is used
attributively: tree like ‘having the aspect of a tree’.
Other cases. Tree occurs in other 12 cases, as either first or second
element of a two-word phrase. As first element, tree is no longer an
attribute. It is particularised by the elements following it as in: tree of
heaven (also ailanthus) ‘a large ornamental tree (Ailanthus altissima) of
eastern Asia, with large green flowers, those on the male tree being very
ill-scented’, tree of Knowledge (of good and evil) ‘(in the Bible) a tree in
Eden whose fruit Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat’, tree of life (also
arborvitae) (in the Bible) the tree in the garden of Eden whose fruits
conferred immortality; a similar tree in heaven’. In Tree-Planter-State
‘nickname of Nebraska’, it is part of a two-word phrase used attributively.
In the phrases in which tree appears as second element – be they
hyphenated words or two-word phrases – it is a notional noun whose
meaning is particularised by the first term used attributively: Christmas
tree ‘an evergreen tree decorated at Christmas with ornaments and lights’,
clothes tree ‘an upright pole with hooks near the top for hanging coats,
hats, etc.’, family tree ‘a genealogical chart showing the ancestry, descent,
and relationship of all members of a family’, genealogical tree ‘a family
tree’, rose-tree ‘a rose bush’, shade tree ‘a tree providing shade’, shoe tree
‘one of a pair of foot-shaped devices, usually of metal or wood, for placing
in a shoe to maintain its shape when it is not being worn’. In Christian
tree antenna, it is part of a two-word phrase used attributively.
Conclusions
No matter his/her knowledge in English, a non-native user of English
could understand, by only having a short look at a compound, and with
56 Compounds with Tree
high precision, that in a hypheme, the basic form (e.g., tree) is used
attributively and that the result is an attribute or a noun (46%); in a two-
word phrase (no hyphen) (36%) and in more-than-two-word phrases
(17%), the result is a noun. Therefore, the presence of a hyphen should
warn the user on the presence of an attribute or a noun – the distinction is
up to the user’s skill of identifying present and past participles, in the first
case, or nouns, in the second case, while its absence should guarantee the
presence of a noun.
References
University Press.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2005). Notes on the Compound Forms of Tree.
Proceedings of the 40th Croatian Symposium on Agriculture, February
15-18, 2006, Opatija, Croatia: 731-733.
—. (2006). Tree Compounds and Their Romanian Equivalents. Romanian
Journal of English Studies 3: 171-176.
York: Random House.
Publishing Company.
ENGLISH VERBS OF ANIMAL
COMMUNICATION:
A POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION
GEORGETA RAğĂ
AND ELENA-MIRELA SAMFIRA
Introduction
Verbs of animal communication are, in any language spoken on Earth,
verbs denoting the way in which humans perceive sound communication
in animals (RaĠă 2001). An analysis of their origin points to an evolution
(heritage, word borrowing, derivation, mimicry) specific to each
language apart.
Material and Method

We have used, in our corpus and classification of the English verbs of
animal communication both works in the field of animal communication
(Alcock 1089; RaĠă 2001) and English language dictionaries.
The method used in the classification of English verbs of animal
communication was the quantitative one based on the semantic analysis
of the terms.

We have inventoried in our English language dictionaries 57 English
verbs of animal communication (we have not taken into account
phonetic variants for one and the same verb – e.g., pur(r), t(h)rill, etc.) and
we have grouped them into two categories – verbs of animal
communication proper and unconventional verbs of animal
communication.
1. English verbs of animal communication proper are either
inherited from different periods of formation of the English language or
58 English Verbs of Animal Communication
borrowed from other languages, imitative, or both.

1.1. English verbs of animal communication proper that have been
inherited or borrowed come from the following periods in the
development of European languages (for some of the verbs – such as
bellow, call, or growl – we have considered the last period attested as
certain):
- Vulgar Latin: cry ‘to utter a characteristic sound or call (used of an

animal)’;
- Medieval Latin or Old Norse: bawl ‘to cry or sob loudly; wail’;
- Old English (before 1150): bark ‘to utter the harsh, abrupt sound of a
dog’, bell ‘to utter long, deep, resonant sounds; bellow’, bleat ‘to utter
the characteristic cry of a goat or sheep’, cluck ‘to utter the
characteristic sound of a hen’, crow ‘to utter the shrill cry characteristic
of a cock or rooster’, grunt ‘to utter a deep, guttural sound, as a hog
does’, low ‘to utter the sound made by cattle; moo’, peep ‘to utter
short, soft, high-pitched sounds, like those of a baby bird; cheep’, roar
‘to breathe with a rasping sound (used of a horse)’, sing ‘to make
melodious sounds (birds singing outside the window)’, whistle ‘to emit
a shrill, sharp, high-pitched cry, as some birds and other animals’, yelp
‘to utter a short, sharp bark or cry (excited dogs yelping)’;
- Middle English (1150-1500): bellow ‘to make the deep roaring sound
characteristic of a bull’, boom ‘to make a deep, resonant sound’
[mention: imitative of a loud noise], burble ‘to bubble; gurgle’, call ‘to
utter a characteristic cry (geese calling in early morning)’, chatter ‘to
utter a rapid series of short, inarticulate, speechlike sound (birds
chattering in the trees) [mention: of imitative origin’], chirp ‘to make a
short, high-pitched sound’ [mention: of imitative origin], chuck ‘to
make a clucking sound’ [mention: of imitative origin], croak ‘to utter a
low, hoarse sound’ [mention: probably of imitative origin], growl ‘to
emit a low, guttural sound or utterance’, hiss ‘to make a sharp, sibilant
sound’ [mention: of imitative origin], hoot ‘to utter the characteristic
cry of an owl’ [mention: perhaps of imitative origin], howl ‘to utter or
emit a long, mournful, plaintive sound (used of dogs)’, murmur ‘to
make a low, continuous, indistinct sound or succession of sounds’,
neigh ‘to utter the characteristic sound of a horse; whinny’ [mention:
probably of imitative origin], quack ‘to utter the characteristic sound
of a duck’ [mention: of imitative origin], rattle ‘to make or emit a
quick succession of short percussive sounds’ [mention: probably of
imitative origin], scream ‘to utter a long, loud, piercing cry, as from
pain or fear; to make a loud, piercing sound’, snort ‘to breathe noisily
Georgeta RaĠă and Elena-Mirela Samfira 59
and forcefully through the nostrils’, squeal ‘to utter or produce with a
squeal’ [mention: probably of imitative origin], tinkle ‘to signal or call
by tinkling’ [mention: perhaps of imitative origin], twitter ‘to utter a
succession of light chirping or tremulous sounds; chirrup’ [mention:
ultimately of imitative origin], utter ‘to send forth with the voice’;
- Old French (before 1400): bay ‘to utter a deep, prolonged bark’, bray
‘to utter the loud, harsh cry of a donkey’;
- Old North French: warble ‘to sing with trills, runs, or other melodic
embellishments’;
- Germanic: gaggle ‘to cackle (of geese) [Germanic, of imitative
origin]’;
- German: yodel / yodle ‘to sing so that the voice fluctuates rapidly
between the normal chest voice and a falsetto’;
- Italian: thrill / trill ‘to produce or give forth a trill’ [mention:
ultimately probably of imitative origin];
- Scandinavian: wail ‘to make a prolonged, high-pitched sound
suggestive of a cry’ [mention: probably of Scandinavian origin].
1.2. English verbs of animal communication that are imitative or

onomatopoeic are verbs that approximate, by imitation, natural animal or
non-animal sounds: baa ‘to make a bleating sound, as a sheep or goat’
[mention: imitative], cackle ‘to make the shrill cry characteristic of a hen
after laying an egg’ [mention: of imitative origin], caw ‘to utter the hoarse,
raucous sound characteristic of a crow or similar bird’ [mention:
imitative], cheep ‘to make a faint, shrill sound or sounds; chirp’ [mention:
imitative], chuckle ‘to cluck or chuck, as a hen’ [mention: probably
frequentative of chuck], coo ‘to utter the murmuring sound of a dove or
pigeon or a sound resembling it’ [mention: imitative], gabble ‘to make
rapid, low muttering or quacking sounds, as a goose or duck’ [mention:
probably frequentative of gab], honk ‘to emit a honk (the sound
characteristic of a wild goose)’ [mention: imitative], meow / mew / miaou
/ miaow / miaul ‘to make the crying sound of a cat’ [mention: imitative],
moo ‘to emit the deep, bellowing sound made by a cow; low’ [mention:
imitative], pur / purr ‘to make or utter a soft, vibrant sound (the cat
purred)’ [mention: imitative], whinny ‘to neigh, as a horse, especially in a
gentle tone’, yap ‘to bark sharply or shrill; yelp’ [mention: probably
imitative].
Two of these verbs are considered ‘probably frequentative’ (i.e.,
denoting a repeated action): chuckle ‘to cluck or chuck, as a hen’
[mention: probably frequentative of chuck] and gabble ‘to make rapid,
low muttering or quacking sounds, as a goose or duck’ [mention: probably
frequentative of gab].
1.3. Some English verbs of animal communication could be ranged in
either of the two categories above:
- Middle English (1150-1500): boom ‘to make a deep, resonant sound’

[mention: Middle English, imitative of a loud noise], burble ‘to
bubble; gurgle’, chatter ‘to utter a rapid series of short, inarticulate,
speechlike sound (birds chattering in the trees) [mention: Middle
English, of imitative origin’], chirp ‘to make a short, high-pitched
sound’ [mention: Middle English, of imitative origin], chuck ‘to make
a clucking sound’ [mention: Middle English, of imitative origin],
croak ‘to utter a low, hoarse sound’ [mention: Middle English,
probably of imitative origin], hiss ‘to make a sharp, sibilant sound’
[Middle English, of imitative origin], hoot ‘to utter the characteristic
cry of an owl’ [mention: Middle English, perhaps of imitative origin],
neigh ‘to utter the characteristic sound of a horse; whinny’ [mention:
Middle English, probably of imitative origin], quack ‘to utter the
characteristic sound of a duck’ [mention: Middle English, of imitative
origin], rattle ‘to make or emit a quick succession of short percussive
sounds’ [mention: Middle English, probably of imitative origin],
squeal ‘to utter or produce with a squeal’ [mention: Middle English,
probably of imitative origin], tinkle ‘to signal or call by tinkling’
[mention: Middle English, perhaps of imitative origin], twitter ‘to utter
a succession of light chirping or tremulous sounds; chirrup’ [mention:
Middle English, ultimately of imitative origin];
- Italian: thrill / trill ‘to produce or give forth a trill’ [mention: Italian,
ultimately probably of imitative origin];
- Scandinavian: wail ‘to make a prolonged, high-pitched sound
suggestive of a cry’ [mention: probably of Scandinavian origin].
2. Unconventional English verbs of animal communication are ‘human’

or ‘inanimate’ verbs for which the English language dictionaries do not
mention the animal(s) they are attributed to (since they are, normally,
reserved to humans or to objects) but that specialists in animal science use
frequently (Alcock 1989) – burble, call, cry, rattle, scream, tinkle, twitter,
utter, wail, warble, and yodel / yodel – a phenomenon that also happens in
verbs of human communication (RaĠă 1997).
Conclusions
Our analysis of the 57 English verbs of animal communication shows
that:
- 34 verbs come from the old Anglo-Saxon fund (Old English and
Middle English), which attests an early consolidation of this type of
verbs;
- 12 verbs (among which 2 are frequentative) are imitative, which attests
the high degree of creativity of the English language;
- 14 verbs could be ranged in either of these two groups;
- 11 verbs are unconventional, which attests, again, the high degree of
creativity of the English language.
As a conclusion, we can say that, despite the fact that 59% of the English
verbs of animal communication have an Anglo-Saxon etymon, the rest of
the verbs are the result of a recent renewal of the language by either
imitation (21%) or borrowing from inventories that have nothing to do
with the animal world (20%). (Figure 1-4)
19%
21% 60%
Figure 1-4. Share of the English verbs of animal communication: 60% - Anglo-
Saxon etymon; 21% - imitative; 19% - borrowings
References
Alcock, J. (1989). Animal Behaviour: An Evolutionary Approach.
Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.
the Romanian Language]. (1998). Bucureúti: Editura Univers
Enciclopedic.
University Press.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (1997). Les verbes de communication non-conventionnels.
Essai de classification [Unconventional Verbs of Communication. A
Tentative Classification]. Studia Universitatis Babeú-Bolyai. Philologia
4: 67-71.
—. (2001). ContribuĠii la teoria comunicării. [Contributions to the Theory
of Communication]. Timiúoara: Editura Mirton.
—. (2002). Verbele de comunicare animală în limba engleză. Încercare de
clasificare. [Verbs of Animal Communication in English. A Tentative
Classification]. Lucrări útiinĠifice. Agricultură XXXIII: 299-302.
York: Random House.
Publishing Company.
CHAPTER TWO
SYNTAX
AGRICULTURAL ENTOMOLOGY:
-ING FORMS
GEORGETA RAğĂ
Introduction
Teachers of English for Special Purposes are very much interested in
finding teaching and learning algorithms that facilitate the study of this
type of English. Thus, the learning of -ing words could be rendered
simpler if students were aware of the fact that these words make up a
relatively compact group of words.

The method we have used here is quantitative.
We started from the hypothesis that the different -ing forms must share
certain patterns, which are the result of a long process of creating words
and/or phrases and of assimilating them.
Our goal was to inventory all the entries of the -ing type in Gordth and
Hendrick’s Dictionary of Entomology (2001) and see if they belong or not
to the same category and if our findings could be of any help for our
students (i.e. help them better and easier understand and learn the English
terminology in the field of agricultural entomology).
We then compared the 3 basic types of noun like uses of the -ing
forms (Chalker & Weiner 1994) and drew a few conclusions.
Results
We have inventoried a number of 20 entries in -ing in Gordth and
Hendrick’s dictionary (2001).
Below are these noun like uses of the -ing forms together with the
definitions supplied by both Gordth and Hendrick’s Dictionary of
Entomology (2001): absconding n. ‘Social insects: colony multiplication
by the departure of a queen and a small group of workers from a larger
colony’; alluring ‘pertaining to the capacity to attract, entice, or tempt’;
66 Agricultural Entomology: -ing Forms
budding n. ‘1. Absconding. 2. Agamic reproduction by aphids.’; catfacing

n. ‘injury to a plant which results from the feeding or piercing-sucking
insects on developing fruit’; clearing ‘replacing absolute ethanol in
specimens being prepared for microscopical study’; converging
‘approaching each other near the apex’; countershading n. ‘a physical
condition and aspect of mimicry in which an animal is dark dorsally and
pale ventrally’; crosshatching n. ‘hatching’; flaring ‘expanding like the
bell of a trumpet’; hatching1 n. ‘surface marks, lines or scratches which
are numerous, short and close-set’; hatching2 n. ‘the breaking of the
eggshell by an insect embryo during the process of emergence’; hearing n.
‘the capacity of ability of perceiving sound, or vibrations in the air or
substrate’; imprinting n. ‘a form of learning in which a newborn
recognises that an object has a particular function’; infringing
‘encroaching upon’; learning n. ‘a persistent change in insect behaviour
caused by experience of association (conditioning), imprinting and
habituation’; moulting n. ‘a periodic process of loosening and discarding
the cuticle, accompanied by formation of a new cuticle, and often by
structural changes in body wall and other organ’; provisioning n. ‘Solitary
bees and wasps: the practice of feeding the larvae in open cells throughout
larval development’; sembling ‘assembling’; swarming n. ‘1. Social
insects: the concerted, organised departure from a hive or nest by workers
accompanied by reproductives. Collectively, the individuals form the
nucleus of a new colony. 2. Solitary insects: aggregations of conspecific
individuals characterised by periodic flight within a small region’;
urticating ‘nettling, causing a stinging or burning sensation of the skin’.
Discussion
Though 5 noun like uses of the -ing forms are not mentioned by
English language dictionaries, they can be traced upon in their base verb:
absconding < to abscond, converging < to converge, infringing < to
infringe, provisioning < to provision, and swarming < to swarm.
Thirteen of the 20 entries (65%) are nouns – absconding, budding,
catfacing, countershading, crosshatching, hatching1, hatching2, hearing,
imprinting, learning, moulting, provisioning, and swarming, while 7
(35%) are adjectives – alluring, clearing, converging, flaring, infringing,
sembling, and urticating (Figure 2-1).
Contrary to the authors’ mentions, the -ing forms hatching2,
infringing, provisioning, and sembling are not verbs, and clearing is not
an adjective, since -ing forms can be (Webster Encyclopedic Unabridged
Dictionary of the English Language):
Georgeta RaĠă 67
- nouns formed from verbs, expressing the actions of the verb or its
result, product, material, etc. (the art of building, a new building,
cotton wadding) or nouns from words other than verbs (offing,
shirting);
- present participles of verbs, such participles being often used as
participial adjectives (warring factions);
- nouns meaning ‘one belonging to’, ‘of the kind of’, ‘one descended
from’, or diminutive nouns (bunting, farthing, gelding, shilling, and
whiting).
35%
65%
Figure 2-1. Distribution of -ing nouns and adjectives in agricultural entomology:

65% nouns, 35% adjectives
Conclusion
The terms not mentioned by English language dictionaries
(absconding, converging, infringing, provisioning, and swarming) and
the error of ascertaining grammatical values (hatching2, infringing,
provisioning, and sembling are erroneously considered verbs, and
clearing is erroneously considered adjective) allow us to draw the
conclusion that any specialised dictionary should be the collective work of
a specialist (or of several specialists) in a certain field of knowledge and of
a linguists (or of several linguists).
68 Agricultural Entomology: -ing Forms
As far as professors, researchers, or students in agriculture, animal

husbandry, biology, horticulture, etc. are concerned, we think that they
should be warned against such misunderstandings and motivated to
participate in the hard work of clarifying terminologies.
References
Gordth, G. & Hendrick, D. H. (2001). A Dictionary of Entomology. Oxon:
CABI Publishing.
Miller, J. (2002). An Introduction to English Syntax. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2004). Agricultural Entomology: -ing forms. 4th
International Scientific Days of Land Management in the Great
Hungarian Plain, October 21-22, 2004, Mezötúr, Hungary: 1-5.
‘VERBAL N + N’ COMPOUNDS
IN AGRICULTURAL ENTOMOLOGY
GEORGETA RAğĂ
AND LAURA-CONSTANTINA MICU
Introduction
Verbal nouns in -ing are often used attributively (the printing trade) and
in forming compounds (drinking song). In some compounds (sewing
machine), the first element might reasonably be regarded as the participial
adjective, -ing (a suffix forming the present participle of verbs), the
compound thus meaning ‘a machine that sews’, but is commonly taken as
a verbal noun, the compound being explained as ‘a machine for sewing’.

We have inventoried a number of 79 ‘verbal N + N’ compounds
containing participial adjectives, verbal nouns, or having both values.

1. The following 58 compounds contain -ing forms that are participial
adjectives, the compounds thus meaning ‘a something that does
something’: advancing coloration ‘any colour (e.g. yellow) or
combination of colours that appears nearer the observer than other colours
viewed in the same plane’; amplifying host ‘a vertebrate host that is
infected with pathogens at a level sufficiently high for a blood-feeding
arthropod vector to be infected’; baiting sheet ‘a device for collecting
sedentary insects in an arboreal habitat […] held beneath the branch or
shrub which is struck sharply with a stick, insects fall onto the sheet and
are collected with moistened brush, forceps or aspirator’; burrowing bugs
‘a widespread, rather small Cydnidae family of heteropterous Hemiptera
closely linked to stink bugs [whose] adults and nymphs […] burrow into
the soil where they feed upon roots’; burrowing cockroaches ‘members of
70 ‘Verbal N + N’ Compounds in Agricultural Entomology
the blaberid Genera Macropanesthia and Geoscapheus in Australia’;

burrowing wasp ‘Philanthus ventilabris Fabricius [Hymenoptera:
Sphecidae]: they are digging species’; burying beetles ‘polyphagous
Coleoptera assigned to Staphylinoidea and closely related to
Staphylinidae’; clothing hairs ‘the setae (chaetae) that invest (cover) the
surface of the insect body or its appendages’; covering gall ‘plant galls
characterised by the gall inducer first acting externally to produce
hypertrophy of surrounding tissue that quickly results in the inducer
becoming enclosed within the gall’; creeping myasis ‘a type of myasis
[…] caused by species of bot flies that usually infest domesticated animals
[…]. First-instar larvae of the bot fly penetrate human skin and burrow
beneath surface […]’; creeping waterbugs ‘Family Naucoridae of
heteropterous Hemiptera’; damping off ‘the symptom of a fungal infection
in plants characterised by the collapse and subsequent death of seedlings
following the formation of stem lesions at soil level’; darning needle
‘insect of the paleopterous Order Odonate [whose] naiads display
elongate, scoop-like, prehensible labium which can be rapidly extended
forward to grasp prey’; dayfeeding armyworm ‘an insect of the
cosmopolitan family of ditrysian Lepidoptera [whose adults are]
nocturnal’; depluming mite ‘Knemidokoptes gallinae (Raillet) [Acas:
Sarcoptidae]. Neocnemidocoptes gallinae (Raillet [Acari:
Knemidokoptidae]. (Australia)’; devastating grasshopper ‘Melanoplus
devastator Scudder [Orthoptera: Acrididae]’; dimpling bug ‘1.
Campylomma liebknechti (Girault) [Hemiptera: Miridae]: a pest of apples
[whose] bugs are attracted to apple blossoms and migrate into orchards
during warm weather where they feed on developing fruit and cause
dimpling of fruit which results in downgrading’; diving flight ‘a form of
passive flight in which the insect engages in a fast descent at a large angle
between the flight direction and the horizontal’; flanking seta ‘Psocoptera:
a seta near the hyaline cone of the distal paraproctal margin’; flapping
flight ‘one of the two basic functional forms of insect flight distinguished
by wingbeats that create active movement through air’; fluctuating
variations ‘the neo-Darwinian concept of unstable changes in the
characteristics of a species, that appear or disappear from generation to
generation, or which depend on genetic or somatic influences conditioned
by known or unknown factors’; founding stage ‘social insects: the earliest
period in colony development, typified by the queen rearing the first
brood’; fruiting body ‘fungi: a general term for spore-bearing structures’;
gliding flight ‘a form of passive flight which follows full speed in fast
flapping flight during which the insect engages prolonged forward
movement without beating its wings’; glistening blue ‘Sahuna scintillate
(Lycas) [Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae]. (Australia)’; hovering flight; hunting

billbug ‘Sphenophorus venatus vestitus Chittenden [Coleoptera:
Curculionidae]’; jumping bean ‘seeds of Euphorbiaceae (Sebastiania,
Sapium) which move or jump owing to the movement of insect larvae
within the seeds’; jumping bristletails ‘primitive Family Machilidae of
Archaeognatha: Machilids are active and jump when disturbed’; jumping
plantlice ‘Family Psyllidae of the superfamily Psylloidea’; jumping
spiders ‘small to moderate-sized spiders of the Family Salticidae with
large anteromedial eyes, good vision and the capacity to jump’; jumping
tree bugs ‘Heteropterous Hemiptera assigned to Miroidea and sometimes
recognised as a subfamily of Miridae’; leaf feeding ‘a specialised type of
herbivory that is widespread among many groups of insects’; lightning
bugs ‘polyphagous Coleoptera assigned to Elateroidea: adults with
luminescent organs on female abdominal sternum 5 and male abdominal
sterna 5 or 6’; louping ill ‘a tick-borne arboviral disease closely related to
Central European Encephalitis: typically a disease of sheep in Scotland
and Ireland that rarely occurs in humans’; measuring worms ‘ditrysian
Lepidoptera assigned to superfamily Geometroidea’; moulting fluid /
liquid ‘a fluid secreted abundantly by growing insects in the act of
moulting, by dermal glands of the body surface’; parachuting flight ‘a
form of passive flight in which the insect engages in a slow, vertical
descent’; relapsing fevers ‘a group of diseases caused by spirochetes of
the Genus Borrelia and vectored principally by argasid ticks […]’; sapling
borer ‘Sahyadrassus malabaricus (Moore) [Lepidoptera: Hepialidae]’;
scattering colour ‘structural colour that is produced from the scattering of
light from a surface, such as irregular and diffuse light reflected from
ground glass, or the scattering of light within the tegument’; sleeping
sickness ‘an often fatal human disease caused by the parasitic protozoan
Trypanosoma brucei and vectored by tsetse flies Glossina spp. [Diptera:
Glossinidae]’; snapping beetles ‘a species related to Lampyridae:
posterolateral pronotal process corresponding to an anterolateral
mesosternal sulcus that collectively form a click mechanism’; soaring
flight ‘a form of passive flight in which the insect engages ascending air
currents’; spinning glands ‘Arachnids; Lepidoptera larvae; Psocidae: the
glands which produce the viscid secretion which forms the silk’; spiralling
whitefly ‘Aleurodicus disperses Russell [Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae]: a pest
of numerous fruits and vegetables in Central America, islands of the
Pacific, Australia and New Guinea; common name from the habit of
female laying eggs in a spiral pattern’; spitting spider ‘Scytodes sp.
[Araneida: Scytodidae] (Australia)’; sucking lice ‘lice of the Order
Anoplura that complete three nymphal instars that feed by sucking blood
from the capillaries within the skin of their hosts [...]’; swarming leaf-
beetle ‘Rhyaprida spp. [Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae]: Australian species;
adults prefer new leaves and young shoots and cause severe defoliation
[…]’; urticating anthelid ‘Anthela nicothoe (Boisduval) [Lepidoptera:
Anthelidae] (Australia)’; urticating hairs ‘in some caterpillars and adult
insects, setae (chaetae) connected with dermal glands, through which the
venom passes; barbed setae which cause discomfort presumably induced
by mechanical irritation’; warning coloration ‘conspicuous colours or
patterns of colour which are frequently associated with qualities which
render their possessor unpalatable, offensive or dangerous to predators’;
webbing clothes-moth ‘Tineola biselliella (Hummel) [Lepidoptera:
Tineidae]: a cosmopolitan pest endemic in Africa: larva white with brown
head capsule; spins silk webbing and forms feeding tube […]’; webbing
coneworm ‘Dioryctria disclusa Heinrich [Lepidoptera: Pyralidae]’;
whirling beetles ‘aquatic, adephagous Coleoptera: adults swim on surface
of water in tight circles aided by pygidial gland surfactant’; whirling mites
‘Anystidae’; whistling spiders ‘Selenocosmia spp. [Araneida:
Theraphosidae] (Australia)’; wrapping flexure ‘in Eucilidae (Hymenoptera):
a form of wing bending in which the apical portion of the wing, in the
flexed position, is notched with the region on either side of the notch
wrapped downward over the dorsum of the metasoma’.
For 8 of these compounds, the dictionary supplies no information
whatsoever allowing the establishment of a link between common name
and features. Therefore, we can assume that the common name “describes”
the insect and/or its behaviour: burrowing cockroaches, burrowing wasp,
burying beetles, jumping plantlice, jumping tree bugs, measuring
worms, spitting spider, and webbing coneworm. Similarly, we can also
assume the same thing for 2 compounds mentioned in the dictionary, but
without a special entry: hovering flight and whirling mites.
2. The following 18 compounds contain -ing forms that are verbal
nouns, the compounds thus meaning ‘something for doing something’:
alluring coloration ‘any colour, colour pattern or combination of colours
that are attractive to some species of insects (prey) and displayed (used) by
predaceous species as part of their feeding strategy: prey are attracted to
predator with alluring coloration’; alluring glands ‘glandular structures
(frequently found on males) that diffuse odours attractive to the opposite
sex’; breathing pore ‘ a pore, hole or aperture in the integument which
serves as an adaptation to permit gas exchange between the body and the
environment; [the] air passes through breathing pores, enters the atrium,
then into tracheae and subsequently into tracheoles; CO2 passes from
tissue to tracheoles, then tracheae and exit via breathing pores’; collecting
basket ‘an arrangement of setae, bristles and/or spines on the forelegs of

certain insects, in which they collect or hold food while devouring
(Needham)’; feeding strategy ‘the complex of anatomical, behavioural and
physiological adaptations that are responsible for the acquisition of food
and processing of nutrients by an organism’; feeding tube ‘a cylindrical
device created by adult female parasitic Hymenoptera […] used to feed
upon a host’s ahemolymph in concealed habitats or places in which the
body of the host cannot be contacted by mouthparts of the adult parasite’;
flying-hairs ‘very long, slender surface setae whose bases are set in
cuticular punctures (pits)’; gathering hairs ‘the flexible, flattened and
often hookes setae that occur on the tongue of bees and other
Hymenoptera’; jumping mechanism ‘biomechanical devices which
facilitate jumping by insects’; moulting glands ‘epidermal glands that
secrete moulting fluid which facilitates moulting’; moulting hormone ‘a
hormone produced by the prothoracic glands upon stimulation by
prothoracicotropic hormones: its target tissue is the cellular layer of the
integument, and the action is the initiation of apolysis: cell division, cell
elongation and production of moulting fluid’; pulsating membranes
‘small, muscular membranes found in the thorax, head, and appendages of
various insects, the rhythmic contractions of which probably contribute to
the circulation of the blood’; spinning glands ‘arachnids [whose] glands
produce the viscid secretion which forms the silk’; sucking pump ‘the
highly modified cibarium of insects which ingest liquid food (sap, blood,
etc.)’; sucking spears ‘the specialised mandibles and maxillae of
hemerobiid larva, used for puncturing prey and sucking its juice’; sucking
stomach ‘a thin-walled muscular pouch connected with the end of the
oesophagus; a food reservoir not commonly present except in some
Lepidoptera’; swimming paddles ‘terminal appendages of mosquito
pupae’; triturating basket ‘1. Adapted for grinding or crushing. 2. A
cuticular network in the foregut of bees adapted for filtering particulate
material from nectar and other liquid nutrients’.
3. Other 3 compounds could be ranged in both groups: reducing
sugar ‘any sugar which contains the radical CO, which when heated with
Fehling’s solution (blue) reduces the copper compound in solution so that
cuprous oxide (red) is formed’; spinning bristle ‘Embiidae: a long hollow
bristle on the plantar surface of the first and second tarsal segments of the
fore leg, that occur in numbers and issue silk threads developed in
spinning glands’; swarming flight ‘a behavioural category for insect flight
[in which] males gather in relatively high concentrations in flight and
maintain a stationary position’.
Conclusion
Participial adjective compounds (‘a something that does something’)
are the most numerous (73%), while participial adjectives + verbal nouns
(‘something for doing something’) are sensibly less (23%). (Figure 2-2)
4%
23%
73%
Figure 2-2. ‘Verbal N + N’ Compounds in Agricultural Entomology: 73%

Participial Adjectives; 23% Verbal Nouns; 4% Participial Adjectives/Verbal
Nouns.
References
CABI Publishing.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Micu, Laura-Constantina. (2004). Verbal “Noun +
Noun” Compounds in Agricultural Entomology. TradiĠie úi
modernitate în útiinĠele umaniste úi sociale. Timiúoara: Editura Mirton.
121-126.
Publishing Company.
‘N + V-ING + N’ COMPOUNDS
IN AGRICULTURAL ENTOMOLOGY
Introduction
Almost 15 years ago, Kennedy (1998) stated that corpus linguistics had
“a tendency sometimes to focus on lexis and lexical grammar rather than
pure syntax”. The present paper shows that this is not the case of our
research.
The purpose of the research was to show that compound nouns
designating insect pests in English and having been built after the same
pattern - ‘Noun + Verbal nouns in -ing + Noun’ - have a common general
meaning, i.e. ‘pest doing something’.
Our background information consisted of repeated observations of the
fact that such insect pest compound names usually point to both ‘the fact
that a particular pest does something’, and to the object of the action thus
performed.
We used as sources of information Gordth & Hendrick’s Dictionary of
Entomology (Gordth & Hendrick 2001) for the inventory of insect pests
and Chalker & Weiner’s Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (1994) as
well as the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2008)
to define linguistic terms.

We have inventoried a number of 57 insect pest compound names of
the ‘Noun + Verbal nouns in -ing + Noun’ pattern, which we then
analysed from the point of view of their meaning based on the following
linguistic background:
- nouns ending in -ing are derived from verbs and express the action of
the verb (the art of building) or its result (a new building), product,
material (cotton wadding), etc. (Chalker & Weiner 1994);
76 ‘N + V-ing + N’ Compounds in Agricultural Entomology
- verbal nouns ending in -ing are often used attributively (the printing
trade) and in composition (drinking song) (Chalker & Weiner 1994);
that sews’, but it is commonly taken as a verbal noun, the compound
being explained as ‘a machine for sewing.’ (Chalker & Weiner 1994).

First, in our analysis of the insect pest compound names we focussed
on ‘the type of action’ the pests perform. Thus, insect pests (Gordth &
Hendrick 2001):
- bite (5 occurrences) cattle (1 occurrence): cattle-biting louse ‘Bovicola

bovis (Linnaeus): Attacks base of tail, withers and shoulders’, dogs (1
occurrence): dog-biting louse ‘Trichodectes canis (DeGeer): A pest of
puppies’, goats (1 occurrence): goat-biting louse ‘Bovicola caprae
(Gurit)’, horses (1 occurrence): horse-biting louse ‘Bovicola equi
(Denny): Attacks host around neck and base of tail; Werneckiella equi
(Denny)’, and sheep (1 occurrence): sheep-biting louse ‘Bovicola ovis
(Schrank): A pest of sheep’;
- bore (2 occurrences) shoots (1 occurrence): balsam shoot-boring
sawfly ‘Pleroneura brunneicornis (Tohwer)’ and wood (1 occurrence):
metallic wood-boring beetles ‘Polyphagous Coleoptera: Larvae bore
wood’;
- cast (1 occurrence) nets: net-casting spiders ‘Deinopids: When prey
approach the spider, the spider’s web is cast and ensnare the prey’;
- cut (4 occurrences) leaves (4 occurrences): leaf-cutting ants
‘Acromyrmex sp. and Atta sp.’, leaf-cutting bees ‘Aculeate
Hymenoptera nest in cells lined with leaf material cut from living
plants’, pale leaf-cutting bee ‘Megachile concinna (Smith)’, Texas
leaf-cutting ant ‘Atta texana (Buckley): Workers take leaves from
plants to nest, malaxate them for substrate of fungus garden’;
- eat (12 occurrences) leaves (6 occurrences): citrus leaf-eating cricket
‘Tamborina australis (Walker): Nymphs and adults feed nocturnally
on foliage chewing margin of leaves, grazing on surface or chewing
holes in leaves’, citrus leaf-eating weevil ‘Eutinophaea bicristata
(Lea): Adults feed on young foliage on the lower third of the tree;
chew out sections on both leaf surfaces. Larvae feed on roots’, coconut
leaf-eating caterpillar ‘Opisina arenosella (Walker)’, hairy leaf-
eating caterpillar ‘Xanthodes congenital (Hampson)’, large leaf-
eating ladybird ‘Epilachna guttatopustulata (Fabricius): Adults and
larvae eat leaf surface’, lucerne leaf-eating beetle ‘Colaspoides
foveiventris (Lea)’, mites (1 occurrence): mite-eating ladybirds

‘Stethorus spp.: Adults and larvae are important predators of various
mite species’, pitches (1 occurrence): pitch-eating weevil ‘Pachylobius
picivorus (Germar)’, roots (2 occurrences): root eating beetles
‘Rhizophagidae: Biology poorly studied. Species predaceous on bark
beetles, feeding on eggs and larvae of several species of scolytids. One
species reported as carrion feeder’, root eating flies ‘Muscoid Diptera:
Phytophagous habits’ and scales (2 occurrences): scale-eating
caterpillar ‘Catoblemma dubia (Butler)’, scale-eating ladybird
‘Rhyzobius lophanthae (Blaisdell)’;
- feed (1 occurrence) on sap: sap-feeding beetles ‘Polyphagous
Coleoptera: Phytophagous species’;
- fold (1 occurrence) leaves (1 occurrence): lantana leaf-folding
caterpillar ‘Anania haemorrhoidalis (Guenée): Larvae roll leaves’;
- gnaw (1 occurrence) bark (1 occurrence): bark gnawing beetles
‘Coleoptera: Found beneath bark in galleries’;
- harvest (1 occurrence) seeds (1 occurrence): seed-harvesting ant
‘Pheidole ampla (Forel); Pheidole anthracina (Forel)’;
- love (2 occurrences) mud (2 occurrences): minute mud-loving beetles
‘Polyphagous Coleoptera: Adults inhabit mud’, variegated mud loving
beetles ‘Polyphagous Coleoptera: Adults and larvae inhabit mud’;
- make (2 occurrences) cases (1 occurrence): case-making clothes-moth
‘A complex of species resembling Tinea pellionella (Linnaeus)’ and
tubes (1 occurrence): tube-making caddies-flies ‘Trichoptera’;
- mimic (1 occurrence) ants (1 occurrence): green-tree-ant mimicking
spider ‘Amyciaea albomaculata (Cambridge)’;
- mine (2 occurrences) leaves (2 occurrences): lantana leaf-mining
beetle ‘Octotoma scabripennis (Guérin-Méneville): Larvae develop
mine near main vein of leaf’, lantana leaf-mining fly ‘Calcomyza
lantanae (Frick): Larvae form blotch mines leaves’;
- pierce (1 occurrence) fruit (1 occurrence): fruit-piercing moth ‘Othreis
fullonia (Clerck): Adults use their proboscis to pierce rind of
developing fruit’;
- poison (1 occurrence) cattle (1 occurrence): cattle-poisoning sawfly
‘Lophyrotoma interrupta (Klug): Cattle eat mature larvae which
accumulate at base of iron-bark trees before pupation’;
- roll (4 occurrences) balls (1 occurrence): African ball-rolling dung
beetle ‘Kheper nigroaeneus (Boheman): A large bodied, diurnal, ball-
rolling dung beetle’) and leaves (3 occurrences): leaf-rolling crickets
‘Wingless long-horned grasshoppers (Gryllacrididae) conceal
themselves in rolled leaves during the day’, leaf-rolling sawflies
‘Holartic Symphyta’, leaf-rolling weevils ‘Polyphagous Coleoptera:

Females roll leaves to form balls in which eggs are concealed’;
- silver (1 occurrence) bananas (1 occurrence): banana silvering-thrips
‘Hercinothrips bicinctus (Bagnall)’;
- spin (4 occurrences) nets (1 occurrence): net-spinning caddis-flies
‘Hydropsychids construct a small cup-shaped net oriented to catch
prey items’ and webs (3 occurrences): plum web-spinning sawfly
‘Neurotoma inconspicua (Norton)’, web-spinning sawflies ‘Holartic
Symphyta’, web-spinning tree crickets ‘Wingless long-horned
grasshoppers’;
- spot (2 occurrences) bananas (1 occurrence): banana spotting-bug
‘Amplypelta lutescens lutescens (Distant)’ and fruit (1 occurrence):
fruit-spotting bug ‘Amblypelta nitida (Stál): Damages most fruits and
macadamia nuts by feeding activities’;
- suck (5 occurrences) blood (1 occurrence): blood-sucking conenose
‘Triatoma sanguisuga (LeConte): A bloodsucking parasite’, dogs (1
occurrence): dog sucking-louse ‘Linognathus setosus (Olfers)’, goats
(1 occurrence): goat-sucking louse ‘Linognathus stenopsis
(Burmeister)’, horses (1 occurrence): horse-sucking louse
‘Haematopinus asini (Linnaeus)’ and sheep (1 occurrence): sheep
sucking body-louse ‘Linognathus ovillus: A blood-sucking parasite of
sheep.’;
- weave (3 occurrences) orbs (3 occurrences): garden orb-weaving
spider ‘Eriophora biapicata (L. Koch); Eriophora transmarine
(Keyserling)’, long-tailed orb-weaving spider ‘Argiope protensa (L.
Koch)’, orb-weaving spiders ‘Spiders build large, planar webs of orb-
shape’;
- web (1 occurrence) leaves (1 occurrence): groundsel-bush leaf-
webbing caterpillar ‘Aristotelia sp.’.
It is interesting to see that the number of verbs denoting “actions” of the

pests is smaller compared to the number of the “objects” on which they
act.
It is very interesting to notice the great difference in distribution of the
‘objects’ on which the pests mentioned above ‘act’. Thus, if the number of
occurrences of ‘objects’ on which insect pests perform an action is low:
- 1 occurrence: ant, balls, blood, bark, cases, mites, pitches, sap, seeds,
shoots, tubes, and wood,
- 2 occurrences: bananas, cattle, dogs, fruit, goats, horses, mud, nets,
roots, scales, and sheep,
- 3 occurrences: orbs and webs, there are 17 occurrences of the most

important part of the plant – the leaf (Figure 2-3).
12
5 5
4 4 4
3
2 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Figure 2-3. Number of occurrences of the verbs used attributively in pest nouns: 12
eat; 5 bite and suck; 4 cut, roll, and spin; 3 weave; 2 bore, love, make, mine, and
spot; 1 cast, feed, fold, gnaw, harvest, mimic, pierce, poison, silver, and web
Conclusion
If there are lots of nouns of pests in Agricultural Zoology, whose
names include participial adjectives of the V-ing form, they have
nevertheless something in particular: they have always the same meaning
(‘an insect that does something’). In addition, the derivatives thus formed
not only indicate ‘the fact that a particular pest does something’, it also
indicates the object of the action thus performed – a pattern easy to
understand and, therefore, to learn.
References
CABI Publishing.
Kennedy, G. (1998). Introduction to Corpus Linguistics. Harlow:
Longmann.
Miller, J. (2002). An Introduction to English Syntax. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2004). Agricultural Entomology: -ing forms. 4th

Perkoviü, Anica & RaĠă, Georgeta. (2010). Agricultural Zoology: Names
of Pests of the ‘N + v-ing + N’ Pattern. The International Language
Conference on the Importance of Learning Professional Foreign
Languages for Communication between Cultures 2010. Online:
http://fl.uni-mb.si/.
CHAPTER THREE
LEXIS
PRECISION AGRICULTURE TERMINOLOGY
GEORGETA RAğĂ, FLORIN SALA

AND ANICA PERKOVIû
Introduction
Gaining a general introduction to Precision Agriculture and to its
underlying philosophy as a main objective in learning about it asks, among
others, for gaining a general understanding of the Global Positioning
System (GPS) terminology. But how difficult is this? Are language
dictionaries of any help in approaching this special terminology or do we
need special linguistic tools to do it? Our expertise as teachers of English
for Special Purposes shows that things are rather blurred in this area, as it
has always happened when new scientific or technical branches immerged.
However, as it is often the case, there must be a small number of terms
belonging to the general vocabulary, and a very large one belonging only
to GPS terminology.
Material and Method

To test this hypothesis, we have picked up the shortest corpus (42
entries) of the kind we could find on the Internet and checked the GPS
terminology in both Ryan Larsen’s GPS Terminology. Glossary and
Terminology (2006) and in Webster Comprehensive Dictionary (1995).

We thus found out the following:
- only 2 (5%) of the terms have the same meaning (though put in
different words) in both inventories: celestial navigation ‘Navigating
by use of traditional methods having to do with observations of stars,
the sun, and moon’ (Larsen 2006) and ‘Navigation by means of
observations made of the apparent position of heavenly bodies. Also
called astronavigation, cello-navigation. [1935-1940] (WEUDEL);
84 Precision Agriculture Terminology
LCD ‘Liquid Crystal Display. A type of screen commonly found in

small electronic devices’ (Larsen 2006) and ‘ liquid-crystal display: a
method of displaying readings continuously, as on digital watches,
portable computers, and calculators, using a liquid-crystal film, sealed
between glass plates, that changes its optical properties when a voltage
is applied’ (WEUDEL);
- 5 (12%) terms occurring with the same meaning (though put in
different words) in both inventories, retain in Larsen’s Glossary only
one of the several meanings in Webster Comprehensive Dictionary:
altimeter ‘A device that measures barometric pressure to calculate
altitude’ (Larsen 2006) and ‘1. a sensitive aneroid barometer that is
graduated and calibrated, used chiefly in aircraft for finding distance
above sea level, terrain, or some other reference point by a
comparison of air pressures. 2. Any device used for the same purpose
that operates by some other means, as by radio waves. [1820-1830;
alti- + meter]’ (WEUDEL); frequency ‘The rate at which a cycle is
repeated. Measurements based on low frequency signals are less
accurate than those based on high frequencies. Low frequency signals
can, however, travel greater distances’ (Larsen 2006) and ‘1. The state
or fact of being frequent; frequent occurrence. 2. Rate of occurrence. 3.
Physics. a. the number of periods or regularly occurring events of any
given kind in unit of time, usually in one second. b. the number of
cycles or completed alternations per unit of time of a wave or
oscillation. 4. Math. The number of times a value recurs in a unit
change of the independent variable of a given function. 5. Statistics.
The number of items occurring in a given category. [1545-1555; < L
frequentia ‘assembly, multitude, crowd’ (WEUDEL); latitude ‘Polar
coordinates used in geographic coordinate systems. The angular
distance from the Earth’s equatorial plane. Latitude ranges from +900
at the north pole to -900 at the south pole’ (Larsen 2006) and ‘1. Geog.
a. the angular distance north or south from the equator of a point on
the earth’s surface, measured on the meridian of the point. b. a place
or region as marked by this distance. 2. Freedom from narrow
restrictions; freedom of action, opinion, etc. 3. Astron. a. see celestial
latitude. b. see galactic altitude. 4. Photog. The ability of an emulsion
to record the brightness values of a subject in their true proportion to
one another, expressed as the ratio of the amount of brightness in the
darkest possible value to the amount of brightness in the brightest.
[1350-1400; ME < L lƗtƯtǌdo ‘breadth’) (WEUDEL); longitude ‘Polar
coordinates used in geographic coordinate systems. The angular
distance from the adopted reference point located in Greenwich,
Georgeta RaĠă, Florin Sala and Anica Perkoviü 85
England. Latitude ranges from 1800 west of Greenwich to 1800 east of

Greenwich’ (Larsen 2006) and ‘1. Geog. angular distance east or west
on the earth’s surface, measured by the angle contained between the
meridian of a particular place and some prime meridian, as that of
Greenwich, England, and expressed either in degrees or by some
corresponding difference in time. 2. Astron. A. See celestial longitude.
B. See galactic longitude. [1350-1400; ME < L longitǌdǀ ‘length’. See
longi- + -tude) (WEUDEL); satellite (?) ‘A body, natural or manmade,
that orbits a planet. The term is commonly used to describe manmade
objects that orbit the Earth’ (Larsen 2006) and ‘1. Astron. A natural
body that revolves around a planet; a moon. 2. A country under the
domination or influence of another. 3. Something as a branch office or
an off-campus facility of a university, that depends on, accompanies,
or serves something else. 4. An attendant or follower of another
person, often subservient or obsequious in manner. 5. A device
designated to be launched into orbit around the earth, another planet,
the sun, etc. [1540-1550; < L satellite ‘attendant, member of the
bodyguard or retinue’] (WEUDEL);
- 1 (2%) term has partially the same meaning in both inventories:
transducer ‘A device which transmits sound pulses and listens for
echoes’ (Larsen 2006) and ‘a device that receives a signal in the form
of one type of energy and converts it to a signal in another form.
[1920-1925; < L trƗnsdǌc(ere) ‘to transfer’ + -er) (WEUDEL);
- 5 (12%) terms have rather different meanings in the two inventories:
basemap ‘A map or GS that is pre-loaded in a GPS receiver’ (Larsen
2006) and base map ‘an outline map of an area to which specific
information is added for any of various purposes’ (WEUDEL); cache
‘A small container hidden at a particular location by a geocacher’
(Larsen 2006) and ‘1. A hidden place, especially one in the ground, for
ammunition, food, treasures, etc. 2. Anything so hidden. 3. Alaska and
Northern Canada. A small shed elevated on poles above the reach of
animals and used for storing food, equipment, etc. [1585-1595; < F
cacher ‘to hide’ < VL *coƗcticƗre ‘to stow away, to pack together’]
(WEUDEL); route ‘A series of points that allows one to navigate from
one location to another’ (Larsen 2006) and ‘1. A course, way, or road
for passage or travel. 2. A customary or regular line of passage or
travel. 3. A specific itinerary, round, or number of stops regularly
visited by a person in the performance of his or her work or duty.
[1175-1225; ME route ‘way, course’ < OF < L rupta (via) ‘broken
(road)’]’ (WEUDEL); sounder ‘A device that determines water depth
by measuring sound echoes through water’ (Larsen 2006) and
sounder2 ‘a person or thing that sounds depth, as of water. [1565-1575;

< sound ‘to measure or try the depth of (water, a deep hole, etc.) by
letting down a lead of plummet at the end of a line, or by some
equivalent means’ + -er]’ (WEUDEL); waypoint ‘A geographic
coordinate that is stored in a GPS receiver or computer’ (Larsen 2006)
and way point ‘1. A place or point between major points on a route.
[1875-1880; Amer.]’ (WEUDEL);
- 29 (69%) terms occur only in Larsen’s Glossary: 12-channel ‘A GPS
that can track a maximum of 12 GPS satellites at any one time’;
automatic routing ‘A feature commonly found in high-end automotive
GPS receivers. Automatic routing is the process by which a GIS
calculates an optimal driving between two locations’; bluechart
‘Garmin’s most detailed mapping system. Bluechart data can be loaded
on compatible GPS receivers and includes detailed nautical chart
information’; chartplotters ‘Marine GPS receiver that features detailed
mapping capabilities’; DGPS ‘Differentiated GPS. A method of
improving the accuracy of GPS positions by receiving ‘differential’
signals that are used to improve observed GPS ranges’; differential y-
corrected ‘DGPS’; electronic compass ‘A compass that outputs a
digital heading. Used in GPS receiver to calculate a heading without
satellites or when not moving’; etrex ‘A series of GPS receivers
manufactured by Garmin. Etrex receivers are small, highly portable
and intended for outdoor use’; fishfinder ‘A sounder that uses sonar
technology to locate fish’; fixed mount ‘A GPS receiver that is
permanently or semi-permanently mounted on a vehicle (usually a
boat)’; FRS ‘Family Service Radio Band. A public radio band that
consists of 14separate channels’; geocaching ‘An emerging sport
based on GPS positions. Geocachers share the locations of caches
which can be found by other participants with GPS receivers’;
geographic coordinates ‘A polar coordinate system used to determine
positions on the globe. Geographic positions are typically given in
terms of latitude and longitude’; geographic information system ‘A
database system that is used to reference information based on real-
world locations’; GPS engine ‘An algorithm used to calculate
geographic coordinates from GPS satellite observations’; GPS receiver
‘An electronic device used to measure ranges to GPS satellites and
determine geographic coordinates’; IPX7 waterproof standard ‘A
standard indicating that a device can be submerged 1 meter for up to
30 minutes’; MapSource ‘A detailed mapping programme that can
load map information into a Garmin GPS receiver. The MapSource
software includes functionality to backup personal waypoints and
Georgeta RaĠă, Florin Sala and Anica Perkoviü 87
routes’; nautical charts ‘A series of detailed maps for the purpose of

aiding safe marine navigation’; nautical charts ‘A series of detailed
maps for the purpose of aiding safe marine navigation’; NMEA ‘A
U.S. standards committee that defines data protocols used in GPS
receivers. NMEA standard protocols allow the GPS receivers to
communicate with other equipment or software’; position reporting ‘A
system used in Rino GPS receivers whereby one receiver can report its
position to another receiver’; Rino ‘Radio Integrated with Navigation
for the Outdoors. Rino GPS receivers, made by Garmin, are robust
outdoor receivers with the ability to communicate with each other by
radio’; Selective Availability ‘A process that made GPS positioning
less accurate for non-military GPS. Selective Availability was removed
on May 1, 2000’; sound pulse ‘A short burst of sound energy. Sound
pulses are used in sonar devices, which can interpret the pulse’s echo’;
squelch code ‘A code entered into public band radio devices that is
used to eliminate undesirable radio traffic’; TracBack ‘The proprietary
Garmin feature that converts a track log and converts it into a route to
guide you back to a starting position’; tracklog ‘A series of points
recorded in a GPS receiver as the user moves. Often called a
breadcrumb trail’; Voice Enabled ‘An automotive GPS unit with the
capability of transmitting route directions by voice’; WAAS ‘Wide
Area Augmentation System. A system of satellites and ground stations
that provide GPS signal corrections for better position accuracy’.
First, there is no consistency in presenting acronyms: DGPS, on the one

hand, and FRS (misspelled, as it should have been FRSB, from Family
Radio Service Band) or NMEA (the author should have supplied the
whole name for the acronym, i.e. National Marine Electronics
Association), on the other hand. Then, there are also misspelled words,
such as differential y-corrected (it should have been differentially-
corrected).
Second, Webster Comprehensive Dictionary (1995) supplies more
detailed and technical explanations (it is a comprehensive dictionary!). In
addition, it also supplies figurative meanings, details concerning the time
the different terms appeared, etymons, synonyms, etc.
Conclusions
The large share of terms (67%, i.e. two thirds) not being recorded in
one of the most popular English language dictionaries emphasises the
necessity of developing specialised GPS dictionaries that really help
students, scholars, and specialists in Precision Agriculture willing to study

it.
References
Larsen, R. (2006). GPS Terminology. Glossary and Terminology. Online:
http://www.studentcomputers.co.uk/garmin/gps-product-review/gps-
terminology.htm.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Anica. (2007). Precision Agriculture:
Terminological Issues. Scientific Papers. Faculty of Agriculture
XXXIX (2): 671-674.
Publishing Company. (W)
NAMES OF WEEDS
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to supply useful tools for the study of the
English of weed science by our students in agriculture, be they Croatian or
Romanian. The main argument in doing so is the fact that common weed
names can be misleading because of their structure, i.e. they may contain
the word weed and designate weeds, they may contain the word weed and
not designate weeds, or they may not contain the word weed but designate
weeds. Our hypothesis is that this inconvenience can be overcome by
getting to reach the proper meaning of these words. Getting to know the
precise meanings of common weed names depends on our knowledge of
the world (for instance, knowing weeds by their scientific names rather
than by guessing their nature on the ground of their name alone) rather
than on purely linguistic knowledge. The hypothesis of the present
research is that there are linguistic algorithms in the study of English for
Special Purposes that should be identified, studied, and presented in a
manner that allows our students instantaneous understanding of a
specialised vocabulary such as that of pest control, in general, and of weed
control, in particular. As for the background information, there is no
corpus of -weed ending plant names that allows instant identification of
the weeds. Thus, we have searched one of the best English language
dictionaries available nowadays, The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language (2008), containing over 200,000 entries, which we
corroborated with similar Croatian (Hrvatski enciklopedijski rjeþnik 2003)
and Romanian (DicĠionarul explicativ al limbii române 1998)
comprehensive language dictionaries.
Material and Method

The material we present and analyse below consists of a corpus of 114
plant names containing the word weed and their definitions. In everything
that follows, we understand by definition ‘the dictionary or lexical
definition of a word, i.e. a definition that reports the meaning of a word as
90 Names of Weeds
it is normally used, usually by supplying an approximately equivalent

expression in which the original word does not occur’. This is not always
the case here since, as we shall see, there are situations in which the base
word of the common weed name, i.e. weed, often reappears in the
definition. The research methodology is a linguistic one: it consists of the
semantic analysis (i.e. the analysis of the meaning) of the common weed
names in English.
Results
We have identified a number of 114 English common weed names (a
weed being defined as ‘a plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or
troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted, as in a
garden’). Common weed names including the word weed have been
grouped into two categories:
The first category includes 14 common weed names containing the
word weed and designating weeds (12%): bindweed ‘1. Any of various
trailing or twining, often weedy plants of the genera Calystegia and
Convulvulus, having white, pink, or purple bell-shaped or funnel-shaped
flowers. 2. Any of various similar trailing or twining plants, such as the
black bindweed’; black(-)bindweed ‘A twining annual vine (Polygonum
convolvulus), native to Eurasia but widespread as a weed and having heart-
shaped leaves and clusters of small, greenish-white flowers’; blueweed ‘A
biennial Eurasian plant (Echium vulgare) naturalised as a weed in eastern
North America and having usually blue flowers’; butterweed ‘1. A
succulent annual or biennial plant (Senecio glabellus), native to the eastern
United States and having pinnately divided leaves and bright yellow,
radiate flower heads. 2. Horseweed’; carpetweed ‘A prostrate, mat-
forming annual plant (Mollugo verticillata) widespread as a weed
throughout North America and having whorled leaves and small, greenish-
white flowers’; chickweed ‘Any of various herbs of the genera Cerastium
and Stellaria, especially S. media, a European weed naturalised
worldwide. The herb has small white flowers, petals with two deep lobes,
and opposite leaves’; fireweed ‘1. (also willow herb) any of various plants
of the genus Epilobium, especially E. angustifolium, having long, terminal,
spike-like clusters of pinkish-purple flowers. 2. Any of several weedy
North American plants of the genus Erechtites, having small white or
greenish flowers grouped in discoid heads; etc.’.
The second category includes 45 common weed names containing the
word weed but not designating weeds explicitly (39%): beetleweed (also
coltsfoot, galax, wandflower) ‘A stemless, evergreen, perennial plant
(Galax urceolata) of the eastern United States, having a rosette of glossy,

heart-shaped leaves and small, white flowers in spike-like clusters’;
bishop’s weed ‘1. Goutweed. 2. A chiefly Mediterranean annual plant
(Ammi magus) in the parsley family, grown as a source of psoralens used
in medicine and as an ornamental for its compound umbels of small white
flowers’; bugleweed (also bugle) ‘Any of several herbs of the genera
Ajuga and Lycopus in the mint family, having opposite eaves, square
stems, and axillary clusters of purplish to white flowers’; etc.
A third category includes 55 common weed names not containing the
word weed but designating weeds (49%): air(-)potato (also aerial yam,
potato yam) ‘A tropical Old World yam (Dioscorea bulbifera) having
axillary potato-like tubers, some of which are edible after cooking. It is a
weed in the tropics and Florida’; alfilaria / alfileria (also filaree, pin
clover) ‘An annual Mediterranean plant (Erodium cicutarium) having
pinnately dissected leaves and small pink or purple flowers. It is a
widespread weed and is used for spring forage in the western United
States’; alyssum ‘1. (also sweet alyssum) A widely cultivated annual or
perennial herb (Lobularia maritime) of the mustard family, native to the
Mediterranean region, having racemes of long-lasting flowers varying in
size and colour. 2. (also madwort) Any of various chiefly Mediterranean
weeds or ornamentals of the genus Alyssum in the mustard family, having
racemes of white or yellow flowers. 3. (also hoary alyssum) An annual
European herb (Berteroa incana) of plants of the mustard family, having
silvery foliage, oblong fruits, and white, deeply notched flowers. It is
naturalised in Eastern North America’; etc. (Figure 3-1).
Discussion
The problem with some of these entries is that they are sometimes
defined in a rather confusing manner, i.e. for a single entry there may be
two definitions one of which may not be that of a weed. Thus, bindweed is
defined as ‘Any of various similar trailing or twining plants, such as the
black bindweed’ (a tricky definition, since one needs to look up for black
bindweed to see what it is), while butterweed is defined as ‘1. A succulent
annual or biennial plant (Senecio glabellus), native to the eastern United
States and having pinnately divided leaves and bright yellow, radiate
flower heads’, etc. The definitions of these common weed names are based
on criteria lacking consistency (frequency, place of origin, posture):
common weeds (pigweed), cosmopolitan weeds (pigweed), European
weeds (orange hawkweed), European weeds naturalised worldwide
(chickweed), often weedy plants (bindweed), plants naturalised as weeds
92 Names of Weeds
(blueweed). Another source of confusion is the fact that weedy also means
‘full of or consisting of weeds (a weedy lawn)’, ‘resembling or
characteristic of a weed (a weedy plant)’, and ‘of a scrawny build; spindly
or gawky’. Therefore, plants designated as ‘weedy’ (fireweed, hogweed,
horseweed) or as ‘often weedy plant’ (bindweed) should be looked up in a
specialised dictionary to determine what it really is.
12%
49%
39%
Figure 3-1. Names of weeds: 12% weed names designating weeds; 39% weed
names not designating weeds; 49% no-weed names designating weeds
The second category of common weed names shares three weed names
with the first category, as shown above. Thus, butterweed ‘1. A succulent
annual or biennial plant (Senecio glabellus), native to the eastern United
States and having pinnately divided leaves and bright yellow, radiate
flower heads’, fireweed ‘1. (also willow herb) any of various plants of the
genus Epilobium, especially E. angustifolium, having long, terminal,
spike-like clusters of pinkish-purple flowers. 2. Any of several weedy
North American plants of the genus Erechtites, having small white or
greenish flowers grouped in discoid heads; etc.’ and ragweed ‘2. Chiefly
British. Ragwort. Any of several plants of the very large genus Senecio in
the composite family, having yellow flower heads, especially S. aureus of
eastern North America and S. jacobea of Europe’. Another common weed
name is defined in a manner that may designate both weeds and non-
weeds: stickweed ‘Any of various plants having clinging seeds or fruit,
especially ragweed’. As for stinkweed ‘Any of various plants that have
flowers or foliage with an unpleasant odour’, it is defined in the most

confusing way, with no scientific name whatsoever.
The third category of common weed names is, perhaps, the trickiest.
They all designate weeds but are not designated as such by their name.
Another problem with these entries is that they are sometimes defined in a
confusing manner, i.e. for a single entry there may be two or even three
definitions, one or two of which may not be that of a weed: alyssum 1 and
3, beggar(‘s) ticks 2, and goat(‘s)(-)beard 2. In other cases, the definition
of the weed is ambiguous because of such formulations as: and also some
weeds (bluegrass / blue grass), including several weeds (brome,
convolvulus), or any of several / various similar or related plants
(dandelion 2, thistle 2). Again, a considerable number of weeds in this
category are defined as often weedy (bracken), usually weedy (bent grass
/ bentgrass), or weedy (bedstraw, black mustard, bladder campion, bur
cucumber, burdock, butter-and-eggs, cockle, corn cockle, dead nettle,
knawe(l), knotgrass, mercury, ribgrass, spur(e)y, strawberry blite, tare,
thistle, yard grass). As for dog fennel, it designates both a weed and a
weedy plant.
Conclusions
Our hypothesis that arriving at the precise meanings of the common
weed names depends on our knowledge of the world rather than on purely
linguistic knowledge is, thus, supported. However, it supposes a deep
knowledge of the world, in general, and of weed science, in particular. Our
analysis shows that common weed names that need to be clarified are
more numerous than those explained by language and/or specialised
dictionaries. This means that both teachers and students – no matter the
level – should build up their own inventories of terms when specialising in
a certain field of knowledge. Common weed names make up a special
vocabulary that needs special skills to be instantly and properly understood
since almost half of it (49%) consists of common weed names whose
meaning is difficult to catch on the ground of their structure alone. The
implications of the research and results are huge: they point to the need for
both specialists (academics, lexicologists) and students (undergraduates,
MSc students, PhD students, and post-graduates) in the field of weed
science to build up their own specialised inventories of terms. Joint efforts
of specialists in weed science, on the one hand, and of specialists in
linguistics, on the other hand, would be ideal.
94 Names of Weeds
References
ýetverojeziþni rjeþnik: hrvatsko-englesko-latinski. [Multilingual
Dictionary: Croatian – English – Latin]. (2011). Online:
prevodi.freehostia.com/glosari.htm.
Enciclopedic.
Herren, R. V. & Donahue, R. L. (1991). The Agricultural Dictionary.
Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers Inc.
Hrvatski enciklopedijski rjeþnik. [Croatian Encyclopaedic Dictionary].
(2003). Zagreb: Novi liber.
Perkoviü, A. & RaĠă, G. (2008). Names of Weeds in Contemporary
English: A Terminological Approach. Poljoprivreda 2: 52-54.
RaĠă, Georgeta, Samfira, I., Diana-Andreea Boc-SânmărghiĠan &
THE VOCABULARY OF IRRIGATION
GEORGETA RAğĂ, CORNELIA PETROMAN

AND IOAN PETROMAN
Introduction
Words of different origin abound in contemporary English, including the
vocabulary of irrigation. English has taken over a great number of words
belonging to the field of irrigation from other languages, words which
have nevertheless become somehow a permanent part of it. Most of them
have been modified and brought into line with the phonological rules of
English, helping native English-speaking people better understand and use
them. Other words, though plain English ones, are confusing even to
specialists: they are terms belonging to different technical fields related
more or less to the field of irrigation and gathered in encyclopaedias that
abound on the Internet. We present some of the terms belonging to the
field of irrigation pointing out the trends in this type of specialised
vocabulary.
Material and Method

We have inventoried a number of 63 entries belonging to the field of
“irrigation”, as follows: acequia, Arthur Thomas Cotton, aryk,
atmospheric vacuum breaker, backflow prevention device, Banaue Rice
Terraces, Centre Pivot Irrigation in Saudi Arabia, centre pivot
irrigation, chemigation valve, Columbia Basin Project, disk filter,
distribution uniformity, double check valve, drip irrigation, drip tape,
dripperline, Dujiangyan Irrigation System, emitter, Espada Acequia,
Gezira Scheme, Godavari River Basin Irrigation Projects, Great
Manmade River, Hazen-Williams equation, hydrozoning, irrigation,
Irrigation Association, irrigation controller, irrigation scheduling,
irrigation sprinkler, Kallanai, Kokee Ditch, Laramie-Poudre Tunnel,
Majalgaon, media filter, microtubing, moisture stress, Natural
Resources Conservation Service, Orbit Irrigation Products, Inc.,
permeability, pipe, pressure vacuum breaker, qanat, Rain Bird
96 The Vocabulary of Irrigation
Corporation, rain sensor, rainwater harvesting, runoff, Salt River

Project, sand separator, screen filter, settling basin, subirrigation,
submersible pump, Sukkur, Sukkur barrage, tensiometer, Truckee-
Carson Irrigation District, Vaalharts Irrigation Scheme, Valmont
Industries, Inc., water filter, water hammer, water resources, water
table, and water tank.
We then compared the way all these terms are defined on the Internet
and by English language dictionaries and encyclopaedias.

The 63 entries designate a large variety of terms related to “irrigation”,
as follows:
- 21 types of “devices” (32%): atmospheric vacuum breaker ‘a

backflow prevention device used in plumbing to prevent backflow of
non-potable liquids into the potable (drinking water) system’ (I),
backflow prevention device ‘a device used to protect water supplies
from contamination’ (I), chemigation valve ‘an apparatus designed to
protect water supplies from agricultural chemicals used during
chemigation (the application of chemicals such as fertilizers and
pesticides through irrigation water)’ (I), disk filter ‘a type of water
filter’ (I), double check valve ‘a backflow prevention device designed
to protect water supplies from contamination’ (I), drip tape ‘a type of
thin walled dripperline used in drip irrigation’ (I), dripperline ‘a type
of drip irrigation tubing with emitters pre- installed at the factory’ (I),
emitter ‘a device used in drip irrigation to transfer water from a pipe or
tube to the area to be irrigated’ (I), irrigation controller ‘a device to
operate automatic irrigation systems such as lawn sprinkler systems
and drip irrigation systems’ (I), irrigation sprinkler ‘a device used on
farms, golf courses, residential yards, and other places to water crops,
lawns, gardens or other plants in the event of drought’ (I), media filter
‘a type of filter utilizing a bed of sand, crushed granite or other
material to filter water for drinking, swimming pools, aquaculture,
irrigation, and other applications’ (I), microtubing ‘a very fine plastic
tubing used in drip irrigation, typically in greenhouses’ (I), pipe ‘a
hollow cylinder of material’ (I) and ‘a hollow cylinder of metal, wood,
or other material, used for the conveyance of water, gas, steam,
petroleum, etc. [before 1000] (WEUDEL), pressure vacuum breaker
‘a backflow prevention device’ (I), rain sensor ‘a switching device
activated by rainfall’ (I), sand separator ‘a device which utilizes
Georgeta RaĠă, Cornelia Petroman and Ioan Petroman 97
centrifugal force to separate sand or other heavy particles out of water’

(I), screen filter ‘a type of filter utilizing a rigid or flexible screen to
separate sand and other fine particles out of water for irrigation or
other applications’ (I), submersible pump ‘a pump which has a
hermetically sealed motor close-coupled to the pump body’ (I),
tensiometer ‘a device used to determine soil moisture tension, an
indirect measure of soil moisture content’ (I) and ‘an instrument for
measuring the surface tension of a liquid [1910-1915]’ (WEUDEL),
water filter ‘a device which removes impurities from water by means
of a fine physical barrier and/or chemical processes’ (I), and water
tank ‘a tank used to store water’ (I);
- 14 irrigation systems (22%): acequia ‘a waterway used for irrigation in
the USA’ (I) and ‘Southwestern U.S. an irrigation ditch [1835-1845]’
(WEUDEL), aryk ‘(Turkic arÕk, Russian Ⱥɪɵɤ) an irrigation canal
widely used throughout Central Asia’ (I), Banaue Rice Terraces
‘2000-year-old terraces carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the
Philippines’ (I), Dujiangyan Irrigation System ‘an irrigation system in
China)’ (I), Espada Acequia ‘an irrigation system in the USA’ (I),
Great Manmade River ‘a network of water in Libya’ (I), Kallanai ‘a
dam in India’ (I), Kokee Ditch ‘an irrigation canal in the USA’ (I),
Laramie-Poudre Tunnel ‘an irrigation tunnel in the USA’ (I),
Majalgaon ‘an irrigation area in India’ (I), qanat ‘a water management
system in ancient Persia’ (I), Sukkur ‘a dam in Pakistan’ (I) and ‘a city
in Pakistan’ (WEUDEL), Sukkur barrage ‘a barrage in Pakistan’ (I),
and Vaalharts Irrigation Scheme ‘an irrigation scheme in South
Africa’ (I);
- 7 “organisations” (11%): Irrigation Association ‘a worldwide industry
trade group for irrigation professionals and manufacturers’ (I), Natural
Resources Conservation Service ‘a service in the USA’ (I), Orbit
Irrigation Products, Inc. ‘a manufacturer and supplier of irrigation
products for residential and commercial markets’ (I), Rain Bird
Corporation ‘a large privately held manufacturer and provider of
irrigation products and services in the USA’ (I), Salt River Project ‘the
Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association’ (I), Truckee-Carson
Irrigation District ‘a political subdivision of the State of Nevada
(USA), which operates dams, canals, and drains’ (I), and Valmont
Industries, Inc. ‘a manufacturer of Valley centre pivot irrigation
systems and steel utility poles in the USA’ (I);
- 5 irrigation projects (8%): Centre Pivot Irrigation in Saudi Arabia ‘an
irrigation project in Saudi Arabia’ (I), Columbia Basin Project ‘an
irrigation project in the USA’ (I), Gezira Scheme ‘an irrigation project
in Sudan’ (I), Godavari River Basin Irrigation Projects ‘irrigation

projects in India’ (I), and Salt River Project ‘the Salt River Project
Agricultural Improvement and Power District (a political subdivision
of the state of Arizona), and any improvement project along the Salt
River’ (I);
- 3 methods of irrigation (5%): centre pivot irrigation ‘a method of crop
irrigation in which equipment rotates around a pivot’ (I) and ‘a method
of irrigation, used mainly in the USA, in which water is dispersed
through a long, segmented arm that revolves about a deep well and
covers a circular area [1970-1975]’ (WEUDEL), drip irrigation ‘an
irrigation method that applies water slowly to the roots of plants, by
depositing the water either on the soil surface or directly to the root
zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters’ (I) and
‘a system of crop irrigation involving the controlled delivery of water
directly to individual plants through a network of tubes and pipes
[1970-1975]’ (WEUDEL), and subirrigation ‘a method of irrigation
where water is delivered to the plant root zone from below the soil
surface and absorbed upwards’ (I) ‘irrigation beneath the surface of the
ground, as with water passing through a system of underground porous
pipes or transmitted through the subsoil from ditches, etc. [1900-1905]
(WEUDEL);
- 14 other cases (22%): Arthur Thomas Cotton ‘British general and
irrigation engineer’ (I), distribution uniformity ‘a measure of how
uniformly water is applied to the area being watered, expressed as a
percentage’ (I), Hazen-Williams equation ‘a formula that can be used
to calculate the pressure loss in a length of pipe due to friction
dependent on the flow’ (I), hydrozoning ‘a landscape practice that
groups plants with similar water requirements together in an effort to
conserve water’ (I), irrigation ‘the replacement or supplementation of
rainfall with water from another source in order to grow crops’ (I) and
‘the artificial application of water to land to assist in the production of
crops [1605-1615]’ (WEUDEL), irrigation scheduling ‘the process
used by irrigation system managers to determine the correct frequency
and duration of watering’ (I), moisture stress ‘stress occurring when
the water in a plant’s cells is reduced to less than normal levels’ (I),
permeability ‘in soil science, a measure of the infiltration rate of
precipitation into the soil’ (I) and ‘Geol. the capability of a porous rock
or sediment to permit the flow of fluids through its pore spaces [1750-
1760] (WEUDEL), rainwater harvesting ‘the collection and storage of
rain from roofs or a surface catchment for future productive use’ (I),
runoff ‘water from rain, snowmelt, or elsewhere that does not
percolate into the ground, but flows along the surface of the earth and
eventually drains into rivers, lakes, and/or oceans’ (I) and ‘something
that drains or flows off, as rain that flows off from the land in streams
[1850-1855]’ (WEUDEL), settling basin ‘a method of removing very
fine particles from water by means of gravity’ (I), water hammer ‘a
pressure surge or wave caused by the kinetic energy of a fluid in
motion when it is forced to stop or change direction suddenly’ (I) and
‘the concussion and accompanying noise that result when a volume of
water moving in a pipe suddenly stops or loses momentum [1795-
1805]’ (WEUDEL), water resources ‘sources of water that are useful
or potentially useful to humans’ (I), and water table ‘the upper limit of
abundant groundwater’ (I) and ‘the planar, underground surface
beneath which earth materials, as soil or rock, are saturated with water
[1400-1450]’ (WEUDEL).
Of the 63 entries, only 14 (22%) can also be found in general language

dictionaries, which emphasises the need for specialised dictionaries
developed by both linguists and specialists in irrigation: acequia ‘a
community operated waterway used in the USA for irrigation’ (I) and
‘Southwestern U.S. an irrigation ditch [1835-1845]’ (WEUDEL); centre(-
)pivot irrigation ‘a method of crop irrigation in which equipment rotates
around a pivot’ (I) and ‘a method of irrigation, used mainly in the USA, in
which water is dispersed through a long, segmented arm that revolves
about a deep well and covers a circular area [1970-1975]’ (WEUDEL);
drip irrigation ‘an irrigation method that applies water slowly to the roots
of plants, by depositing the water either on the soil surface or directly to
the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters’ (I)
and ‘a system of crop irrigation involving the controlled delivery of water
directly to individual plants through a network of tubes and pipes [1970-
1975]’ (WEUDEL); emitter ‘a device used in drip irrigation to transfer
water from a pipe or tube to the area to be irrigated’ (I) and ‘a person or
thing that emits’ (WEUDEL); irrigation ‘the replacement or
supplementation of rainfall with water from another source in order to
grow crops’ (I) and ‘the artificial application of water to land to assist in
the production of crops [1605-1615]’ (WEUDEL); permeability ‘in soil
science, a measure of the infiltration rate of precipitation into the soil’ (I)
and ‘Geol. the capability of a porous rock or sediment to permit the flow
of fluids through its pore spaces [1750-1760] (WEUDEL); pipe ‘a hollow
cylinder of material’ (I) and ‘a hollow cylinder of metal, wood, or other
material, used for the conveyance of water, gas, steam, petroleum, etc.
[bef. 1000] (WEUDEL); runoff ‘water from rain, snowmelt, or elsewhere
that does not percolate into the ground, but flows along the surface of the
earth and eventually drains into rivers, lakes, and/or oceans’ (I) and
‘something that drains or flows off, as rain that flows off from the land in
streams [1850-1855]’ (WEUDEL); subirrigation ‘a method of irrigation
where water is delivered to the plant root zone from below the soil surface
and absorbed upwards’ (I) ‘irrigation beneath the surface of the ground, as
with water passing through a system of underground porous pipes or
transmitted through the subsoil from ditches, etc. [1900-1905]
(WEUDEL); Sukkur ‘a dam in Pakistan’ (I) and ‘a city in Pakistan’
(WEUDEL); tensiometer ‘a device used to determine soil moisture
tension, an indirect measure of soil moisture content’ (I) and ‘an
instrument for measuring the surface tension of a liquid [1910-1915]’
(WEUDEL); water hammer ‘a pressure surge or wave caused by the
kinetic energy of a fluid in motion when it is forced to stop or change
direction suddenly’ (I) and ‘the concussion and accompanying noise that
result when a volume of water moving in a pipe suddenly stops or loses
momentum [1795-1805]’ (WEUDEL); water table ‘the upper limit of
abundant groundwater’ (I) and ‘the planar, underground surface beneath
which earth materials, as soil or rock, are saturated with water [1400-
1450]’ (WEUDEL); water tank ‘a tank used to store water’ (I) and ‘the
planar, underground surface beneath which earth materials, as soil or rock,
are saturated with water [1400-1450]’ (WEUDEL).
Conclusions
It is interesting to note that, of the 63 entries, only 75% are strictly
related to the vocabulary of irrigation (the 21 types of devices, the 14
irrigation systems, the 12 of the 14 ‘other cases’, and the 3 irrigation
methods), while the remaining 25% are dedicated to ‘organisations’ or to
irrigation projects. This pragmatic trend, the direct result of the fact that
the Internet is “for” the people and “by” the people, speaks not only of
sponsorship, but also of the need for more than just ‘words’. (Figure 3-2)
22%
32%
5%
8%
11%
22%
Figure 3-2. Share of the terms specific to the English of irrigation: 32% types of
“devices”, 22% irrigation systems, 11% “organisations”, 8% irrigation projects,
5% methods of irrigation, 22% other cases
References
Publishing Company.
Irrigation. Online: http://www.betterworldbooks.com/irrigation-id-
1156506948.aspx (I)
Romanian Dictionary]. Bucureúti: Ed. Teora
LeviĠchi, L. (Ed.) (2004). DicĠionar englez-român. [English-Romanian
Dictionary]. Bucureúti: Ed. Univers Enciclopedic.
Dictionary]. Bucureúti: Ed. Academiei R.S.R.
Longman.
New Standard Encyclopedia (1995). Chicago: Standard Educational
Corporation.
Perkoviü, Anica & RaĠă, Georgeta. (2006). Presentation of Water
Importance to Tertiary Level Agriculture Students. Buletinul
UniversităĠii de ùtiinĠe Agricole úi Medicină Veterinară – Cluj-

Napoca, Seria Horticultură 63: 459.
Perkoviü, Anica & RaĠă, Georgeta. (2007). Misleading Combining Forms:
Hydro-. Scientific Papers. Faculty of Agriculture XXXIX (2): 591-
594.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Proca, Maria-Ana. (2006). On Greek Loanwords in the
English Vocabulary of Hydrology (A Lexicological Approach).
Conference on Water Observation and Information System for
Decision Support, May 23-26, 2006, Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia: 1-
6.
RaĠă, Georgeta, Petroman, Cornelia & Petroman, I. (2008). The
Vocabulary of Irrigation: A Typological Approach. Conference on
Water Observation and Information System for Decision Support, 27-
31 May 2008, Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia: 381.
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1992). Chicago: Encyclopaedia
Britannica, Inc.
(1996). New York: Gramercy Books. (WEUDEL)
Geddes & Grosset.
‘BERRY’ OR ‘BERRYLIKE’
Introduction
The word berry has two meanings: one is based on a botanical definition,
indicating a true berry (‘fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens
into an edible pericarp’: NPDB, W): avocado, blackcurrant, chilli pepper,
eggplant, gooseberry, lychee, plantain, redcurrant, tomato, and uchuva;
the other one is based on common identification, indicating a false berry
(‘any small, sweet, juicy and brightly-coloured fruit’: NPDB, W):
blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, cranberry, mulberry, raspberry, and
strawberry. We have shown (RaĠă 2005, 2006) that, because of this
polysemantism, plant names containing the word berry are a nuisance for
undergraduates specializing in agriculture, horticulture, or food
processing.
We think we should also add to these compound words (words
formed by combining two or more bases, i.e. words – Chalker & Weiner
1994) the names of plants claimed to bear berries or of berrylike fruits, as
is the case with some authoritative English language dictionaries.
Romanian makes no linguistic difference whatsoever between true and
false berries; moreover, finding the proper equivalent for English
compounds with berry in Romanian is an ordeal. Therefore, here, more
than anywhere else, academic study is, among others, about forgetting
common parlance and acquiring scientific language.
Material and Method

We have inventoried a rather limited number of plant nouns collected
from general English language and from specialized dictionaries, claimed
to either bear berries or be berrylike.
We then analysed them from a lexicographical point of view.
104 ‘Berry’ or ‘Berrylike’
Results
Forty plants are said to have ‘berries’ (‘indehiscent fruits derived from
a single ovary and having the whole wall fleshy, such as the grape or
tomato; small, juicy, fleshy fruits, such as a blackberry or raspberry,
regardless of their botanical structure’, AHDEL). The following plants
bear ‘berries’: allspice / pimento ‘a tropical American evergreen tree
(Pimenta dioica) having […] berries used as a spice, especially in baking’,
bay or bay laurel or laurel or sweet bay ‘a Mediterranean evergreen tree
(Laurus nobilis) having […] small blackish berries’, boxthorn or
matrimony vine ‘any of various often thorny shrubs of the genus Lycium
[having] purplish flowers and brightly coloured berries’, bryony ‘any of
various Eurasian tendril-bearing vines of the genus Bryonia, having red or
black berries’, butcher’s broom ‘an evergreen shrub (Ruscus aculeatus)
native to Europe and the Mediterranean region, having […] usually red
berries’, cassis ‘a Eurasian currant (Ribes nigrum) bearing black berries’,
catbrier / greenbrier / smilax ‘any of several woody, usually prickly
delicious vines of the genus Smilax, having […] usually bluish to black
berries’, Chinese lantern plant or winter cherry ‘a frequently cultivated
Eurasian plant (Physalis alkekengi) having small red berries’, clintonia
‘any of various perennial herbs of the genus Clintonia in the lily family,
native to North America and eastern Asia and having […] blue or black
berries’, cuckoopint / lords-and-ladies ‘a European plant (Arum
maculatum) having […] scarlet berries’, currant ‘any of various
deciduous, spineless shrubs of the genus Ribes, native chiefly to the
Northern Hemisphere and having […] edible, variously coloured berries’,
fire thorn ‘any of various thorny shrubs of the genus Pyracantha, native to
Asia and [having] showy reddish or orange berries’, fox grape / skunk
grape ‘a wild grape (Vitis labrusca) of the eastern US that bears purplish-
black berries’, golden club ‘an aquatic plant (Orontium aquaticum) of the
eastern US, having […] small blue-green berries’, grape ‘any of numerous
woody vines of the genus Vitis, bearing clusters of edible berries’, holly
‘any of numerous trees or shrubs of the genus Ilex, usually having bright
red berries’, honeysuckle ‘any of various shrubs or vines of the genus
Lonicera, having […] small berries’, horse nettle ‘a prickly-stemmed
plant (Solanum carolinense) of eastern and central North America, having
[…] yellowish berries’, juniper berries (choucroute, gin), madroña ‘an
evergreen tree (Arbutus menziesii) native to Pacific North America, having
[…] orange or red edible berries’, mangosteen ‘a Malaysian evergreen
tree (Garcinia mangostana) having […] large edible berries’, maqui ‘a
Chilean evergreen shrub (Aristotelia chilensis) bearing edible purple
berries’, mistletoe ‘a Eurasian parasitic shrub (Viscum album) having […]

waxy white berries’, mountain ash ‘any of various deciduous trees of the
genus Sorbus having […] bright orange-red berries’, myrtle ‘any of
several evergreen shrubs or trees of the genus Myrtus, especially M.
communis, an aromatic shrub native to the Mediterranean region and
western Asia, having […] blue-black berries’, Natal plum ‘a South
African evergreen shrub (Carissa grandiflora) having […] an edible
scarlet berry’, Oregon grape ‘any of various evergreen shrubs of the genus
Mahonia, especially M. aquifolium of northwest North America, having
[…] black berries’, pepper ‘any of several tropical American, cultivated
forms of Capsicum frutescens or C. annuum, having podlike, many-
seeded, variously coloured berries’, peppercorn ‘a dried berry of the
pepper vine Piper nigrum’, plant species of the genus Rhus (Japan wax)’,
poison elder / sumac ‘a swamp shrub (Rhus vernix) of the southeast US,
having […] greenish-white berries’, poison ivy / oak ‘a North American
shrub or vine (Rhus radicans) that has […] whitish berries’, queen cup ‘a
perennial stemless plant (Clintonia uniflora) of Pacific North America,
having […] a blue berry’, red cedar (cedar waxwing), rowan ‘a small
deciduous European tree (Sorbus aucuparia) of the rose family, having
[…] orange-red berries’, umbrella leaf ‘a perennial herb (Diphylleia
cymosa) of the southeast US, having […] small blue berries’, Virginia
creeper or woodbine ‘a North American climbing vine (Parthenocissus
quinquefolia) having […] bluish-black berries’, wayfaring tree ‘a
deciduous Eurasian shrub (Viburnum lantana) having […] berries that turn
from red to black’, and white bryony ‘a climbing Eurasian vine (Bryonia
alba) having […] blackish berries’.
Other four plants are said to have berrylike fruits, that is fruits that
resemble berries (< berry ‘an indehiscent fruit derived from a single ovary
and having the whole wall fleshy, such as the grape or tomato; a small,
juicy, fleshy fruit, such as a blackberry or raspberry, regardless of its
botanical structure’ + suffix -like ‘resembling or characteristic of’,
AHDEL). The plants indicated as bearing berrylike fruits are: cubeb ‘a
tropical southeast Asian shrubby vine (Piper cubeba) having spicy,
berrylike fruits […] used in perfumery, pharmaceuticals, and commercial
flavourings’, elder ‘any of various shrubs or small trees of the genus
Sambucus, having […] red or purplish-black berrylike fruit’, manzanita
‘any of several evergreen shrubs or small trees of the genus Arctostaphylos
of the Pacific coast of North America, especially A. manzanita, […]
producing red berrylike drupes’, and wax myrtle ‘an evergreen shrub
(Myrica cerifera) of the southeast US, having […] small, berrylike fruit’
(Figure 3-3).
9%
91%
Figure 3-3. True and false berries: 91% true berry plants, 9% berry-like plants
Discussion
As far as plants bearing / having berries are concerned, there seems to
be a problem with English language dictionaries. Thus, three plants are
indicated indirectly as producing berries, while in reality there are no
berries at all:
- juniper berries are claimed to be added in both choucroute (defined as

‘an Alsatian dish of sauerkraut with wine, sausages, pork, and juniper
berries’, AHDEL) and gin (defined as ‘a strong, colourless alcoholic
beverage made by distilling or redistilling rye or other grain spirits and
adding juniper berries or aromatics such as anise, caraway seeds, or
angelica root as flavouring’, AHDEL); or, juniper is defined as ‘any of
various evergreen trees or shrubs of the genus Juniperus, having […]
aromatic, bluish-grey, berrylike, seed-bearing cones’ (AHDEL);
- red cedar berries are claimed to be eaten by a cedarbird (defined as ‘a
North American bird (Bombycilla cedrorum) having a crested head, a
yellow-tipped tail, and predominantly brown plumage’, ‘probably so
called because it eats the berries of the red cedar’, cedar waxwing); or,
red cedar is defined as ‘an evergreen, coniferous, eastern North
American tree (Juniperus virginiana) having fleshy, purplish-black
seed cones; a tall, evergreen, Pacific North American tree (Thuja

plicata) having […] small, ovoid seed-bearing cones’ (AHDEL);
- Rhus berries are claimed to be the source of Japanese wax (defined as
‘a pale yellow solid wax obtained from the berries of certain plant
species of the genus Rhus and used in wax matches, soaps, and food
packaging and as a substitute for beeswax’, AHDEL); investigation of
other sources shows that genus Rhus is represented by 250 species of
flowering plants among which the poison elder / sumac.
Among plants bearing berrylike fruits, manzanita is defined as ‘any of

several evergreen shrubs or small trees of the genus Arctostaphylos of the
Pacific coast of North America, especially A. manzanita, […] producing
red berrylike drupes’, a definition which associates, in the most outrageous
manner, two words that suggest two different types of fruits from a
botanical point of view: berry (berrylike ‘resembling or being
characteristic of berries’) and drupe (‘a fleshy fruit, such as a peach, plum,
or cherry, usually having a single hard stone that encloses a seed’).
Conclusions
English-language dictionaries:
- are not always accurate when it comes to identifying plants (juniper is

said to have both berries and berrylike cones; red cedar is said to have
both berries and seed cones or seed-bearing cones);
- should be completed by other information tools such as specialized
dictionaries, encyclopaedias, etc. to allow proper identification of
plants (to trace certain plant species of the genus Rhus, for instance);
- should avoid such misleading word associations as berrylike and
drupe.
Therefore, authors of English language dictionaries should do one of the

following: either correct the definitions to meet scientific requirements, or
add a third meaning to the entry berry to comply with the rest of the
apparently faulty definitions including this word.
References
Abercrombie, M., Hickman, M., Johnson, M. L. & Thain, M. (1990). The
New Penguin Dictionary of Biology. London: Penguin Books. (NPDB)
Berry. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry. (W)
Words and Their Structure. Edinburgh University Press.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Anica. (2008). Being ‘a Berry’ or ‘Berrylike’:
A Lexicographical Approach. Journal of Linguistic Studies 1: 51-54.
RaĠă, G. (2005). True and False ‘Berries’ in English and Romanian: A
Contrastive Approach. Scientific Works L (6): 411-414.
RaĠă, G. (2006). A Case of Polysemy in the English of Horticulture: True
and False ‘Berries’. Language and the media – One language: many
worlds. Zagreb - Split: HDLP. 603-612.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin. (AHDEL)
SPECIAL TYPES OF TOURISM:
TOURISM IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
GEORGETA RAğĂ, ANICA PERKOVIû

AND IOAN PETROMAN
Introduction
Nothing could be more disconcerting than tourism nomenclature
nowadays – a field in which the different types of tourism related to
countryside and/or nature interfere or overlap resulting in noun phrases
such as agrarian tourism, agricultural tourism, agritourism,
country(side) tourism, farm tourism, rural tourism, village tourism, etc.
for which not even the World Tourism Organisation supplies proper
definitions.
The list could be completed with other noun phrases strictly related to
the types of tourism above, and that enrich tourism vocabulary: country
vacations, dude ranches, farm holidays, farm house holidays, farm
recreation, ranch recreation, ranch vacations, and vacation farms.
Some other specialists consider there are more terms for tourism in
the countryside, including rural tourism, agricultural tourism,
ecotourism, green tourism and agritourism.
All the above types of tourism could be grouped under alternative
tourism, a type of tourism that:
- gives emphasis to the contact and understanding between the hosts and
the tourist, as well as the environment;
- is consistent with the natural, social and community values and allows
a positive relationship among locals and tourists;
- includes micro- and small companies of local inhabitants’ property;
- has smaller impacts in the natural and social environments, links with
other sectors (agriculture, craft) of the local economy and retention of
earnings in the region.
The classifications that can be included under the concept of alternative

tourism can be Natural, Cultural, Events and Others:
110 Special Types of Tourism: Tourism in the Countryside
- the “Natural” (tourism that you can undertake in natural places, about
the nature, and/or for the preservation of the natural environment)
includes: adventure tourism, ecotourism, and nature tourism;
- the “Cultural” (tourism that involves contact and learning about a
culture) includes archaeological tourism, rural tourism, religious
tourism, and ethnic tourism;
- “Events” (tourism interested in experiencing characteristic events of an
area or important annual events) include sports, carnivals and festivals
for example;
- “Others” include what we cannot include in the other classifications:
volunteering, farm stays, educational tourism, etc.
Material and Method

We have inventoried 7 noun phrases designating different types of
tourism related to the countryside and very in fashion nowadays: agrarian
tourism, agricultural tourism, agritourism, country(side) tourism, farm
tourism, rural tourism, and village tourism. For each of these terms, we
looked for possible definitions and for the different relationships they may
have with one another (association, identification, inclusion, opposition) in
an attempt to define them more clearly for our students.

This is what we have found out after searching over 40 Internet sites.
1. Agrarian Tourism (or Agrarian-Tourism), whose main ingredients
are simple attractions, a tot of relaxation and natural foods, tourism and
nature, is considered an alternative type of tourism. It is defined as ‘a
farm stay holiday’, ‘a special holiday formula to spend in the genuine
world of the farmer’, and as ‘visiting farms with crops of fine fruits, cherry
trees and vineyards, […] tulip fields’. It is identified with Agritourism and
Country Tourism.
2. Agricultural Tourism (or AgriCultural Tourism), whose main
ingredients are farm-based accommodations, meals, activities, farm
festivals / events, and retail activities where the travelling public interacts
directly with the farm family / workers, food, lodging, activities for people
who want to experience farm life and nostalgia, farm festivals, activities,
fun, affordable, family-oriented recreational and educational activities and
opportunities to learn about the production of food and agricultural
products and the state’s rich farming heritage, fairs, festivals, is considered
an alternative for improving the incomes and potential economic viability
Georgeta RaĠă, Anica Perkoviü and Ioan Petroman 111
of small farms and rural communities, a way to practice sustainable

tourism. It is defined as ‘a growing trend in agriculture which merges the
world of travel with experiences of farming and our food system’, ‘a
tourist activity organized and ran by the family agricultural farms’,
‘exploring art roads and farm trails’, ‘the act of visiting a working farm or
any agricultural, horticultural or agribusiness operation for the purpose
of enjoyment, education, or active involvement in the activities of the farm
or operation’, ‘the practice of visiting an agribusiness, horticultural, or
agricultural operation, including a farm or winery or a companion animal
or livestock’, and as ‘visiting agricultural operations that throw their
doors wide open for visitors’. It is identified with Agritourism.
3. Agritourism (or Agri-Tourism or Agro Tourism or Agrotourism),
whose main ingredients are watching or taking part in traditional
agricultural practices, without disturbing the ecosystem or the productivity
of host areas, assisting with farming tasks during the visit, picking fruits
and vegetables, riding horses, tasting honey, learning about wine,
shopping in gift shops and farm stands for local and regional produce or
hand-crafted gifts, farm based accommodations, meals, activities, farm
festivals - events, and retail activities where the travelling public interacts
directly with the farm family / workers, and assisting with farming tasks
while on vacation, is considered the strategy of using the farm to attract
visitors for the purpose of education, enjoyment, or active involvement in
the activities of the farm, an alternative for improving the incomes and
potential economic viability of small farms and rural communities, and a
means to prop up a local agricultural economy when local producers are
no longer economically competitive otherwise. Its main point of reference
is the village. It is defined as ‘a commercial enterprise at a working farm,
ranch, or agricultural plant conducted for the enjoyment of visitors that
generates supplemental income for the owner’, ‘a style of vacation in
which hospitality is offered on farms’, ‘any business conducted by a
farmer for the enjoyment or education of the public’, ‘any farm-based
business offered for the enjoyment and education of the public’, ‘farm
based tourism’, ‘the act of visiting a working farm or any agricultural,
horticultural or agribusiness operation for the purpose of enjoyment,
education, or active involvement in the activities of the farm or operation’,
and as ‘tourism in which tourists board at farms or in rural villages and
experience farming at close hand’. It is identified with Agrarian Tourism,
with Agricultural Tourism, with Farm Tourism (on the East Coast), and
with a subset of a larger industry called Rural Tourism that includes
resorts, off-site farmers’ markets, non-profit agricultural tours, and other
leisure and hospitality businesses that attract visitors to the countryside. It
is associated with Rural Tourism. It is considered a subset of Cultural

Tourism or of Rural Tourism. An agritourism business is a farm
enterprise operated for the enjoyment and education of the public that may
also generate additional farm income by promoting farm products.
4. Country Tourism (or Countryside Tourism), whose main
ingredients are nature, culture, tradition, gastronomy - concepts that our
people have learnt to preserve and encourage -, is considered more and
more popular. It is not defined anywhere. It is identified with Agrarian
Tourism and with Rural Tourism. It is associated with Farm Tourism
and with Rural Tourism. Practiced in the countryside, in the counties, and
in the regions, it is opposed to Town Tourism.
5. Farm tourism (or On-Farm Tourism), whose main ingredients are
farm visits with retail sales of locally-grown products, activities conducted
on private agricultural lands, which might include fee-hunting and fishing,
overnight stays, educational activities, etc., is considered one mechanism
by which non-farmers can learn about agriculture. Its main point of
reference is the village. It is defined as ‘travel associated with farming’. It
is identified with Agritourism. It is associated with Country Tourism,
Rural Tourism. It is considered a subset of Cultural Tourism.
6. Rural Tourism, whose main ingredients are appreciating culture and
rural activities in farmhouses (with tourists hosted and guided by the local
people), attaching great significance to local values and to local cultural
identity, making a tortilla, milking a cow, relying on the natural and
heritage resources and people of rural communities, seeking rural peace,
showcasing the rural life, art, culture and heritage at rural locations,
travelling to and staying in rural areas (without mass tourism) other than
those of their usual environment for less than one consecutive year for
leisure, business and other purposes (excluding the exercise of an activity
remunerated from within the place visited), witnessing or participating in
activities that form the core of country life such as farming, is considered a
little staid and school-trip-ish, a lot less sexy than Adventure Tourism, a
magic wand to stop rural decay, a tourism strategy in developed countries.
It is not easy to give a definition of Rural Tourism because a generic
model does not exist. The definition of Rural Tourism has been subject of
much debate in the literature without arriving at any firm consensus. Most
definitions tend to focus on the types of activities visitors engage with in a
rural area, this leads to labelling of different tourism types. However, it is
defined as ‘any activity that takes place in a non-urban, populated area’,
and as ‘tourism away from the mainstream, away from areas of intensive
tourism activity, engaged in by visitors who wish to interact with the rural
environment and the host community in a meaningful and authentic way’.
It is identified with any tourism that is not urban tourism, including

Agritourism and Country Tourism. It is associated with Agritourism and
Countryside Tourism, both forms closely associated with the basic
requirements of sustainable development, and with Farm Tourism. Rural
Tourism differs from Agritourism in two ways: first, Rural Tourism
enterprises do not necessarily occur on a farm or ranch, or at an
agricultural plant; second, they do not generate supplemental income for
the agricultural enterprise. Practiced by people who are mainly from the
middle or upper classes, it is opposed to Urban Tourism. It encloses
Agritourism. It is also seen as a component of Cultural Tourism or of
Ecotourism (although the reciprocal is also valid).
7. Village Tourism is not defined anywhere, but the phrase occurs in
association with Country Tourism.
Conclusion
From the point of view of their definition, the only element that seems
to occur with the highest frequency is ‘visiting’: the act of visiting a
working farm (Agricultural Tourism and Agritourism), the practice of
visiting an agribusiness (Agricultural Tourism), visiting agricultural
operations (Agricultural Tourism), and visiting farms with crops’
(Agrarian Tourism), the rest of definitions being singular in content.
Of the 7 ‘types of tourism’ related to the rural area, Agritourism occurs
4 times as a synonym (for Agrarian Tourism, Agricultural Tourism,
Farm Tourism, and Rural Tourism), which makes it a favourite
denomination for countryside-related tourism, followed by Agrarian
Tourism, Country Tourism, and Rural Tourism (2 occurrences each), and
by Agricultural Tourism and Farm Tourism (1 occurrence each).
The term most associated with other ‘types of tourism’ related to the
countryside is Rural Tourism (3 occurrences), followed by Country
Tourism and Farm Tourism (2 occurrences each), and by Agritourism (1
occurrence).
The only clear antonymy is between Country Tourism and Rural
Tourism on the one hand, and Town Tourism and Urban Tourism
(obviously, synonyms), on the other hand.
The only clear inclusive relationship is between Rural Tourism and
Agritourism, the former including the latter.
It seems that the different tourism types are created from the
experiences that tourists want to experience (nature tourism, cultural
tourism, adventure tourism, etc.). Thus, each type of tourism is a way to
give a denomination to a new market niche for a different experience.
References
Publishing Company.
ChiĠoran, D. (1973). Elements of English Structural Semantics. Bucureúti:
E.D.P.
Collins English Dictionary. (2003). Online:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com.
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. (2004). Online:
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Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (2011). Online: www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary.
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Corporation.
Corporation.
RaĠă, G., & Perkoviü, A. & Petroman, I. (2006). Special Types of
Tourism: Tourism in the Countryside (A Terminological Approach).
5th International Scientific Days of Land Management in the Great
Britannica, Inc.
York: Random House.
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www.agnet.org
www.agritourismitaly.com
www.backyardnature.com
www.bartleby.com
www.bulgariatravel.org
www.ceres.ca.gov
www.ces.ncsu.edu
www.country-vacations.com
www.craigmarlatt.com
www.crctourism.com.au
www.csl.doc.govt.nz
www.ctahr.hawaii.edu
www.deba.net
www.dekust.org
www.duderanches.com
www.ec.europa.eu
www.ecoturismolatino.com
www.ecoturismorural.com
www.en.wikipedia.org
www.ersa.org
www.eupronet.cz
www.exploreruralindia.org
www.farmhouse-holidays.com
www.fleurop.zce.szczecin.pl
www.forum.europa.eu.int
www.greek-ecotourism.gr
www.greentour.rrdi.go.kr
www.health-tourism.info
www.homegrownhandmade.com
www.ilcontadino.it
www.invitationtotuscany.com
www.johnstonshomestyle.pe.ca
www.maisontourisme.nassogne.marche.be
www.mass.gov
www.nal.usda.gov
www.satglobal.com
www.senate.michigan.gov
www.sfc.ucdavis.edu
www.state.nj.us
www.terrazasdeesquel.com
www.tourisme-gaspesie.com
www.trrworld.org
www.tuscany.nucl.be
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www.wikipedia.org
www.wkycorp.org
www.zum.lt
CHAPTER FOUR
SEMANTICS
LANGUAGE TRAPS:
VEGETABLE OR FRUIT?
OANA BOLDEA
Introduction
When learning a foreign language, the first thing one is taught is the
vocabulary considered basic, and among the first words to introduce,
irrespective of the learner’s age, are those referring to vegetables and
fruits, together with those expressing names of animals. Thus, pear,
potato, dog, tomato, orange, tiger are among the first words in English for
any learner of this language.
Things get a little bit more complicated when the learners are students
at an agricultural university. Sometimes things are not what they seem to
be, and language can be misleading in certain ways. The problem in
teaching vegetables and fruits in this context has a cultural nature: it arises
because of the difference in classification between the traditional context
and the scientific one. Thus, many parts of plants traditionally considered
vegetables are fruits for a botanist.
Intrigued by this aspect, we decided to try and see whether the
language can help us in separating one category from another. In other
words, this paper presents an attempt to identify a linguistic logarithm (if
any), which enables the speaker to categorize a part of a plant as being a
vegetable or a fruit. We were interested in possible suffixes or prefixes, or
in any other way of determining the classification of a plant taking its
name into consideration.
Material and Method

In the attempt to solve the problem of vegetables and fruits in English
(and Romanian, for that matter, because the difference between the
traditional use of the terms and the scientific one is the same in this
language), we first turned to the books which could provide the proper
definitions of these terms. Thus, we focused our attention first on those
120 Language Traps: Vegetable or Fruit?
books which could enlighten us regarding the scientific classification of

plants. In this respect, we consulted books and courses in botany.
The next step was to turn towards the books considered to be basic for
all linguists: dictionaries. There were two types of dictionaries we took
into consideration: the so-called “general” language dictionaries and
encyclopaedias, i.e. dictionaries displaying information on all (or at least
most) aspects of human interest, such as the Webster’s Encyclopedic
Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language and the Microsoft®
Encarta® Encyclopedia.
The second type of dictionaries consulted were “specialised”
dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries which give information in a certain field. This
is how we came across Borza’s DicĠionar etnobotanic (1968) and Vaczy’s
DicĠionar botanic polyglot (1980), but we also looked into special
dictionaries like Usher’s Wordsworth Dictionary of Botany (1996), which
also proved to be extremely helpful for our research.
The method adopted in solving the problem already presented in the
introduction was that of lexical analysis. We looked at the vernacular and
scientific names of various plants or parts of plants traditionally
considered to be vegetables, and to names of plants traditionally treated as
fruits. What we wanted to find was a possible lexical feature which should
make the distinction between vegetables and fruits. If we had found any,
then we would have made our students’ task of learning new words in this
field a lot easier.

We started from the definitions given to “vegetable” and “fruit”, and
what we noticed was that the meanings they offered were different from
one dictionary to another. The Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia’s
definition for the word vegetable reads ‘the edible product of a herbaceous
plant – that is, a plant with a soft stem, as distinguished from the edible
nuts and fruits produced by plants with woody stems such as shrubs and
trees’. This signifies that the fruits of herbaceous plants are vegetables.
Although this first definition of the word was not satisfactory for us, it
helped us move along: at least we had the evidence that the matter under
discussion was a real issue, since it left the reader still wondering.
The Wordsworth Dictionary of Botany gives another definition: a
vegetable is ‘any food plant, especially leafy plants, roots and tubers,
legumes and even flowers’. Although it seems to shed a bit more light on
the matter, as it gives some examples, the definition is still not enough to
make the reader understand the term.
Oana Boldea 121
The most complex definition seems to be the one provided by the

Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language
(1996): vegetable, ‘noun 1. any herbaceous plant whose fruit, seeds, roots,
tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves or flower parts are used as food; 2. the edible
part of such a plant; 3. any member of the vegetable kingdom; plant; 4. a
dull, spiritless, and uninteresting person’. And it goes on with the
definition of the same word when used as an adjective. Since only the
meaning of the noun was of interest to us, this is the only one we have
cited here. Also, because of the fact that definition (4) is a figurative
meaning, it is of no interest to us.
We can see from this last definition that the word vegetable actually
seems to have at least three layers of understanding: the largest one, which
includes a smaller one, which, in its turn, includes the smallest of all three,
as we have tried to represent in Figure 4-1.
Figure 4-1. The concentric meanings of the word “vegetable”: a – plant, in general;
b – (herbaceous) plant whose parts are used as food; c – plant part
In what the term fruit is concerned, the definitions are all alike though
more or less detailed: they all indicate that, in botany, a fruit is the ripened
ovary in flowering plants, with its contents and accessory parts. Some
dictionaries go further in saying that a fruit is the edible part of a plant
developed by a flower. This last definition is, actually, a mixture between
the scientific definition of the term and the cuisine one, which gives, for
the same word, the meaning of the sweet and fleshy part of a plant that can
be eaten by people, examples being the apples, oranges or plums.
When consulting scientific books in order to find more about the term
fruit, we could see that many of the plants or parts of plants commonly
treated as vegetables are, in fact, fruits. A good example is provided by

one of the most used vegetables, the common tomato. What we eat from
the plant Lycopersicon esculentum is exactly its edible fruit. Cut in half, a
tomato displays distinct sections, each representing a separate carpel with
many seeds. This makes it a true “berry”, a type of fleshy simple fruit. In
the case of berries, the entire pericarp, with the exception, in some cases,
of the rind, becomes soft and fleshy, while the seeds are embedded in the
pulp, so in the fleshy portion. Coming from the same genus as the tomato,
namely Solanaceae, the eggplant is another perfect example of a true
berry, with the seeds embedded in the greyish pulp. In the same way, the
cucumber we eat is, actually, the unripe fruit of the plant botanically
named Cucumis sativus. The botanical name of the type of fruit
represented by the cucumber is a “pepo”, which is a kind of berry, but
having a hard rind. The same holds also true for the squash, which is the
fruit of one of the plants pertaining to genus Cucurbita.
What seemed to be extremely interesting for us was that, while some
parts of plants popularly considered vegetables proved to be berries, some
others, considered berries, were not berries at all. This is the case of the
raspberry or strawberry, which develop differently from the flower and
are not really berries, although they misleadingly contain the word “berry”
in their names. Raspberries actually belong to the class of “aggregate
fruits”, namely fruits consisting of many ripened ovaries produced by a
single flower. At the same time, strawberries are “accessory fruits”. An
accessory fruit contains a mature ovary, but it consists mainly of tissues
other than the ovary itself, such as other flower and stem parts. A
strawberry consists of many small achenes on a fleshy, enlarged
receptacle.
The “drupe” is the other type of fleshy fruit besides the “berry”. It
differs from the latter in that the seed is contained in a hard stone placed in
the centre of the fleshy fruit. For this class, too, we found examples of
fruits eaten as vegetables. It is the case of the olives and of the avocado.
Simple fruits can be fleshy or dry. We have already dealt with the
examples of vegetable-like fleshy fruits. But we have also found such
examples of dried fruits. First, we should make clear that “dry fruits” are
called “dry” because, when they mature, the entire wall becomes dry
instead of fleshy, as for the ones mentioned before. Beans, lentils, peas,
and soybeans produce pods which are considered by botanists to be
“dehiscent dry fruits” because, when they mature, they split open for the
seeds to emerge. So, when eating green beans, we do not eat a vegetable,
but a fruit, and when consuming peas, we actually eat the seeds coming
from such a fruit.
Oana Boldea 123
Another class of vegetables which are actually fruits is made up of the

cereals. Wheat, maize, oats, barley, rye, and rice are all plants from which
people consume the fruit. They make up an entire class of fruits, called
“caryopses”, or “grains”, belonging to the bigger class of “indehiscent dry
fruits”. A fruit is indehiscent if it does not split when ripe, and grains are
one-seeded fruits in which the outer husk is tightly attached to the entire
seed.
Table 4-1 contains a coarse classification of fruits, with examples of
botanical fruits popularly considered to be vegetables. For the other three
main classes of fruits occurring in botanical courses (aggregate, multiple
and accessory) together with the simple fruits, we did not find examples of
fruits considered vegetables. That is why we did not include them in the
table, as the aim is not to present the entire classification of fruits, but only
the part which is of interest to us, namely that for which we have found
examples of fruits commonly treated as vegetables.
Table 4-1. Fruits traditionally considered vegetables
Type of fruit Fruits traditionally

considered vegetables
Berry true berry eggplant, green pepper,
pimento, red pepper, tomato
Fleshy
pepo cucumber, gourd, pumpkin,

squash
Drupe avocado, olive
Simple
Dehiscent legume pods of bean, lentil, pea,

soybean
silique pods of mustard
Dry
Indehiscent caryopsis barley, corn, oats, rice, rye,

or grain wheat
schizocarp dill
For the Romanian learners of English, there is another problem,

represented by the word legume. This word is a false friend for the
Romanians, as it very much resembles the Romanian word legumă
‘vegetable’. Thus, when reading that a pod of pea, for instance, is a
“legume”, they will tend to interpret the information as ‘a pod of pea is a
vegetable’. Actually, a “legume” designates a type of dry fruit.
Another very interesting fact is that popularly vegetables include not
only fruits, but also organisms which are not plants at all. For instance,
algae, which although resemble plants, are not considered by botanists to
be plants, since they lack the roots, leaves and other structures typical of
true plants. Mushrooms are another example. They are actually “fungi”,
and not “plants”, but still are treated as “vegetables”.
We were interested in seeing whether word derivation or word
composition helped building up the names of the plants analyzed.
Derivation consists in adding affixes to the stems of different words in
order to form new words. Affixes may be classified from various points of
view: according to their origin, to the parts of speech they serve to form, to
the meaning they render to the parts of speech, to their productivity, etc.
We have been particularly interested in the classification according to the
part of the word they are added to (the beginning or the end, thus being
called prefixes and suffixes, respectively), and the meaning (if any) they
bring to the word. Unfortunately, we could not find any affix to help us in
reaching at a special “formula” telling us whether a “vegetable” is a fruit
or not. This means that the names of vegetables and fruits have to be
learned as such.
Composition also proved to be useless. There are no words which,
placed next to others, indicate whether the object named is a vegetable or a
fruit. Moreover, as we have seen, composition can be misleading, as in the
already-mentioned case of “berry”. Many ‘berry’ compounds do not refer
to “berries” (in a botanical sense) at all. The same holds true for the
compounds of “nut”. A “nut” is a type of “indehiscent dry fruit” whose
single seed is contained in a woody shell. That is how, although called
peanut, the fruit bearing this name is actually a legume (it has a pod with
many seeds which splits along two seams). Much in the same way, the
coconut and the walnut are not true nuts: botanically, they fall into the
category of “drupes”.
Other findings of our research were that some spices are also fruits. It
is the case of the allspice and of the nutmeg.
And, to our amazement, we found that, sometimes, some vegetables
which are not botanically “fruits” are considered to be so, not by
specialists, nor by common people, but by institutions. It is true that it
happens extremely rarely, and for various reasons. This is the case with the
carrot, although everybody knows that it is actually a root. Indeed, under
European Union trade rules, a carrot is defined as a “fruit”, presumably
because fruits are taxed at a higher duty and carrot jam is a popular
Portuguese dish (according to www.gardenerskitchen.co.uk).
Oana Boldea 125
Conclusions
In every-day life, the plants or plant parts people eat are roughly
separated into two large classes: vegetables and fruits. Usually, people
consider that fruits are the sweet parts of plants which can be eaten raw or
made into jams while vegetables are usually those we cook for eating, or at
least which are not sweet. Our attempt in this paper was to clarify which of
the commonly-called vegetables were botanically fruits. The problem
occurs especially when teaching English to students at an agricultural
university. Here the matter does not seem as insignificant as it would seem
to anybody else: accuracy regarding plants is of great importance in this
field.
Then, the aim was to track any lexical sign which would help the
students separate vegetables from fruits in what their names are concerned.
We found that many of the so-called vegetables are, actually, fruits. Such
is, for instance, the tomato, which is a true berry botanically, as opposed to
strawberry or raspberry, which, although containing this word, are fruits
of totally different kinds: aggregate and accessory, respectively.
Cucumbers, pumpkins and squashes are also fruits. Cereals fall into the
category of dry fruits, although this is known only to botanists. And there
are other examples of vegetable-like fruits we discussed in the paper.
We also clarified the problem of the false friend “legume”, which has
by no means the Romanian meaning: it designates a sub-class of dry fruits.
If for the first problem (identifying vegetables from fruits), we had
encouraging results, for the second we did not. We could not find any
lexical pattern to help us tell vegetable from fruits.
References
Boldea, Oana. (2005). Language Traps: Vegetable or Fruit? Proceedings
of the Jubilee Scientific Conference with International Participation
“State-of-the-art and Problems of Agricultural Science and
Education”, Plovdiv, Bulgaria: 239-244.
Borza, Al. (1968). DicĠionar etnobotanic. [An Ethnobotanical Dictionary].
Bucureúti: Editura Academiei.
Gardeners Kitchen. Online: www.gardenerskitchen.co.uk.
Leech, G. (1989). An A-Z of English Usage. London: Longman.
Matthews, P. H. (1991). Morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Corporation.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (1999). English for Horticulturists. Timiúoara: Editura

Mirton.
—. (1999). Curs practic de limba engleză – profilul agricol (anul al II-lea
de studiu). [A Practical Course of English – Agriculture (2nd year)].
Timiúoara: Editura Mirton.
Usher, G. (1996). The Wordsworth Dictionary of Botany. Reston, VA:
Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Vaczy, C. (1980). DicĠionar botanic poliglot. [A Multilingual Botanical
Dictionary]. Bucureúti: Editura ùtiinĠifică úi Enciclopedică.
HOMONYMY AND SYNONYMY
OANA BOLDEA
Introduction
The present paper is meant to be a lexical analysis of some aspects of the
English vocabulary related to water used in agriculture. It deals with some
words which prove to be, in a way, more difficult to understand or use by
non-native English speaking students. This difficulty comes exactly from
the fact that words are either homonymous or polysemous, i.e. the students
already know the word, but with another meaning, usually the primary
meaning used in everyday speech. The paper tackles some of these words
in an attempt to show that as far as homonymy is concerned, students
have a hard time coping with the new meaning; in the case of polysemy,
things may be different in the sense that if the new meaning is, in a way or
another, related to the one already known by the student, it is easier to
keep in mind and to use.
When learning a foreign language, it is quite difficult to keep in mind
the new words one needs for conveying a message. This task is even more
complicated when another process interferes, namely getting used to more
meanings of the same word. This is an understandable phenomenon: it is
only natural to find it difficult to get used to new contexts and meanings
for a word the “meaning” of which one has “taken for granted” for some
time.
Students in agricultural sciences have to go through this experience
when they find themselves in the second year of university. In the first
year, they study basic, common, everyday English, just enough to help
them sustain a conversation on general topics. But when they are
sophomores, they pass on to a different level, namely that of in-taking the
specialized vocabulary they need to understand articles or books written in
English on specific topics related to their future profession, or to write
such works themselves.
This paper is based upon our observations in class on what words seem
to really be new for the students and for which words they only learn new
meanings. Naturally, as in English (or in any other language for that
matter) the number of meanings is greater than that of words, a lot of
128 Homonymy and Synonymy
words prove to be polysemantic. The actual number of meanings of the

commonly used words ranges from five to about a hundred (Matthews
1993). The commoner the word, the more meanings it has. In the
following pages, some of these words will be looked at more closely.
Very important to mention is the fact that it is not the intention of this
paper to deal with all the possible meanings of the words analyzed. As
stated before, we will focus on the one meaning found in relation to
agriculture, and one, two or a maximum of three of the most representative
meanings of the word in everyday English.
Material and Method

The approach used is that of semantic analysis. Each word taken into
consideration was analyzed from the point of view of homonymy and
polysemy. We checked whether the word had more meanings than that
with which it occurred in the source and, if so, whether those meanings
were more commonly used than the one occurring there. The premise was
that the “agricultural” meaning was less common or newer than others.
For the analysis, sometimes the etymological approach proved useful.
Therefore, we looked at the origin of words to see whether the meanings
had a common root, started from the same etymon or not, because if so,
then, at least at the beginning, they had something in common. If they had
something in common, then they were not homonyms, but rather different
meanings of the same word, that is a polysemantic word.
The corpus we have used in this study was provided by the book Water
and Agriculture (RaĠă et al. 2004), a collection of terms related to water
and agriculture. The book addresses students in agriculture. We have
chosen this book because it supplies a limited number of entries, as
opposed to very extensive, comprehensive dictionaries. Although the book
comprises terminology in French, German, and Romanian besides English,
only the latter was taken into account in the present study. Nevertheless,
when the equivalent in another language was relevant for the analysis, it
did get some attention. Thus, 3,143 terms were analyzed from the
perspective of multiple meanings. Of these, only those 100 most
commonly met with in everyday life found their way into the present paper
as illustrations.
The theoretical background on homonymy and polysemy can be
traced back to books written by Romanian researchers (Salapina 1974;
LeviĠchi 1975; Bădescu 1984), as well as in works of well-known foreign
scholars (Leech 1989; Matthews 1993; Swan 1995; Crystal 1999). For the
practical side of the paper, the Webster Encyclopaedic Unabridged
Oana Boldea 129
Dictionary of the English Language and the Dictionary of American

English were the tools used in finding the meanings of words, while the
Dictionary of Word Origins was of great help, together with the Webster
Encyclopaedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, for
establishing the etymologies of certain terms. Other relevant sources are
mentioned in References.

Both homonymy and polysemy are terms coming from Greek, and
both deal with the meaning of words. While homonymy comes from
homo- (‘the same’) and -onym (‘name’), thus having the significance
‘having the same name’, polysemy is built from poly- (‘many’) and sema
(‘sign’), meaning ‘with many significations’. The problem of criteria
distinguishing homonymy from polysemy, i.e. between the different
meanings of one word and the meanings of homonyms, is one of long-
debated problems in semasiology. As a matter of fact, there is not as yet a
universal criterion for the distinction between the two phenomena
(Salapina 1974). Below is a description of the two as applied in the present
analysis.
We only dealt with the so-called perfect (absolute) homonyms, or
homonyms proper, which are identical both in pronunciation and
spelling, different in meaning only, leaving aside the homographs
(identical in spelling, but different both in sound and meaning), the
homophones (identical in sound, but different in spelling and meaning)
and the homoforms (different in meaning but identical in some of their
grammatical forms). In other words, we looked for full lexical
homonyms.
The sources of homonymy are exactly the problem in differentiating
between homonyms and polysemantic words: they can have come into
being either through convergent sound development (words of different
origin accidentally coincide in sound and, consequently, in graphic form,
mostly after losing the inflections), or through divergent sense
development (also called split polysemy). The second source is, actually,
the cause of the problem which occurs when trying to establish whether a
word belongs to a class or to another. The break-up of polysemy is due to
the fact that it is natural for polysemantic words to develop meanings
which, in the course of time, may deviate very far from the original one.
When the intermediate links happen to fall out, some of these meanings
lose all connection with the rest of the structure and start a separate
existence (Salapina 1974).
As there are many cases when the demarcation line between polysemy
and homonymy is rather unclear (Matthews 1993), in the present paper
those words were considered to be homonyms which did not have a
common etymology, or those which presented no connection between
various meanings; if the meanings were felt as being connected, they were
considered as belonging to the same polysemantic word.
From a synchronic point of view, researchers have noted different
degrees in the importance or frequency of various meanings. Some
meanings are called “basic” and others “secondary”, or “minor”. It is the
basic meaning that is given first in language dictionaries; it is followed by
the other(s), not so frequently used. What the present study aimed at was
establishing whether any of the terms gathered in the “water and
agriculture” compendium were used in their primary meaning, starting
from the hypothesis that there were very few of those, if any.
Conclusions
The study revealed that there were much more homonyms and
polysemantic words than expected at the beginning.
The homonyms we found can be separated into different classes. One
such class of terms is made up of the words the students already know in
the form of proper names. Such is, for instance, the word Eddy, which
written without capital letter becomes a common noun having the meaning
‘whirlpool’. The same happens with Ford, the brand name of one of the
best-known vehicles in the world: when written without capital letter, it
denotes ‘a place where a river or other body of water is shallow enough to
be crossed by wading’. The same is true for Dutch, which the students
know to denote nationality, but which, when spelt as a common noun,
means ‘socket’. Things are somehow different when we deal with the
word Peg. When capitalized, it is a woman’s name, and when not, it
becomes a common homonym. The complication arises here, because the
homonym of Peg is a polysemantic word, the meaning already known to
the students being that of ‘hanger’, ‘rack’. Among the other many
meanings this word displays, the one the students have to learn is ‘a pin of
wood or other material driven or fitted into something, as to fasten parts
together or to stop a hole’.
Then there is the class of the homonyms some of the students may
know, as they are more commonly used in both senses. Such is, for
instance, bank, which denotes both ‘an institution for receiving, lending,
exchanging and safeguarding money’, and ‘the slope immediately
bordering a stream course along which the water normally runs’. In the
Oana Boldea 131
case of bank, etymology also helps us prove that we deal with two
homonyms and not with a polysemantic word. While the first comes
from the Italian banca ‘counter’, the second has its origins in the Old
Danish bake ‘elevation, hill’. Another pair of words likely to be known by
students is ram, which may mean either ‘the he-sheep’ or ‘a strike with
great force’. Yet another word pertaining to this class is beam, which
means ‘any of various relatively long pieces of metal, wood, stone, etc.,
manufactured or shaped especially for use as rigid members or parts of
structures or machines’ and also ‘a ray of light’. Another example is shed,
which is best known to the students as the verb meaning ‘to weep, to
express one’s regret, sorrow, grief or other overpowering emotion through
tears’, but which also, as a noun, means ‘a rude structure built for shelter,
storage, etc.’.
Another class is that of debatable homonyms: in this case, the
meanings seem to have something in common, so they might be taken as
polysemantic words, they are in-between. Thus, students might guess
what they mean even if they have not encountered that specific meaning
before. Such is the case of the expression water table, denoting ‘the depth
below which the ground is saturated with water’, the meaning of which
can be arrived at if one thinks of the fifth meaning given for the word table
in the dictionary, namely ‘a flat or plane surface; a level area’. The same
holds true for weep hole, which denotes ‘a hole for draining off
accumulated moisture’, as opposed to the word weep meaning ‘shedding
tears’. Water pocket is another such case. Although pocket denotes ‘a
shaped piece of fabric attached inside or outside a garment and forming a
pouch used especially for carrying small articles’, if one keeps in mind
that it has come to denote any pouch-like cavity, then it is not too hard to
understand that water pocket means ‘plunge basin’. In much the same
way, if one knows that crab denotes a crustacean with a more or less
flattened body, catching its prey with the help of claws, then one might
understand that, in certain contexts, it may come to mean ‘pipe grab’.
Chinese hat is the denomination for a ‘shutter’, the conic shape of which
is easy to guess from its name.
Polysemantic words are present in great numbers too: a blind
drainage area is ‘an area closed at one end’ (as the students probably
know from the expression blind alley), a bed can be ‘a piece or area of
ground in a garden or lawn where flowers are grown’. An arm is not only
‘the upper limb of the human body’, but also ‘any arm-like part or
attachment, as of a lever on a machine’, thus an overhanging arm may
belong to someone who has fallen asleep half out of bed, but also to a
machine. A knee joint in agriculture is easily understood after the students
are reminded of the primary sense of the word joint, that of ‘the place at
which two things or two separate parts of the same thing, are united, either
rigidly, or in such a way as to admit motion’. Unfortunately, watching too
many American movies, students are much more exposed to the
homonyms of the word, which in slang means either ‘cigarette with
marijuana’ or ‘a cheap bar with a bad reputation’.
The word mole is, in a way, one of the most interesting found in the
database, because it is part of a large “family” of homonyms: it has no
less than 5 meanings! The first one to be learned in school is that of ‘a
small insectivorous mammal living chiefly underground and having
velvety fur, very small eyes and strong, fossorial forefeet’. Then, one finds
out that it also means ‘a small, congenital spot or blemish on the human
skin’. Mole is also used in chemistry, where it denotes ‘the molecular
weight of a substance expressed in grams’. Students in agriculture, then,
learn the meaning of ‘a massive structure, especially of stone, set up in the
water, as for a breakwater or a pier’. And the fifth meaning is a medical
term denoting ‘a fleshy mass in the uterus formed by a hemorrhagic dead
ovum’.
Another word which calls for our attention is head, which has many
varied meanings, even in agriculture. It may mean ‘pressure’, so the
expression loss of head actually reads ‘loss of pressure’, and has nothing
to do with ‘to lose one’s head over somebody’. Working head does not
denote somebody who is thinking hard, but rather ‘the height a pump can
bring water to’. Even in a phrase containing the word water, it may have
different meanings. Thus, head of water expresses ‘the height of a water
spout / column’, while headwater denotes ‘the upper tributaries of a river’.
There are also those homonyms that were not included in the other
classes presented above. They form a distinct class and are the most
numerous of all. Generally, students do not know the ones related to
agriculture when they come into the second year and there is no way they
can guess the meaning from the homonym used in the everyday language.
Such a word is dolphin, which, besides the ‘mammal living in the ocean’,
also means ‘a cluster of piles used as a fender’. A borehole is not a hole
which annoys people to death, as one might guess knowing only the
meaning of the homonym, but ‘a hole drilled in the earth for the purpose
of getting at water’. A riddle is, in everyday English, a question or
statement so framed as to exercise one’s ingenuity in answering it. Little
do the students know when coming in the second year that the same word
denotes ‘a coarse sieve, as one for sifting sand’. As for race, the only
meaning they know is that related to sports, but they soon find out that it
also means ‘an artificial channel leading water to or from a place where its
Oana Boldea 133
energy is put to use’, or even ‘the current of water in such a channel’.

Prime means ‘to pour or admit liquid into a pump, in order to expel air and
make it ready for action’, as opposed to the well-known meaning in the
television-related expression prime time. Sounding does not only mean
‘producing sounds’ or ‘pompous’, but also ‘the act of measuring’.
As we could see, much of the new vocabulary meant to be introduced
to students is, actually, based on already-known words to which new
meanings are attached. If the meanings are related, then we are dealing
with polysemantic words. If not, then the words are homonyms. They
can be then parted into different subclasses, according to different criteria.
But in the end, the context, the domain we tackle helps us understand
which of the meanings the right one to use or to interpret is.
References
Bădescu, Alice. (1984). Gramatica limbii engleze. [English Grammar].
Bucureúti: Editura útiintifică úi enciclopedică.
Boldea, Oana. (2004). On the Phenomenon of Homonymy and Polysemy
Regarding the Agricultural Terminology. Proceedings of the 4th
Hungarian Plain, MezĘtúr, Hungary: 5 p.
Crystal, D. (1999). The Penguin Dictionary of Language. London:
Penguin Books.
Flavell, Linda & Flavell, R. (1995). Dictionary of Word Origins. London:
Kyle Cathie Limited.
LeviĠchi, L. (1975). Limba engleză contemporană - Lexicologia.
[Contemporary English: Lexicology]. Bucureúti: Editura Academiei
R.S.R..
Press.
RaĠă, Georgeta, Moisuc, Al., Samfira, I., Silion, Raluca-Felicia Silion &
Boldea, Oana. (2004). Water and Agriculture. Timiúoara: Editura
Mirton.
RaĠă, Georgeta.(1999). Curs practic de limba engleză – profilul agricol
(anul al II-lea de studiu). [A Practical Course of English – Agriculture
(2nd year)]. Timiúoara: Editura Mirton.
Salapina, Galina. (1974). Limba engleză contemporană. [Contemporary
English]. Tipografia UniversităĠii din Timiúoara.
Swan, M. (1995). Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.
DEFINING CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES
ASSOCIATED WITH SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS
Introduction
Understanding agricultural terminology at academic level is of utmost
importance for researchers, teachers, and undergraduates in agricultural
science that need to classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify, locate,
paraphrase, recognize, report, select, and translate ideas or concepts.
Understanding this terminology also means:
- thinking about it and using concepts to deal adequately with it;

- being able to apply it to situations likely to be encountered, to
recognize significant deviations, and to carry out the research
necessary to arrive at reasonable solutions;
- using concepts and bringing individuals under them;
- reasoning and making judgements relating to its applicability.
In this context, we need to point out that specialised terminologists have

noticed that most of the concepts and practices associated with
sustainable agricultural systems defy definition, i.e. they do not delimit
or describe the meaning of a concept or term by stating the essential
properties of the entities or objects denoted by the concept.
Material and Method

We have analysed the definitions of 18 different concepts and
practices associated with sustainable agricultural systems among the
79 ones supplied by Mary V. Gold’s in her reference compilation
Sustainable Agriculture: Definitions and Terms (1999). These definitions
were then analysed from the point of view of their meaning as suggested
by Simpson & Weiner in their Oxford English Dictionary (1989).
136 Sustainable Agricultural Systems
Results
We have inventoried 79 concepts and practices associated with
sustainable agricultural systems in usage (and abusage) nowadays in
Gold’s reference compilation (1999). Eighteen of these concepts and
practices not labelled as conventional modern farming are given tentative
definitions. We have analysed these definitions in an attempt to see why
they are misunderstood by our undergraduates (and, sometimes, even by
our colleagues teaching agricultural subjects).
Sustainable agriculture is similar to the type of agriculture that was
practiced in the early 1900’s and involved purchasing few inputs and
marketing little of the outputs. “If nothing else, the term ‘sustainable
agriculture’ has provided ‘talking points’, a sense of direction, and an
urgency that has sparked much excitement and innovative thinking in the
agricultural world.” says Gold in the Introduction to her compilation
(1999). She could not be more right, and the analysis below is the best
example.
A. Of the 18 definitions, 16 (88%) are definitions by genus and
difference or genus-differentia definitions, i.e. intensional definitions
(definitions that specify all and only the properties required of something
in order that falls under the term defined, i.e. its necessary and sufficient
conditions), in which a word or concept that indicates a species (a specific
type of item) is described first by a broader category it belongs to, the
genus, and then distinguished from other items in that category by
differentia (i.e. specific properties): alternative agriculture / farming is
‘[a farming method encompassing] a vast array of [agricultural] practices
and enterprises, all of which are considered different from prevailing or
conventional agricultural activities […]: nontraditional crops, livestock,
and other farm products; service, recreation, tourism, food processing,
forest / woodlot, and other enterprises based on farm and natural resources
(ancillary enterprises); unconventional production systems such as organic
farming or aquaculture; or direct marketing and other entrepreneurial
marketing strategies’ (Grudens Shuck et al. in Gold 1999); biodynamic
agriculture / farming is ‘[a farming method encompassing] specific
[agricultural] practices and preparations that enable the farmer or
gardener to work in concert with [the forces within living nature]’ (Gold
1999); biointensive gardening or mini-farming is ‘a production system
that makes it possible for one person to grow all of his or her family’s food
using truly sustainable methods that maintain the fertility of the soil
without relying on non-renewable resources like petrochemicals or
imported organic matter’ (Jeavons in Gold 1999); biological / ecological
farming is ‘[a farming method encompassing] various and more specific

practices and techniques of farming sustainability, e.g., organic,
biodynamic, holistic, natural’ (Gold 1999); biological farming is ‘a
system of crop production in which the producer tries to minimize the use
of ‘chemicals’ for control of crop pests’ (Pesek in Gold 1999); do-nothing
farming or natural farming is ‘a farming method involving no tillage, no
fertilizer, no pesticides, no weeding, no pruning, and remarkably little
labour […] by careful timing of his seeding and careful combinations of
plants (polyculture)’ (Gold 1999); Kyusei nature farming ‘[is a farming
method that] often employs technology involving beneficial
microorganisms as inoculants to increase the microbial diversity of
agricultural soils, which, in turn, can enhance the growth, health, and yield
of crops’ (Idem); low input agriculture ‘[is a low input farming system
that] seeks to optimize the management and use of internal production
inputs (i.e., on-farm resources) and to minimize the use of production
inputs (i.e., off-farm resources) such as purchased fertilizers and
pesticides, wherever and whenever feasible and practicable, to lower
production costs, to avoid pollution of surface and groundwater, to reduce
pesticide residues in food, to reduce a farmer’s overall risk, and to increase
both short- and long-term farm profitability’ (Idem). The term is
‘somewhat misleading [we underline] and indeed unfortunate. For some it
implied that farmers should starve their crops, let the weeds choke them
out, and let insects clean up what was left. In fact, the term low-input
referred to purchasing few off-farm inputs (usually fertilizers and
pesticides), while increasing on-farm inputs (i.e. manures, cover crops, and
especially management). Thus, a more accurate term would be different
input [agriculture] or low external input [agriculture] rather than low-
input [agriculture].’ (Norman 1997); nature farming is a farming system
utilizing ‘the inherent power of the soil’ and focusing on ‘analyzing and
building soil through composting, green manuring, mulch, and various
other soil management techniques’ (Gold 1999); organic farming is ‘a
production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of
synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, and
livestock feed additives. [It relies] upon crop rotations, crop residues,
animal manures, legumes, green manures, off-farm organic wastes,
mechanical cultivation, mineral-bearing rocks, and aspects of biological
pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilth, to supply plant
nutrients, and to control insects, weeds and other pests.’ (Idem);
permaculture (from permanent agriculture) is ‘one of the many alternative
agriculture systems described as sustainable [emphasising] on design; that
is, the location of each element in a landscape, and the evolution of
landscape over time, [whose goal is] to produce an efficient, low-

maintenance integration of plants, animals, people and structure applied at
the scale of a home garden, all the way through to a large farm’ (Idem);
precision agriculture / farming or prescription farming or site-specific
management is ‘a MANAGEMENT STRATEGY that employs detailed,
site-specific information to precisely manage production inputs’ (Idem);
regenerative / sustainable agriculture or low-input sustainable
agriculture is defined as ‘a farming system that is capable of maintaining
its productivity and usefulness to society indefinitely. Such systems must
be resource-conserving, socially supportive, commercially competitive,
and environmentally sound.’ (Idem); or as ‘an integrated system of plant
and animal production practices having a site-specific application’ (Idem);
or as ‘a way of practicing agriculture which seeks to optimize skills and
technology to achieve long-term stability of the agricultural enterprise,
environmental protection, and consumer safety’ (Idem); or as ‘a whole-
systems approach to food, feed, and other fibber production that balances
environmental soundness, social equity, and economic viability among all
sectors of the public, including international and intergenerational peoples’
(Idem).
B. Only 1 (6%) of the 18 definitions is a dictionary or lexical
definition, i.e. a definition that reports the meaning of a word or
expression as it is normally used, usually by supplying an approximately
equivalent expression in which the original word does not occur:
biological farming ‘often refers to organic farming (in Europe, e.g. in the
Netherlands)’ (Norman 1997).
C. Only 1 (6%) of the 18 definitions is an extensional definition, i.e. a
definition formulating the meaning of a concept or term by specifying its
extension, that is, every object that falls under the definition of the concept
or term in question: ecological agriculture / farming ‘refers to organic
farming plus environmental considerations such as on-farm wildlife
management (i.e., the relationships between parts of the agroecosystem)’
(Idem).
Discussion
From a teacher’s point of view, it is good that 88% of the definitions of
concepts and practices associated with sustainable agricultural
systems are definitions by genus and difference or genus-differentia
definitions, since this is the natural thing to do if you are to explain the
meaning of a particular word to someone. Again, the fact that 6% of the
definitions of concepts and practices represent a dictionary or lexical
definition is not a problem, since it relies on reporting the meaning of a

word or expression as it is normally used by supplying an approximately
equivalent expression in which the original word does not occur. A lexical
definition is usually the type expected from a request for definition, and it
is generally expected that such a definition will be stated as simply as
possible in order to convey information to the widest audience.
As for the only extensional definition representing other 6% of the
definitions of concepts and practices associated with sustainable
agricultural systems, it should not be perceived as a burden, since they
address undergraduates in agriculture. Extensional definitions are used
when listing examples would give more applicable information than other
types of definition, and where listing the members of a set tells the
questioner enough about the nature of that set.
The problem is that 15 (i.e. 83%) of these definitions are not pure
definitions. Thus:
Of these 15 definitions, 14 (13 definitions by genus and difference and
1 extensional definition) could also be ranged among precising definitions,
i.e. definitions that extend the dictionary / lexical definition of a term for a
specific purpose by including additional criteria that narrow down the set
of things meeting the definition: biodynamic agriculture / farming is ‘[a
farming method encompassing] specific [agricultural] practices and
preparations that enable the farmer or gardener to work in concert with
[the forces within living nature]’ (Gold 1999); biointensive gardening or
mini-farming is ‘a production system that makes it possible for one person
to grow all of his or her family’s food using truly sustainable methods that
maintain the fertility of the soil without relying on non-renewable
resources like petrochemicals or imported organic matter’ (Jeavons in
Gold 1999); biological / ecological farming is ‘[a farming method
encompassing] various and more specific practices and techniques of
farming sustainability, e.g., organic, biodynamic, holistic, natural’ (Gold
1999); biological farming is ‘a system of crop production in which the
producer tries to minimize the use of ‘chemicals’ for control of crop pests’
(Pesek in Gold 1999); do-nothing farming or natural farming is ‘a
farming method involving no tillage, no fertilizer, no pesticides, no
weeding, no pruning, and remarkably little labour […] by careful timing of
his seeding and careful combinations of plants (polyculture)’ (Gold 1999);
ecological agriculture / farming ‘refers to organic farming plus
environmental considerations such as on-farm wildlife management (i.e.,
the relationships between parts of the agroecosystem)’ (Norman 1997);
Kyusei nature farming ‘[is a farming method that] often employs
technology involving beneficial microorganisms as inoculants to increase
the microbial diversity of agricultural soils, which, in turn, can enhance

the growth, health, and yield of crops’ (Gold 1999); low input agriculture
‘[is a low input farming system that] seeks to optimize the management
and use of internal production inputs (i.e., on-farm resources) and to
minimize the use of production inputs (i.e., off-farm resources) such as
purchased fertilizers and pesticides, wherever and whenever feasible and
practicable, to lower production costs, to avoid pollution of surface and
groundwater, to reduce pesticide residues in food, to reduce a farmer’s
overall risk, and to increase both short- and long-term farm profitability’
(Idem); nature farming is a farming system utilizing ‘the inherent power
of the soil’ and focusing on ‘analyzing and building soil through
composting, green manuring, mulch, and various other soil management
techniques’ (Idem); organic farming is ‘a production system which avoids
or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers,
pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives. [It relies] upon
crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures,
off-farm organic wastes, mechanical cultivation, mineral-bearing rocks,
and aspects of biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and
tilth, to supply plant nutrients, and to control insects, weeds and other
pests.’ (Idem); permaculture (from permanent agriculture) is ‘one of the
many alternative agriculture systems described as sustainable
[emphasising] on design; that is, the location of each element in a
landscape, and the evolution of landscape over time, [whose goal is] to
produce an efficient, low-maintenance integration of plants, animals,
people and structure applied at the scale of a home garden, all the way
through to a large farm’ (Idem); precision agriculture / farming or
prescription farming or site-specific management is ‘a MANAGEMENT
STRATEGY that employs detailed, site-specific information to precisely
manage production inputs’ (Idem); regenerative / sustainable agriculture
or low-input sustainable agriculture is ‘a farming system that is capable
of maintaining its productivity and usefulness to society indefinitely. Such
systems must be resource-conserving, socially supportive, commercially
competitive, and environmentally sound.’ (Idem); regenerative /
sustainable agriculture or low-input sustainable agriculture a ‘whole-
systems approach to food, feed, and other fibber production that balances
environmental soundness, social equity, and economic viability among all
sectors of the public, including international and intergenerational
peoples’ (Idem).
Of these 15 definitions, 1 definition by genus and difference could also
be ranged among enumerative definitions, i.e. definitions that formulates
its meaning by specifying its extension, that is, finite sets of objects that
fall under the definition of the concept or term in question: alternative

agriculture / farming is ‘[a farming method encompassing] a vast array of
[agricultural] practices and enterprises, all of which are considered
different from prevailing or conventional agricultural activities […]:
nontraditional crops, livestock, and other farm products; service,
recreation, tourism, food processing, forest / woodlot, and other
enterprises based on farm and natural resources (ancillary enterprises);
unconventional production systems such as organic farming or
aquaculture; or direct marketing and other entrepreneurial marketing
strategies’ (Grudens Shuck et al. in Gold 1999)
In fact, this is what confuses our undergraduates in their approach of
specialised texts on sustainable agriculture: too many terms to define types
of agriculture and/or sustainable agriculture concepts and practices that
are sometimes very difficult to differentiate; there is lack of consequence
in defining these concepts and practices associated with sustainable
agricultural systems, identified as farming methods (1), farming systems
(2), production systems (2), agriculture systems (1), arrays of agricultural
practices and enterprises (1), integrated systems of plant and animal
production practices (1), low input farming systems (1), management
strategies (1), systems of crop production (1), ways of practicing
agriculture (1), or whole-system approaches (1); and 83% of the
definitions are hybrid ones: 13 definitions are 50% definition by genus and
difference + 50% precising definition, 1 definition is 50% definition by
genus and difference + 50% enumerative definition, and 1 definition is
50% extensional definition + 50% precising definition.
Conclusions
Though specialised definitions should be rigorous, unambiguous,
conventional, prescriptive or stipulating (Bidu-Vrânceanu 1968), we wish
to stress one point: since “sustainable agriculture is a dynamic rather than
static concept” (Norman et al. 1997), we have to admit that, at any point in
time, in any society, the definition of any of the concepts and practices
associated with sustainable agricultural systems above is going to be a
compromise among differing world views, sets of values, etc., no one of
which has any way to prove the other wrong, or illegitimate. Therefore,
despite any interdisciplinary (specialists in agricultural systems and
linguists) effort, the “definition” of something like the concepts and
practices mentioned above is going to remain fluid (poly-semantic and
poly-referential), driven by changes in community values, ideology,
politics, science, etc.
The question we always ask ourselves is: Do we really need to spend

much more time and effort attempting to define all these concepts and
practices associated with sustainable agricultural systems? And here is
a possible answer: Maybe agriculturists have sufficient commonality
among their different understandings of these concepts and practices to
continue moving in the right general direction, even if they are not yet all
moving toward precisely the same destination by the same route: they may
never have generally accepted definitions of these concepts and
practices, and perhaps, they don’t need any, but people involved in
teaching others (this is our case) certainly do.
References
Bidu-Vrânceanu, A. (Ed.) (2002). Lexic comun, lexic specializat [Common
Vocabulary, Specialised Vocabulary]. Universitatea din Bucureúti.
Online: http://ebooks.unibuc.ro/filologie/vranceanu.
Gold, M. V. (1999). Sustainable Agriculture: Definitions and Terms.
Online: http://www.nal.usda.gov.
Norman, D., Janke, R., Freyenberger, S., Schurle, B. & Kok, H. (1997).
Defining and Implementing Sustainable Agriculture. Online:
http://www.kansassustainableag.org.
Perkoviü, Anica & RaĠă, Georgeta. (2006). On Word Formation in the
English of Agriculture: Practices Associated with Sustainable
Agriculture, Lucrări útiinĠifice. Facultatea de Agricultură XXXVIII:
475-480.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Anica. (2008). Understanding Agricultural
Terminology: Defining Concepts and Practices Associated with
Sustainable Agricultural Systems. Journal of Linguistic Studies 1: 31-
36.
RaĠă, Georgeta, Petroman, Cornelia & Petroman, I. (2009). Understanding
Agricultural Terminology. Communication: Understanding /
Misunderstanding. Acta Semiotica Fennica XXXIV (3): 1489-1496.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2007). Understanding Agricultural Terminology: Defining
concepts and Practices Associated with Sustainable Agricultural
Systems. Communication: Understanding Misunderstanding. IASS-AIS
9th World Congress of Semiotics, Helsinki, 11-17 June 2007. Helsinki:
Hakapaino. 367-368.
Simpson, J. & Weiner, E. (1989). Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
HOMONYMY:
CORN
GEORGETA RAğĂ
Introduction
There are two homonyms having yielded two long series of compounds
and derivatives in English: U.S. corn < ME, OE; c. D Koren, Icel, G
Korn, Goth kaúrn; akin to L grƗnum, Russ zerno GRAIN, and corn < late
ME corne < MF < L corn(ǌ) HORN. This is quite a challenge for anyone
learning English for Special Purposes or documenting on English literature
in the field of agriculture. Therefore, knowing if there is any algorithm in
acquiring new agricultural vocabulary is of extreme importance for both
students and researchers in agriculture.

In our analysis, we used some of the most reputed English languages
dictionaries in an attempt to grouping together all the compounds and
derivatives of corn in both British and American English. The method we
used is the quantitative one. First, we left aside all the proper names
(compounds and derivatives) containing corn but having nothing to do
with either ‘grain’ or ‘horn’. We have inventoried 125 entries that are
compounds (but not also compounds of corn derivatives) or derivatives
of corn. We then grouped these words depending on their etymology, i.e.
depending on the root word they have developed from corn ‘grain’ and
corn ‘horn’

The 125 entries containing corn were grouped into four smaller groups,
as follows:
1. The first group contains 63 entries (compounds and derivatives)
related to corn ‘maize’: cornball ‘popcorn rolled into a ball and flavoured
with molasses or caramel’; Corn Belt ‘a region in the Midwest U.S.,
144 Homonymy: Corn
especially Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, excellent for raising corn and
cornfed livestock’; corn borer ‘any of the several pyralid moths, as
Pyrausta (ostrinia) nubialis (European corn borer), the larvae of which
bore into the stem and crown of corn and other plants’; corn bread ‘a
bread made of cornmeal; (especially in north-eastern U.S.) a sour-dough
rye bread, moist and heavy in texture’; corn cake ‘Midland and Southern
U.S., a flat corn bread baked on a griddle’; corn chip ‘a thin, crisp piece of
snack food made from cornmeal’; corn circle ‘crop circle’; corn cob /
corncob ‘the elongated woody core in which the grains of an ear of corn
are embedded’; corncob (pipe) ‘a tobacco pipe with a bowl made from a
corncob’; corn cockle ‘a plant, Agrostemma githago, of the pink family,
having magenta-purple flowers and occurring commonly as a weed among
crops of grain; cornflower’; corn colour ‘ light yellow’; corn coloured
‘coloured in light yellow’; corn-cracker ‘Slang (disparaging and
offensive) one of a poor class of white people in the southern U.S.,
cracker’; corn crake ‘a short-billed Eurasian rail, Crex crex, frequenting
grain fields, land rail’; corncrib ‘a ventilated structure for the storage of
unhusked corn’; corn dodger / corndodger ‘South Midland and Southern
U.S., a small, usually oval cake made of corn bread and baked or fried
hard in a skillet; Chiefly South Atlantic States and Eastern Virginia, a
boiled dumpling made of cornmeal’; corn dog ‘a sandwich consisting of a
frankfurter baked or fried in corn bread and usually spread with mustard
before eating; often served on a stick’; corn dolly ‘a figure made from
straw, used for decoration’; corn earworm ‘the larva of a cosmopolitan
noctuid moth, Heliotis zea, that is highly destructive to crops, especially
corn, cotton, and tomato, (cotton) bollworm, tomato fruit-worm’; corn
exchange ‘a place where corn is, or was formerly bought and sold’; corn-
fed / cornfed ‘fed on corn; having a well-fed, healthy, and guileless
appearance’; corn field / cornfield ‘a field in which corn is grown’; corn
flakes / cornflakes ‘a packaged breakfast cereal in the from of small
toasted flakes made from corn, fro serving cold with milk, sugar, etc.’;
corn flour ‘flour made from corn; Brit., cornstarch’; corn flower /
cornflower ‘a European composite plant, Centaurea cyanus, growing in
grain fields, having blue to white flower heads, often cultivated as an
ornamental; strawflower’; corn gluten ‘gluten separated from corn, during
milling, used primarily as a livestock feed’; corn grit(s) ‘hominy grits’;
corn house ‘New England and South Atlantic States, a corncrib’;
cornhusk ‘the husk of an ear of corn’; corn husker / corn-husker /
cornhusker ‘a person or thing that husks corn; (cap.) a Nebraskan (used as
a nickname)’; cornhusking ‘U.S., the removing of the husks from corn’;
(the) Corn Law(s) ‘English History, any of the laws regulating domestic
Georgeta RaĠă 145
and foreign trading of grain, the last of which was repealed in 1846’; corn
liquor ‘corn whiskey’; corn meal / cornmeal ‘meal made of corn;
Scottish, oatmeal’; corn muffin ‘a muffin, often shaped like a cupcake,
made from cornmeal’; corn oil ‘a pale-yellow, water-insoluble liquid
obtained by expressing the germs of corn kernels, used in the preparation
of foodstuffs, lubricants, soaps, and hair dressings’; corn on the cob ‘the
woody central part of an ear of corn and the eatable pieces of corn which
grow in rows along it’; corn picker ‘a machine for picking the ears of corn
from standing stalks and removing the husks’; corn picking ‘the picking
of the ears of corn from standing stalks and the removing of the husks’;
corn pone ‘Southern U.S., corn bread, especially of a plain or simple
kind’; cornpone ‘Usually Disparaging, of or characteristic of an
unsophisticated rural person, especially from the South; hick’; corn poppy
‘a common Old World poppy, Papaver rhoeas, having bright-red flowers,
so called from its growing in grain fields’; corn-root aphid ‘an aphid,
Anuraphis maidiradicis, that lives as a symbiont in colonies of cornfield
ants and feeds on the roots of corn: an agricultural pest’; corn rootworm
‘the larva of any of several leaf beetles of the genus Diabrotica that feeds
on roots and underground stems: an agricultural pest, especially of corn’;
cornrow ‘a type of braid, originating in Africa, in which a narrow strip of
hair is plaited tightly against the scalp from front to back or from side to
side; a hair style consisting of such braids in close parallel rows’; corn
shock ‘a stack of upright cornstalks’; corn silk ‘the long, thread-like styles
on an ear of corn’; corn smut ‘a disease of corn caused by a fungus,
Ustilago maydis, and characterised by blackish, powdery masses of spores
on the affected parts of the plant’; corn snake ‘a large, harmless rat snake,
Elaphe guttata guttata, of the south-eastern U.S., having yellow, tan, or
grey scales with dark-red blotches: once common in cornfields but now an
endangered species’; corn snow ‘Skiing, snow in the form of small pellets
or grains produced by the alternate melting and freezing of a snow layer’;
corn stack ‘Delmarva Peninsula, corncrib’; corn stalk / cornstalk ‘the
stalk or stem of corn, especially Indian corn’; cornstarch ‘a starch or a
starchy flour made from corn and used for thickening gravies and sauces,
making puddings, etc.; especially British, corn flour’; cornstick ‘Southern
Cookery, a corn muffin baked in the form of a small ear of corn’; corn
sugar ‘dextrose’; corn syrup ‘syrup prepared from corn’; corn whiskey
‘whiskey made from a mash having at least 80% corn; corn, corn liquor’;
cornily ‘in a corny way’; corniness ‘the condition of being corny’; corny
‘of or abounding in corn’; Indian corn ‘corn’; sweet corn ‘corn; especially
American English, (the tender young seed of) a sweet type of maize’.
Other 25 entries with corn ‘grain’ compounds occur only in English-
146 Homonymy: Corn
Romanian dictionaries: corn binder, corn chandler, corn cleaner, corn

cutter, corn dealer, corn factor, corn failure, corn floor, corn grass, corn
harvester, corning, corn lift, corn loft, corn market, corn middlings, corn
mill, corn mint, corn pimpernel, corn-pipe, corn planter, corn reaper,
corn rent, corn sieve, corn van, and corn weevil. Other 3 compounds
with corn have produced, in their turn, other compounds: cornfield ant ‘a
small, brown ant, Lasius alienus, that lives in cornfields and feeds on
honeydew of the corn-root aphid’; cornfield bramble ‘a rosaceous plant,
Rubus caesius’; cornflower blue ‘a deep, vivid blue’; Cornhusker State
‘Nebraska (used as a nickname)’. It is worth mentioning that, though there
is no corn leaf compound, there is corn-leaf aphid ‘a green aphid,
Rhopalosiphum maidis, widely distributed in the U.S.: a pest of corn and
other grasses’.
2. The second group is that of 29 derivatives and compounds of
derivatives of corn ‘horn’: cornea ‘the transparent anterior part of the
external coat of the eye covering the iris and the pupil and continuous with
the sclera’; corneal ‘related to the cornea’; corneous ‘consisting of a
horny substance; horny’; corner ‘the place at which two converging lines
or surfaces meet’; corner back; corner cabinet; corner chair; corner kick;
corner shop; corner stone / cornerstone; corner table; cornerwise /
cornerways; cornet ‘a valved wind instrument of the trumpet family; a
small cone of paper twisted at the end and used for holding candy, nuts,
etc.; a pastry cone, usually filled with whipped cream; British, a conical
wafer, as for ice cream, cone; a large, white, winged headdress formerly
worn by the members of the Sisters of Charity; a woman’s headdress,
often cone-shaped, usually of delicate fabrics and having lappets of lace or
other material, worn by women from the 14th to the 18th century; a pennant
or flag used for signalling in a navy; (formerly) the officer who carried the
colours in a troop of cavalry’; cornet(t)ist; cornet-à-pistons; cornetfish;
cornhole ‘Slang (vulgar), to have anal intercourse with’; cornice ‘any
prominent, continuous, horizontally projecting feature surmounting a wall
or other construction, or dividing it horizontally for compositional
purposes; any of various other ornamental horizontal mouldings or bands,
as for concealing hooks or rods from which curtains are hung or for
supporting picture hooks; a mass of snow, ice, etc., projecting over a
mountain ridge; cornicle ‘any of various, small, horn-shaped processes,
especially one of a pair of tubes at the posterior end of the abdomen of
aphids, from which a waxy fluid is emitted’; corniculate; cornification
‘the formation of a horny layer of skin, or horny skin structures, as hair,
nails, or scales, from squamous epithelial cells’; cornu ‘a horn, especially
a bony part that resembles a horn’; cornucopia ‘Classical Mythology, a
Georgeta RaĠă 147
horn containing food, drink, etc., in endless supply, said to have been a
horn of the goat Amalthaea; a representation of this horn, used as a symbol
of abundance; an abundant, overflowing supply; a horn-shaped or conical
receptacle or ornament’; cornucopia leg; cornucopian; cornute ‘to
cuckold; cornuted’; cornuted; cornuto ‘a cuckold, one who is horned’;
corny ‘pertaining to or affected with corns of the feet’. Other 15 entries
with corn ‘horn’ compounds occur only in English-Romanian
dictionaries: corneous lead; corneous silver; corner box; corner boy;
corner house; corner iron; corner man; corner pillar; corner plate;
corner post; cornered; cornice plane; corniced; cornon; and cornopean.
To also note -corn ‘a combining form meaning ‘having a horn’, of the
kind specified by the first element’.
3. The third group is that of 7 corn compounds and derivatives for
which we could not trace any link with either ‘grain’ or ‘horn’: corn beef
‘corned beef’; corn broom ‘North-eastern U.S. older use, a broom made
from the panicles of broomcorn’; corned ‘marinated in brine, often
containing garlic, peppercorns, cloves, etc.; preserved or cured with salt’;
cornel ‘any tree or shrub of the genus Cornus; dogwood’; corn flag ‘a
Mediterranean plant, Gadiolus segetum, of the iris family, having loose,
one-sided spikes or pinkish-purple flowers’; corn lily ‘any of the several
plants of the genus Ixia, of the iris family, native to southern Africa,
having spikes of flowers and grown as an ornamental; a woodland plant,
Clintonia borealis, of the lily family, native to eastern and mid-western
North America, having broad leaves, nodding yellowish-green flowers,
and dark-blue berries’; corn marigold ‘a composite plant, Chrysanthemum
segetum, of Eurasia, having daisy-like, solitary yellow flowers’; corn
plant ‘any of several tree-like tropical plants of the genus Dracaena,
especially D. fragrans massangeana, widely cultivated as a houseplant’;
corn salad ‘any of several plants of the genus Valerianella, of the valerian
family, especially V. locusta or V. olitoria, having small light blue flowers
and tender, narrow leaves eaten in salads’. Other 3 entries with corn
compounds and derivatives occur only in English-Romanian dictionaries:
cornaceous; corned leather; and cornel berry.
4. The fourth group is that of 1 apparent corn derivative that has
nothing to do with either ‘grain’ or ‘horn’: cornelian ‘carnelian’.
Conclusions
Corn compounds and derivatives are represented, quantitatively, as
follows: ‘grain’-meaning entries account for 63%, ‘horn’-meaning ones
account for 29%, the ‘unknown-origin’ ones for 7%, and the ‘definitely
148 Homonymy: Corn
no-connection’ ones for 1%. The large number of corn ‘grain’

compounds points to the widespread use of grains, while the large number
of derivatives points the fact that corn ‘horn’ has acquired a solid status in
English. It is obvious that, while corn ‘grain’ entries are mainly
compounds (93.66%), corn ‘horn’ entries are 100% derivatives. The low
percentage of corn ‘grain’ derivatives (6.34%) allows us to draw the
conclusion that one can assume a compound of corn refers rather to
‘grain’ than to ‘horn’, an observation which could be of help for anyone
interested in the agricultural English.
References
Dictionary of English. Amsterdam – Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
LeviĠchi, L. & A. Bantaú. (1995). DicĠionar englez-român. [English-
Longman.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2005). A Case of Homonymy in the English of
Agriculture: Corn. Proceedings. Linguistics and Theory of Literature.
History, Ethnology and Folklore 44. Rousse, Bulgaria: 34-38.
RaĠă, G. (2004). Combining and Derivative Forms of Corn: A
Lexicographical Approach. Buletinul UniversităĠii de ùtiinĠe Agricole
úi Medicină Veterinară – Cluj-Napoca, Seria Horticultură 60: 366-
370.
York: Random House.
Publishing Company.
Geddes & Grosset.
COFFEE
CORNELIA PETROMAN, IOAN PETROMAN

AND SNJEŽANA TOLIû
Introduction
The purpose of the research is to show that the proper understanding of the
meaning of compounds containing the word coffee is a matter of purely
linguistic knowledge (to be taught by the teacher) rather than of
knowledge of the world (since they have almost no practice in the field of
food services). To our knowledge, no research has so far been done in this
field and on this particular problem. The hypothesis of the research was
that, since compound definitions cannot always help understanding
phrases similar in structure, undergraduates should learn them as such
and/or develop meaning inference skills if they want to avoid confusion.
The background information was collected from different English
language dictionaries, specialized dictionaries, and specialised
encyclopaedias.

We inventoried 102 phrases containing the word coffee, leaving aside
all derivatives such as: cafeteria, cafetiere / cafetière, cafetorium,
caffeine, caffeinism, caffeol, decaf, decaffeinated, which could be
subjected to a separate analysis. We then analysed them to see if the
meaning of the phrases with no definition at all could be inferred from the
meaning of the phrases defined by their users.
Results
We have identified a number of 94 (52 + 42) occurrences in which the
noun coffee is a noun (black coffee) or a noun modifier (coffee break),
other 6 in which it is used attributively, and other 2 with special uses
(calque and adjective).
150 Coffee
The Word Coffee as a Noun

Of the 52 occurrences in which the noun coffee occurs as a noun –
acorn coffee, adulterate coffee, Arabic coffee, Arabica coffee, aromatic
coffee, black coffee, brewed coffee, camp coffee, chagga coffee, chicory
coffee, Colombian coffee, dandelion root coffee, decaffeinated coffee,
drip coffee, ersatz coffee, espresso coffee, filter coffee, full-bodied coffee,
full-flavoured coffee, German coffee, ground coffee, hot coffee, iced
coffee, instant coffee, Irish coffee, Java coffee, Kenya coffee, mature
coffee, midmorning coffee, muddy coffee, Mysore coffee, ‘naturally’
decaffeinated coffee, organic coffee, potted coffee, pulverized coffee,
regular coffee, rich coffee, roasted (grain) coffee, Robusta coffee, root
coffee, sharp coffee, strong coffee, sweetened coffee, traditional coffee,
Turkish coffee, unadulterated coffee, unna coffee, Vienna coffee,
Viennese coffee, and weak coffee – only 20 (38%) are defined in literature,
as follows: Arabic coffee ‘coffee flavoured with ground cardamom seeds’
(Bender & Bender 1999); Arabica coffee ‘a type of coffee from the bush
Coffea arabica, with a finer flavour than the higher yielding Robusta
varieties’ (Sinclair 2005); camp coffee ‘a liquid extract of coffee and
chicory once used as an instant coffee’ (Sinclair 2005); chagga coffee ‘a
full-bodied coffee from the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania,
named after the Wachagga people who grow and process it’ (Sinclair
2005); Colombian coffee ‘a smooth strong coffee from Colombia’
(Sinclair 2005); decaffeinated coffee ‘coffee made in the usual way from
green beans which have been solvent treated to selectively remove the
caffeine [with] similar flavour to, but […] not as stimulating as coffee’
(Sinclair 2005), ‘coffee beans (or instant coffee) from which the caffeine
has been extracted with solvent (e.g. methylene or ethylene chloride),
carbon dioxide under pressure (supercritical CO2) or water’ (Bender &
Bender 1999); filter coffee ‘coffee made by letting near boiling water flow
through ground coffee held in a filter paper supported on a metal or plastic
mesh or perforated container’ (Sinclair 2005); German coffee ‘a mixture
of kirsch and hot sweetened coffee topped with whipped cream and drunk
through the cream’ (Sinclair 2005); green coffee bean ‘coffee beans which
are ready to be roasted [that] keep indefinitely and some […] improve with
age’ (Sinclair 2005); instant coffee ‘dried coffee extract which can be
used to make a beverage by adding hot water or milk. It may be
manufactured by spray drying or freeze drying’ (Bender & Bender 1999);
Irish coffee ‘hot coffee, served in a glass, with Irish whiskey added to it
and whipped cream poured on top’ (DFSN); Java coffee ‘a mature coffee
from Indonesia with a subtle mellow flavour’ (Sinclair 2005); Kentucky
Cornelia Petroman, Ioan Petroman and Snježana Toliü 151
coffee tree ‘a deciduous North American tree (Gymnocladus dioica)

having bipinnately compound leaves and flat, pulpy pods with large seeds
formerly used as a coffee substitute’ (AHDEL); Kenya coffee ‘a sharp,
aromatic coffee from Kenya’ (Sinclair 2005); Mysore coffee ‘a rich full-
flavoured coffee from Mysore in S. India’ (Sinclair 2005); ‘naturally’
decaffeinated coffee ‘coffee decaffeinated by water extraction’ (Bender &
Bender 1999); Robusta coffee ‘a high yielding variety of coffee (Coffea
canephora) but with a flavour inferior to that of the arabica variety’
(Sinclair 2005); Turkish coffee ‘a sweetened brew of pulverized coffee’
(AHDEL); unna coffee ‘(E. Africa) the traditional coffee of Ethiopia
which is roasted, ground and brewed at the table’ (Sinclair 2005); Vienna
coffee ‘a particular blend of coffee beans favoured in Vienna’ (Sinclair
2005); Viennese coffee ‘(Austria) 1. A mocha coffee 2. Ground coffee
mixed with dried figs’ (Sinclair 2005), ‘ground coffee containing dried
figs’ (Bender & Bender 1999); weak coffee (AHDEL).
To also note kaffebröd ‘(Sweden) coffee cake’ (Bender & Bender
1999) and Kaffeekuchen ‘(Germany) coffee cake’ (Bender & Bender
1999), words that have entered cookbooks all over the world.
The Word Coffee as a Noun Modifier

Of the 42 occurrences in which the noun coffee is used attributively –
coffee boom, coffee break, coffee cake / coffeecake, coffee can, coffee
consumption, coffee cream, coffee creamer, coffee cup, coffee custard,
coffee essence, coffee exporter, coffee extract, coffee filter, coffee
grinder, coffee grounds, coffee hound, coffee house / coffeehouse, coffee
hue, coffee icing, coffee importer, coffee jelly, coffee kisses, coffee
klat(s)ch / kaffeeklatsch, coffee maker / coffee-maker / coffeemaker,
coffee market, coffee mill, coffee plant, coffee plantation, coffee pot /
coffeepot, coffee seed, coffee shop, coffee solubles, coffee strainer, coffee
substitute, coffee sugar, coffee table, coffee tenderizer, coffee tree, coffee
variety, coffee whitener, coffee wild roast – only 16 (38%) are defined in
literature, as follows: coffee bean(s) ‘The fruit of an evergreen bush,
Coffea arabica or C. canephora, native to Ethiopia but now widely grown
in high altitude tropical regions. The red fruit, which contains two almost
hemispherical green seeds, is first fermented, the pulp removed and the
seeds dried prior to roasting at or near their point of sale. After roasting
they contain about 50% water soluble material including caffeine and
flavours. The two main varieties are Robusta and arabica but they are
often identified by their place of origin.’ (Sinclair 2005), coffee break ‘a
short break from work during which coffee or other refreshments may be
152 Coffee
consumed’ (AHDEL), coffee cake / coffeecake (AHDEL) ‘(U.S.) a plain

sponge cake usually served warm with coffee’ (Sinclair 2005) ‘a cake or
sweetened bread, often containing nuts or raisins’ (AHDEL), coffee cream
‘(U.S.) pasteurized cream from cows’ milk containing 18 to 30% butterfat
for adding to coffee’ (Sinclair 2005), coffee essence ‘an aqueous extract of
roasted coffee; usually about 400 g of coffee/L’ (Bender & Bender 1999),
coffee grinder ‘a mechanically, electrically or hand-operated grinder for
roasted coffee beans with an arrangement for adjusting the particle size,
very fine for espresso, fine for filters, Turkish and cona, medium for
cafetières and percolators and coarse for jug infusion’ (Sinclair 2005), ‘a
machine for grinding coffee beans into powder for making coffee’
(DFSN), coffee house / coffeehouse ‘a restaurant where coffee and other
refreshments are served, especially one where people gather for
conversation, games, or musical entertainment’ (AHDEL), coffee kisses
‘small drop cakes or biscuits containing ground nuts, sandwiched together
with coffee-flavoured butter cream’ (Sinclair 2005), coffee klat(s)ch /
kaffeeklatsch ‘a casual social gathering for coffee and conversation’
(AHDEL), coffee maker / coffee-maker (Emery) ‘coffeemaker / coffee
maker an apparatus used to brew coffee’ (AHDEL), coffee mill ‘a device
for grinding roasted coffee beans’ (AHDEL), coffee pot (DFSN) /
coffeepot ‘a pot for brewing or serving coffee’ (AHDEL), coffee shop ‘a
small restaurant in which coffee and light meals are served’ (AHDEL),
coffee sugar ‘coarse crystals, to 3 mm, of translucent, usually amber-
coloured sugar but these may be mixed with crystals of other colours’
(Sinclair 2005), coffee table / cocktail table ‘a long, low table, often
placed before a sofa’ (AHDEL), and coffee whitener ‘milk substitute used
in tea and coffee made with glucose, fat and emulsifying salts’ (Bender &
Bender 1999). In the rest of the compounds, it is used attributively, and
we can only make guesses about their meanings: coffee-growing region
(AHDEL) ‘a region in which they grow coffee’, non-coffee product
(Emery) ‘a product that does not contain coffee’, coffee-processing centre
(AHDEL) ‘a centre in which they process coffee’, coffee-producing
region (AHDEL) ‘a region that produces coffee’. Two other compounds
containing the word coffee are used attributively coffee-shop architecture
(AHDEL) ‘a cheap architecture’ and coffee-table book ‘an oversize book
of elaborate design that may be used for display, as on a coffee table’
(AHDEL). The phrase coffee black (AHDEL) is a calque or loan
translation of the French café noir (‘black coffee’), while coffee-
flavoured (Sinclair 2005) is an adjective. (Figure 4-2)
Cornelia Petroman, Ioan Petroman and Snježana Toliü 153
Discussion
The meaning of the compounds containing the word coffee, that are
not mentioned by English language dictionaries or by dictionaries
specialised in food as formations well-established in the English language,
can only be inferred from similar phrases. This is the case of the phrases in
which coffee is used as a noun, such as acorn coffee ‘*coffee made from
acorns’, adulterate coffee ‘*coffee that has been adulterated’, aromatic
coffee ‘*coffee that has a strong aroma’, etc. The same goes for the
phrases in which coffee is used as a noun modifier, such as coffee boom
‘*a sudden increase of the coffee price’, coffee can ‘*a can of coffee’,
coffee consumption ‘*consumption of coffee’, etc., but this does not
always work for phrases such as coffee hound or coffee wild roast, for
instance.
6% 2%
51%
41%
Figure 4-2. Functions of coffee: 51% - as a noun, 41% - as a noun modifier, 6% -

used attributively, 2% - special uses
Conclusions
The hypothesis of the research that undergraduates specialising in food
service should learn compounds containing the word coffee thoroughly
(to avoid confusion) by developing meaning inference skills is, thus,
confirmed, since the meanings marked with an asterisk above were
154 Coffee
suggested by our students. Similar inventories should also be done for

other important semantic fields related to food service.
References
Bender, D. A. & Bender, A. E. (1999). Benders’ Dictionary of Nutrition
and Food Technology. Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing Limited.
Words and Their Structure. Edinburgh University Press.
Dictionary of Food Science and Nutrition. (2006). London: A & C Black.
(DFSN)
Emery, C. (2003). The Encyclopedia of Country Living. An Old Fashioned
Recipe Book. Seattle: Sasquatch Books.
Petroman, Cornelia, Petroman, I. & Toliü, Snježana. (2008). Coffee: A
Semantic Approach. Journal of Linguistic Studies 1 (2008): 19-22.
Petroman, Cornelia, Petroman, I. & Toliü, Snježana. (2008). Café: A
Semantic Approach. Journal of Linguistic Studies 1 (2008): 19-22.
Sinclair, Ch. (2005). Dictionary of Food. London: A & C Black.
SEMANTIC FIELDS:
BEEF
Introduction
Teaching English for Special Purposes in an agricultural university –
particularly in a university where they teach not only about livestock, but
also about food processing or about food services – is challenging because
of the large number of specialty terms undergraduates need to acquire.
One way to do it easily and properly is to learn about the entire semantic
field of a term (‘a range or system of referents that have some aspect of
meaning in common’, Chalker & Weiner 1994). Learning about beef, for
instance, also means learning about all the nouns (compounds,
derivatives), adjectives, and verbs belonging to the semantic field of beef:
animals (beefalo, steer), bones (aitchbone), breeds (Aberdeen, Brangus,
Devon), cuts (baron, beefsteak, bottom round), dishes (beef bourguignon,
beef Stroganoff, beef Wellington), etc. Learning about the etymology of all
of these terms broadens the cultural horizon of the undergraduates,
opening a new perspective over globalization. In this paper, we present the
semantic field of the term beef (‘a full-grown steer, bull, ox, or cow,
especially one intended for use as meat; the flesh of a slaughtered full-
grown steer, bull, ox, or cow’) as a model for further similar semantic
fields.
Material and Method

We have inventoried all the terms related to the term beef in The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000). We then
grouped them according to their semantic sub-fields: animal husbandry,
food processing, food service, etc., thus making up inventories of beef-
related terms specific to different subjects (animal husbandry, food
processing technologies, tourism services, etc.) that undergraduates should
learn as basic English vocabulary of their specialization.
156 Semantic Fields: Beef

The most frequently used synonym for beef ‘a full-grown steer, bull,
ox, or cow, especially one intended for use as meat; the flesh of a
slaughtered full-grown steer, bull, ox, or cow’ [< ME < OF buef < L bos,
bov-] is red meat ‘meat, especially beef, that is dark-coloured before being
cooked’.
There is a single noun derived from beef – beefiness ‘beef quality’ and
two compounds with beef: one used informally – beefcake ‘minimally
attired men with muscular physiques, as in photographs or motion
pictures’ [BEEF + (CHEESE)CAKE], and beef tea ‘(Cookery) a drink
made by boiling pieces of lean beef: often given to invalids to stimulate
the appetite’.
Such adjectives as beefed-up ‘having been made greater or stronger’
and beefy ‘muscular in build, brawny, substantial, filling; filled with beef’
are the only adjectives derived from beef, while au jus ‘served with the
natural juices or gravy (roast beef au jus)’ [< F au jus ‘with the juice’] and
select ‘of or relating to a lean grade of beef’ are adjectives most frequently
used in relation with beef.
A verb most frequently used in relation to beef is to corn ‘to preserve
(beef, for example) in brine’.
The terms making up the semantic field of the term beef can be
grouped into the following semantic sub-fields (presented here in
alphabetical order):
1. Anatomy: aitchbone ‘the rump bone, especially of cattle’.

2. Animal husbandry:
- animals: beefalo (pl. beefalo or beefalo(e)s) or cattalo ‘a hybrid that
results from a cross between the American buffalo, or bison, and beef
cattle and is typically 8 buffalo and 8 bovine. Beefalo yields leaner
beef than conventional breeds of cattle’ [BEEF + (BUFF)ALO], steer
‘a young ox, especially one castrated before sexual maturity and raised
for beef’ [< ME steer < OE stƝor];
- breeds: Aberdeen / Black Angus ‘a breed of black, hornless beef cattle
that originated in Scotland’ [After Aberdeen and Angus, former
counties of Scotland.], Brangus ‘a trademark used for any of a breed
of beef cattle developed from a cross between the Brahman and the
Aberdeen Angus’, Devon ‘any of a breed of reddish cattle originally
developed in the English county of Devon and raised primarily for
beef’, Durham / shorthorn ‘any of a breed of beef or dairy cattle that
originated in northern England, having short, curved horns or no horns
and usually red, white, or roan in colour’, Hereford ‘any of a breed of

beef cattle developed in England and having a reddish coat with white
markings’ [< Hereford], Santa Gertrudis ‘any of a breed of large beef
cattle that are highly resistant to heat and insects, developed in the
United States by crossing Brahmans and shorthorns’ [< the Santa
Gertrudis section of the King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas];
- cattle feed: monensin ‘a broad-spectrum antibiotic, C36H62O11,
obtained from the actinomycete Streptomyces cinnamonensis and used
chiefly as an additive to beef cattle feed’ [< NL (cinna)monƝns(is),
species name].
3. Dishes: beef bourguignon ‘braised beef cubes simmered in a

seasoned red wine sauce with mushrooms, carrots, and onions’ [< F boeuf
bourguignon], beef Stroganoff ‘thinly sliced beef fillet sautéed and mixed
with onions, mushrooms, sour cream, and herbs, often served on a bed of
noodles or rice. [< Count Paul Stroganoff, 19th-century Russian diplomat],
beef tea ‘(Cookery) a drink made by boiling pieces of lean beef: often
given to invalids to stimulate the appetite’, beef Wellington ‘a fillet of
beef covered with paté de foie gras, encased in pastry, and baked’ [<
Wellington?], bitok ‘a dish made from ground meat mixed with milk,
bread, and onions to form patties that are fried and served with a sour-
cream sauce’ [< Russ < F bifteck (hache) ‘(ground) beef’ <
BEEFSTEAK], bollito misto (pl. bolliti misti) ‘a mixture of vegetables
and various meats, such as chicken, veal, beef, and sausage, cooked in a
broth and usually served with a mustard-fruit sauce’ [< It bollito misto
‘mixed stew’], baloney / bologna / boloney ‘a seasoned smoked sausage
made of mixed meats, such as beef, pork, and veal’ [< Bologna], bouillon
‘a clear, thin broth made typically by simmering beef or chicken in water
with seasonings’ [< F bouillon < OF < boulir ‘to boil’ < L bullƯre < bulla
‘bubble’], bresaola ‘sliced salt-cured, air-dried beef that is dressed with
olive oil, lemon juice, and black pepper before serving’ [< It bresaola,
diminutive of It dialectal *bresada, past participle of brasare ‘to braise’ <
F braiser], bully (beef) ‘canned or pickled beef’ [< F bouilli ‘boiled
meat’? label on canned beef < past participle of bouillir ‘to boil’ < OF Old
boilir], burger ‘a sandwich consisting of a bun, a cooked beef patty, and
often other ingredients such as cheese, onion slices, lettuce, or condiments;
a sandwich with a nonbeef filling’ [Short for HAMBURGER], burrito (pl.
burritos) ‘a flour tortilla wrapped around a filling, as of beef, beans, or
cheese’ [< AmSp burrito < Sp burrito, diminutive of burro ‘burro’],
carpaccio ‘very thinly sliced raw beef or tuna garnished with a sauce’ [< It
carpaccio < Vittore Carpaccio, who favoured red pigments.],
Chateaubriand / chateaubriand ‘a doublethick, tender centre cut of beef

tenderloin, sometimes stuffed with seasonings before grilling’ [< Vicomte
François René de Chateaubriand], chipped beef ‘dried beef smoked and
sliced very thin’, club / Delmonico steak ‘a small, often boned steak from
the front section of the short loin of beef’ [< Lorenzo Delmonico], cube
steak ‘a thin slice of beef tenderized by cubing’, (stuffed) derma / kishke
‘beef casing stuffed with a seasoned mixture of matzo meal or flour,
onion, and suet, prepared by boiling, then roasting’ [< Yiddish gederem
‘intestines’ < MHG darm ‘intestine’ < OHG], dolma (pl. dolma(de)s) ‘a
grape leaf stuffed and cooked with ingredients such as ground beef,
minced lamb, herbs, or rice’ [< Tk dolma ‘filling’], filet mignon (pl. filets
mignons) ‘a small, round, very choice cut of beef from the loin’ [< F filet
mignon], fil(l)et ‘a boneless strip of meat rolled and tied, as for roasting’,
flanken ‘a dish prepared from this cut of beef by boiling or stewing, often
served with horseradish’ [< Yiddish flanken < G Flanken, pl. of Flanke
‘flank, side’ < F flanc], flauta ‘a tortilla rolled around a filling such as
beef, chicken, or cheese into a flutelike shape and sometimes deep-fried’
[< Sp flauta ‘flute’ < OProv flaut?], frankforter / frankfurter ‘a smoked
sausage of beef or beef and pork made in long, reddish links’ [<
Frankfurt], goulash ‘a stew of beef or veal and vegetables, seasoned
mainly with paprika. [< Hung gulyas (hus) ‘herdsman’s (meat), goulash’ <
Hung gulya ‘herdsman’], hamburg(er) ‘ground meat, usually beef, or
patty of such meat; sandwich made with a patty of ground meat usually in
a roll or bun’ [Short for Hamburger steak < Hamburg], hot pot ‘Chiefly
British. A stew of lamb or beef and potatoes cooked in a tightly covered
pot’, junk ‘hard salt beef for consumption on board a ship’, meat loaf /
meatloaf ‘a mounded or moulded dish, usually baked, of ground beef or a
combination of various meats and other ingredients’, mortadella ‘an
Italian sausage made of pork, beef, and cubes of pork fat, flavoured with
wine and spices and smoked, steamed, or baked’ [< It mortadella,
feminine diminutive of murtato ‘seasoned with myrtle berries’], moussaka
‘a Greek dish consisting of layers of ground lamb or beef and sliced
eggplant topped with a cheese sauce and baked’ [< Serbo-Croatian
moussaka < Tk mussakka < Arabic musakka], paillard ‘a slice of veal,
chicken, or beef that is pounded until very thin and quickly grilled,
broiled, or sautéed with high heat’ [Origin unknown], pastrami (pl.
pastramis) ‘a highly seasoned smoked cut of beef, usually taken from the
shoulder’ [< Yiddish pastrami < Rum pastramă], pem(m)ican ‘a food
prepared by Native Americans from lean, dried strips of meat pounded
into paste, mixed with fat and berries, and pressed into small cakes; a food
made chiefly from beef, dried fruit, and suet, used as emergency rations’
[< Cree pimihkaam ‘pemmican’], pepperoni (pl. pepperonis) ‘highly

spiced pork and beef sausage; a slice of this type of sausage’ [< It
peperoni, pl. of peperone ‘pimento, red pepper’, augmentative of pepe
‘pepper’ < L piper], Reuben ‘a hot sandwich consisting of corned beef,
Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut usually served on rye bread’ [< Reuben],
runza ‘Nebraska. A pastry consisting of cabbage and usually pork or beef
encased in yeast dough’ [Origin unknown], Salisbury steak ‘a patty of
ground beef mixed with eggs, milk, onions, and various seasonings and
broiled, fried, or baked’ [< James Henry Salisbury (1823-1905), American
physician], sauerbraten ‘a pot roast of beef marinated in vinegar, water,
wine, and spices before being cooked’ [< G sauer + Braten ‘roast meat’],
shabu-shabu ‘a Japanese dish consisting of a simmering pot of broth,
vegetables, and noodles in which thin-sliced beef or sometimes chicken is
quickly cooked at table and then dipped into a flavourful sauce’ [< Jap
shabu-shabu, imitative of bubbling water], shashli(c)k ‘a dish consisting
of marinated cubes of lamb or beef grilled or roasted on a spit, often with
slices of eggplant, onion, and tomato; shish kebab’ [< Russ shashlyk <
Tk], sloppy joe / Joe ‘a bun filled or covered with ground beef cooked in a
spicy tomato sauce’, steak ‘a slice of meat, typically beef, usually cut thick
and across the muscle grain and served broiled or fried’ [< ME steike <
ON steik], steak tartar or tartar steak ‘raw ground beef mixed with onion,
seasoning, and raw egg, eaten as an appetizer’ [< E steak + F tartare
‘Tartar’], surf and turf ‘seafood and beefsteak served as the main course
of a meal, as in a restaurant’, wienerwurst ‘a smoked pork or beef sausage
similar to a frankfurter’ [< G Wiener + Wurst ‘Viennese sausage’], and
Yorkshire pudding ‘a popover-like quick bread served with roast beef,
made by baking a batter of eggs, flour, and milk in the drippings of the
beef’ [< Yorkshire].
4. Food processing (cuts): aitchbone ‘the cut of beef containing the
rump bone’, baron ‘a cut of beef consisting of a double sirloin’ [< ME <
OF < G?], beefsteak ‘a slice of beef, such as one taken from the loin or the
hindquarters, suitable for broiling or frying’, bottom round ‘a cut of meat,
such as steak, taken from the outer section of a round of beef’, eye ‘a
choice centre cut of meat, as of beef’, fil(l)et ‘a strip or compact piece of
boneless meat or fish, especially the beef tenderloin’, flanken ‘a cut of
meat taken from the short ribs of beef’ [< Yiddish flanken < G Flanken, pl.
of Flanke ‘flank, side’ < F flanc], hindquarter ‘the posterior portion of a
side of beef, lamb, veal, or mutton, including a hind leg and one or two
ribs’, plate ‘a thin cut of beef from the brisket’, porterhouse (steak) ‘a cut
of beef taken from the thick end of the short loin, having a T-bone and a
sizable piece of tenderloin’, pot roast ‘a cut of beef that is browned and
then cooked until tender, often with vegetables, in a covered pot’, rib roast
‘a cut of red meat, such as beef or venison, containing the sizable piece
located along the outside of the rib’, round ‘a cut of beef from the part of
the thigh between the rump and the shank’, round steak ‘a lean, oval cut
of beef from between the rump and shank’, rump ‘a cut of beef or veal
from the rump’ [< ME rumpe < Scandinavian origin], shin ‘the lower
foreleg in beef cattle. Used of cuts of meat’ [< ME shine < OE scinu],
sirloin ‘a cut of meat, especially of beef, from the upper part of the loin
just in front of the round’ [< ME surloine < OF surlonge, surloigne < sur
‘above’ + longe, loigne ‘loin’], skirt steak ‘a boneless cut of beef from the
lower part of the brisket’, tenderloin ‘the tenderest part of a loin of beef,
pork, or similar cut of meat’ [< Tenderloin], top round ‘a cut of meat, such
as a steak or roast, taken from the inner section of a round of beef’,
tournedos (pl. tournedos) ‘a fillet of beef cut from the tenderloin, often
bound in bacon or suet for cooking’ [< F tourner ‘to turn’ < OF], and
undercut ‘Chiefly British. The tenderloin of beef; the fillet’.
5. Food service: steak house / steakhouse ‘a restaurant that specializes
in beefsteak dishes’.
6. Others: beefeater ‘a yeoman of the British monarch’s royal guard’.
7. Terms related only formally to beef: Australian pine or beefwood or
casuarina ‘any of various Australian evergreen trees or shrubs of the
genus Casuarina, having jointed stems, scale-like whorled leaves, and
small fruits grouped in woody, cone-like structures; the wood of any of
these plants, often used in construction’ and beefsteak fungus ‘an edible
fungus (Fistulina hepatica), growing on living tree trunks, such as oak and
ash, and having a large, irregularly shaped reddish cap’.
The terms beefeater and hamburger are a good opportunity to “teach”
undergraduates British and American culture by supplying information
concerning their etymology and development. Thus, the following two
texts can be used as a starting point for different approaches (grammar,
translation, etc.): “Tourists in England who have seen the warders of the
Tower of London and the Yeomen of the Guard know that these men
dressed in 15th century uniforms are called beefeaters. Not all tourists are
aware, however, that the original use of the term (recorded in 1610) was
pejorative, referring to a well-fed servant. In a work published before 1628
the word was also said to have been used contemptuously by the French
for an Englishman or an English soldier. The word beefeater has thus risen
in the world, for the well-fed, well-muscled beefeaters of today (this use
was first recorded in 1671) are considered by many to be a national
treasure.” (for beefeater) and “After having eaten countless hamburgers,
one may perhaps be interested in knowing more about the origins of the
name. By the middle of the 19th century people in Hamburg, Germany, the
busiest port in West Germany today, enjoyed pounded beefsteak in some
form. Perhaps brought to America by the large numbers of Germans who
migrated around that time, this sort of dish with the name Hamburg steak
may have been mentioned on a menu as early as 1836. The first recorded
use of Hamburg steak is found in 1884 in the Boston Journal, with
hamburger steak being first recorded in a Walla Walla, Washington,
newspaper in 1889. A 1902 cookbook contains a recipe for Hamburg steak
that is closer to our conception, a recipe using ground beef mixed with
onion and pepper. The hamburger was on its way, as was the Americanism
hamburger.” (for hamburger).
Conclusions
The largest semantic sub-fields are dishes (46), processing (23), and
animal husbandry (9) (Figure 4-3). They should be the basis for the
learning of a minimum of specialised terms in our faculties of animal
husbandry, food processing technologies, and tourism services. The rest of
the terms more or less related to beef should be taught for their anecdotic
aspect or to make undergraduates aware of the fact that they should be
avoided because of lack of relevance.
12%
29%
59%
Figure 4-3. Semantic sub-fields of beef: 59% - dishes, 29% - processing, 12% -
animal husbandry
References
Perkoviü, Anica & RaĠă, Georgeta. (2011). Teaching Semantic Fields:
Beef. Proceedings of the 46th Croatian and 6th International
Symposium on Agriculture. Opatija. Croatia: 289-292.
CHAPTER FIVE
PRAGMATICS
ENGLISH IDIOMS CONTAINING NAMES
OF PLANTS
OANA BOLDEA
Introduction
When teaching a new class, we usually ask our students what they expect
to learn during the next semester at the English classes. The answer is
always the same: “Vocabulary and grammar”, meaning that they expect
“to learn a lot of new words”.
Little do they think of the fact that, when dealing with the vocabulary
of a target language, learning new meanings of already-known words is
equally important. English being a highly polysemic language, the
problem of multiple meanings is not to be overlooked. We tackled the
subject of polysemy somewhere else. In the present paper, we think of
another related subject, namely idiomatic expressions: we cannot claim to
know a foreign language without understanding idioms, too. For instance,
it is not enough to understand the meaning of piece and cake in order to
grasp the meaning of Flying a plane is a piece of cake for me.
This is why, when teaching students the basic vocabulary they are
supposed to know in their field as future engineers dealing with
agriculture, we find it necessary to tell them also about the idioms they are
likely to encounter. As far as the names of plants are concerned, there is a
set of idiomatic expressions commonly used in everyday life, and which
can be classified according to various criteria, as shown below.
Material and Method

Unfortunately, no collection of terms was available to us with
idiomatic expressions referring to plants, so the paper is based on a corpus
organised with the help of some dictionaries or glossaries including what
we might call “general” idioms, i.e. expressions containing names of
animals, animal body parts, or anything else related to animals.
For the general subject of idioms and idiomaticity, there were some
books which proved to be particularly useful. They are all mentioned in
166 English Idioms Containing Names of Plants
the references. Also, our ideas found support in Fengying’s article (1996)
on the problem of teaching idioms in the foreign language class.
Discussion and Conclusion

The meaning of an idiomatic expression given in dictionaries is that
of ‘phrase, construction or expression that is recognised as a unit in the
usage of a given language and either differs from the usual syntactic
patterns or has a meaning that differs from the literal meaning of its parts
taken together’ (Webster Comprehensive Dictionary 1995). In other
words, an expression is an idiom if speakers know about its form,
meaning, or use, which they wouldn’t be able to figure out by simply
knowing everything else about the language. Or, as Fillmore puts it, ‘we
don’t understand what the expression means by computing its meaning
from information about its form or parts: that’s something we just have to
know, by linguistic convention.’
Still, the aim of the present paper is not to deal with both already
mentioned types of idiomatic expressions. Thus, we will not discuss here
structural expressions, but only lexical ones. That is, the purpose of the
paper is to draw some attention on them, because ‘making use of ready-
made expressions creates a sense of group solidarity, since each member
of a language community can depend on the others to pick up allusions, to
recognize familiar ways of thinking, and so on’ (Fengying 1996).
The expressions of interest here are those in which there is not a
predictable relationship between its meaning and the meanings of its parts
taken separately. For instance, although we know the meanings of all the
words in this is not my cup of tea, the meaning of the whole expression is
not that which we might predict. It actually refers to ‘something the
speaker does not like very much’. The words not having semantic
independence, the expression cannot be translated word by word. Usually,
we have to paraphrase or, in the more fortunate cases, we may even find
idiomatic correspondents in Romanian. This is the case with an expression
like to beat around the bush, which has the Romanian equivalent a bate
úaua să priceapă iapa.
In any case, they must be dealt with very carefully, because if not, their
translation may be hilarious. Of course, this holds good the other way
around: think of the effect a translation like *for the appletree blossoms
would have on a native English speaker: he would certainly not think of
the Romanian idiom the translation started from, namely de florile mărului
(‘for nothing’).
Oana Boldea 167
There are several possible classifications for idiomatic expressions.

Thus, there are the so-called “formulaic expressions”, said when
performing an act. Such an idiomatic expression is upsy daisy, which
accompanies the act of holding a young child up in the air. One possible
Romanian translation for this is hopa sus.
There are also the classifications according to the parts of speech
making up the expression. Thus, some expressions contain a verb, like to
bang the bush (translatable into R a-i face praf pe toĠi, a-i uimi), or carry
corn (R a nu se lăsa îmbătat de succes, a nu se culca pe lauri), or even
tread on somebody’s corn (R a călca pe bătătură). Others do not contain
a verb: between grass and hay (R între vârsta adolescenĠei úi maturitate),
or off one’s oats (R indispus, fără chef, fără poftă de viaĠă).
Idiomatic expressions containing names of plants can also be classified
according to the plant name they contain. If we take this criterion into
consideration, very interesting meanings of the same word can occur.
Thus, there are idioms containing rose. We may find expressions such as
life is not all roses, bed of roses, to lose one’s roses, or even under the
rose, all these having meanings which differ greatly between them. If, in
the first two expressions mentioned, rose can be understood as ‘joy’,
‘happy moment’ (one possible Romanian translation being viaĠa nu e un
câmp cu flori – rendering the idiom by another idiom) and in the third we
can find the equivalent a-úi pierde bujorii din obraji (again an idiom), the
fourth expression is to be understood as ‘in secret’.
Another example of the same category is represented by the
expressions containing nut. We may encounter something that is a hard
nut to crack, but we will not translate it by R e o nucă greu de spart, but
by something more like R e o treabă dificilă (‘it’s a hard thing to do’). In
the same way, we will by no means understand to be off one’s nut as R s-
a dat jos de pe nucă, or people might think we are “nuts”. This may be
translated as a fi Ġicnit (‘to be crazy’), or, even better, by a Romanian
idiom, a-i fila lampa (having nothing to do with plants).
Teaching English introducing idiomatic expressions linked in a way or
another to their major can be also great fun for the students. Thus, when
studying the name of cereals in English, they learn also that to feel one’s
oats means a fi vesel, vioi, plin de viaĠa (‘to be joyful’), to cry barley can
be translated by a cere milă (‘to ask for pity’), and to tread on somebody’s
corn should be understood as a călca be bătătură (‘to drive somebody
mad’).
There are such expressions containing the word tree, too. If some of
them may be already known to the students, such as to bark up the wrong
tree (R a greúi adresa), some may be totally new. Other examples are to
168 English Idioms Containing Names of Plants
shake the plum tree (R a împărĠi funcĠii, favoruri membrilor săi – when
talking about a political party), and in the dry tree (R în vreme de mizerie).
References
Barbu, M. (1973). DicĠionar de citate úi locuĠiuni străine. [A Dictionary of
Foreign Quotations and Idioms]. Bucureúti: Editura Enciclopedică
Română.
Boldea, Oana. (2004). Names of Plants in Food Additives Guide. Lucrări
útiinĠifice, Facultatea de Agricultură XXXVI: 548-551.
—. (2004). Despre unele expresii idiomatice englezeúti care conĠin nume
de plante. [On Some English Idioms Containing Plant Names]. Analele
UniversităĠii din Craiova: 91-95.
Cacciari, Cristina & Talbossi, Patrizia. (1993). Idioms. Processing,
Structure and Interpretation. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Chitra, F. Idioms and Idiomaticity. (1996). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Fengying, M. (1996). The Ripple Effect. Word Meaning Expansion and Its
Application in Teaching Vocabulary. Forum 34 (1): 8-21.
Corporation.
Mirton.
Publishing Company.
UNIVERSAL VS. CULTURE-SPECIFIC
IN THE DISCOURSE OF ACADEMIC
AND PROFESSIONAL RHETORIC
GEORGETA RAğĂ, IOAN PETROMAN

AND SCOTT HOLLIFIELD
Introduction
“The naming of plants is a serious matter.” When man discovered a new
plant, he also created a new word to communicate his discovery to others.
The manner in which new common or vernacular or vulgar names of
plants are formed is not governed by other rules than acceptance and
acceptability. Until communication becomes multilingual and the number
of plants named becomes excessive, these names present few problems.
The element of fanciful association in Romanian common plant names
often drew upon comparisons with parts of the animal body, some of
which still persist and strike as ‘vulgar’ because they have not always been
‘properly’ modified. In academic practice, taking into account the
common plant name is rather risky, since two common names – barba-
caprei ‘goat’s beard’ and ĠâĠa-caprei ‘goat’s breast’ (Tragopogon major),
barba-lupului ‘wolf’s beard’ and ochiul-boului ‘ox’s eye’ (Helleborus
purpurescens), colĠul-lupului ‘wolf’s fang’ and gura-lupului ‘wolf’s
mouth’ (Bunias orientalis), colĠul-lupului ‘wolf’s fang’ and gura-lupului
‘wolf’s mouth’ (Scutellaria altissima), limba-broaútei ‘toad’s tongue’ and
limba-oii ‘sheep’s tongue’ (Alisma plantago), limba-cerbului ‘deer’s
tongue’ and limba-vacii ‘cow’s tongue’ (Scolopendrium vulgare), limba-
mânzului ‘colt’s tongue’ and limba-oii ‘sheep’s tongue’ (Plantago
media), ochiul-úarpelui ‘snake’s eye’ and urechea-úoarecelui ’mouse’s
ear’ (Myosotis sylvatica), ĠâĠa-oii ’sheep’s breast’ and ĠâĠa-vacii ‘cow’s
breast’ (Primula elatior), and ĠâĠa-oii ’sheep’s breast’ and ĠâĠa-vacii
‘cow’s breast’ (Primula veris) – and even three common names – limba-
broaútei ‘toad’s tongue’, limba-oii ‘sheep’s tongue’ and limba-úarpelui
‘snake’s tongue’ (Plantago lanceolata) – can designate the same plant
species. Even more risky is to take into account the common name, since
170 Universal vs. Culture-Specific
one and the same common name can designate two – barba-caprei ‘goat’s
beard’ (Calocera viscose and Tragopogon major), barba-lupului ‘wolf’s
beard’ (Crispis biennis and Helleborus purpurescens), barba-ursului
‘bear’s beard’ (Equisetum sp. and Usnea barbata), colĠul-lupului ‘wolf’s
fang’ (Bunias orientalis and Scutellaria altissima), gura-lupului ‘wolf’s
mouth’ (Bunias orientalis and Scutellaria altissima), limba-boului ‘ox’s
tongue’ (Anchusa officinalis and Plantago major), limba-broaútei ‘toad’s
tongue’ (Alisma plantago and Plantago lanceolata), limba-úarpelui
‘snake’s tongue’ (Ophioglossum vulgatum and Plantago lanceolata),
ochiul-lupului ‘wolf’s eye’ (Lycopsis arvensis and Plantago indica),
spinarea-lupului ‘wolf’s back’ (Ahtynum filix femina and Asplenium ruta
muraria), ĠâĠa-caprei ‘goat’s breast’ (Tragopogon major and Tragopogon
pratensis), ĠâĠa-vacii ‘cow’s breast’ (Primula elatior and Primula veris),
and urechea iepurelui ‘rabbit’s ear’ (Bupleurum sp. and Stachys lanata);
four – limba-cucului ‘cuckoo’s tongue’ (Gentiana bulgarica, Gymnadenia
conopsea, Orchis maculata and Dactylorchis maculata) and ochiul-
úarpelui ‘snake’s eye’ (Eritrichium nanum, Myosotis arvensis and
Myosotis sylvatica); and even five different plant species or one and the
same plant having different scientific names at two different times –
limba-oii ‘sheep’s tongue’ (Alisma plantago, Cirsium canum, Plantago
gentianoides, Plantago lanceolata and Plantago media) and ĠâĠa-oii / -
oilor ‘sheep’s breast’ (Arnica Montana, Digitalis ambigua, Primula
elatior, Primula officinalis and Primula veris).
Material and Method

Our interest was in plant common names including animal body
parts, the element suggesting the linguistic choice in the naming of the
plants. We have identified 134 common plant names including reference
to animal body parts, names that have the structure N (animal)’s + N
(animal body part). In Romanian, the structure is N (animal body part) + N
(animal) in the Genitive (there is no’s to mark the genitive case).

The following animal body parts occur in these common plant names:
tongue (23): limba-boului ‘ox’s tongue’ (Anchusa officinalis) ‘alkanet,
common bugloss’, limba-boului ‘ox’s tongue’ (Plantago major) ‘common
plantain, greater plantain, soldier’s herb’, limba-broaútei ‘toad’s tongue’
(Alisma plantago) ‘common water-plantain, mad-dog weed’, limba-
broaútei ‘toad’s tongue’ (Plantago lanceolata) ‘English plantain, narrow
Georgeta RaĠă, Ioan Petroman and Scott Hollifield 171
leaf plantain, ribwort plantain’, limba-câinelui ‘dog’s tongue’

(Cynoglossum officinale) ‘hounds tongue, dog’s tongue, gypsy flower, rats
and mice’, limba-caprei ‘goat’s tongue’ (Ballota nigra) ‘black
horehound’, limba-cerbului ‘deer’s tongue’ (Scolopendrium vulgare),
limba-cucului ‘cuckoo’s tongue’ (Botrychium lunaria) ‘common
moonwort’, limba-cucului ‘cuckoo’s tongue’ (Gentiana bulgarica),
limba-cucului ‘cuckoo’s tongue’ (Gymnadenia conopsea) ‘fragrant
orchid’, limba-cucului ‘cuckoo’s tongue’ (Orchis maculata, Dactylorchis
maculata) ‘heath spotted orchid, moorland spotted orchid’, limba-
mânzului ‘colt’s tongue’ (Plantago media) ‘hoary plantain’, limba-
mielu(úelu)lui ‘lamb’s tongue’ (Borago officinalis) ‘borage, starflower’,
limba-oii ‘sheep’s tongue’ (Alisma plantago) ‘common water-plantain,
mad-dog weed’, limba-oii ‘sheep’s tongue’ (Cirsium canum) ‘Queen
Anne’s thistle’, limba-oii ‘sheep’s tongue’ (Plantago gentianoides), limba-
oii ‘sheep’s tongue’ (Plantago lanceolata) ‘English plantain, narrow leaf
plantain, ribwort plantain’, limba-oii ‘sheep’s tongue’ (Plantago media)
‘hoary plantain’, limba-peútelui ‘fish’s tongue’ (Limonium vulgare)
‘common sea-lavender’, limba-úarpelui ‘snake’s tongue’ (Ophioglossum
vulgatum) ‘Southern adders tongue’, limba-úarpelui ‘snake’s tongue’
(Plantago lanceolata) ‘English plantain, narrow leaf plantain, ribwort
plantain’, limba-vacii ‘cow’s tongue’ (Scolopendrium vulgare), limba-
vrăbiei ‘sparrow’s tongue’ (Thymelaea passerina) ‘spurge flax’; breast
(11): ĠâĠa-caprei ‘goat’s breast’ (Tragopogon major), ĠâĠa-caprei ‘goat’s
breast’ (Tragopogon pratensis) ‘Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon, meadow salsify,
showy goat’s-beard’, ĠâĠa-mielului ‘lamb’s breast’ (Sempervivum
tectorum) ‘common houseleek, hen and chicks’, ĠâĠa-oii ‘sheep’s breast’
(Arnica montana) ‘leopard’s bane, mountain arnica, mountain tobacco,
wolf’s bane’, ĠâĠa-oii ’sheep’s breast’ (Digitalis ambigua), ĠâĠa-
oii ’sheep’s breast’ (Primula elatior) ‘(true) oxlip’, ĠâĠa-oii ’sheep’s
breast’ (Primula officinalis) ‘artetyke, arthritica, buckles, cowslip, crewel,
cuy lippe, cuy, drelip, fairy cups, frauenchlussel, herb Peter, key flower,
key of Heaven, Lady’s key, lippe, Mayflower, Our Lady’s keys, paigle,
palsywort, paralysio, password, peggle, Petty Mulleins, plumrocks’, ĠâĠa-
oii ’sheep’s breast’ (Primula veris) ‘artetyke, arthritica, buckles, cowslip,
crewel, cuy lippe, cuy, drelip, fairy cups, frauenchlussel, herb Peter, key
flower, key of Heaven, Lady’s key, lippe, Mayflower, Our Lady’s keys,
paigle, palsywort, paralysio, password, peggle, Petty Mulleins,
plumrocks’, ĠâĠa-oilor ‘sheep’s breast’ (Arnica montana) ‘leopard’s bane,
mountain arnica, mountain tobacco, wolf’s bane’, ĠâĠa-vacii ‘cow’s
breast’ (Primula elatior) ‘(true) oxlip’, ĠâĠa-vacii ‘cow’s breast’ (Primula
veris) ‘artetyke, arthritica, buckles, cowslip, crewel, cuy lippe, cuy, drelip,
fairy cups, frauenchlussel, herb Peter, key flower, key of Heaven, Lady’s
key, lippe, Mayflower, Our Lady’s keys, paigle, palsywort, paralysio,
password, peggle, Petty Mulleins, plumrocks’; eye(e) (8): ochii-păsăruicii
‘bird’s eyes’ (Myosotis palustris) ‘true forget-me-not, water forget-me-
not’, ochii-úoricelului ‘mouse’s eyes’ (Saxifraga adscendens) ‘ascending
saxifrage’, ochiul-boului ‘ox’s eye’ (Helleborus purpurescens), ochiul-
lupului ‘wolf’s eye’ (Lycopsis arvensis), ochiul-lupului ‘wolf’s eye’
(Plantago indica), ochiul-úarpelui ‘snake’s eye’ (Eritrichium nanum)
‘arctic forget-me-not’, ochiul-úarpelui ‘snake’s eye’ (Myosotis arvensis)
‘field forget-me-not’, ochiul-úarpelui ‘snake’s eye’ (Myosotis sylvatica);
beard (7): barba-caprei ‘goat’s beard’ (Calocera viscose), barba-caprei
‘goat’s beard’ (Tragopogon major), barba-lupului ‘wolf’s beard’ (Crispis
biennis), barba-lupului ‘wolf’s beard’ (Helleborus purpurescens), barba-
Ġapului ‘he-goat’s beard’ (Spiraea aruncus), barba-ursului ‘bear’s beard’
(Equisetum sp.) ‘horsetails’, barba-ursului ‘bear’s beard’ (Usnea
barbata); ear (5): urechea iepurelui ‘rabbit’s ear’ (Bupleurum sp.),
urechea iepurelui ‘rabbit’s ear’ (Stachys lanata) ‘lamb’s ear’, urechea-
porcului ‘pig’s ear’ (Salvia verticillata), urechea-úoarecelui ’mouse’s ear’
(Myosotis sylvatica), urechea-ursului ‘bear’s ear’ (Primula auricula)
‘auricula, bear’s ear’; mouth (4): gura-leului ‘lion’s mouth’ (Antirrhinum
majus) ‘(common) snapdragon’, gura-lupului ‘wolf’s mouth’ (Bunias
orientalis), gura-lupului ‘wolf’s mouth’ (Scutellaria altissima), gura-
mâĠei ‘cat’s mouth’ (Linaria vulgaris) ‘toadflax’; nail (4): unghia-caprei
‘goat’s nail’ (Lactarius piperatus) ‘peppery milk-cap’, unghia-găii /
găinii ‘hen’s nail’ (Astragalus glycyphyllos) ‘liquorice milkvetch, wild
licorice, wild liquorice’, unghia-păsării ‘bird’s nail’ (Viola declinata),
unghia-ursului ‘bear’s nail’ (Carduus acanthoides) ‘spiny plumeless
thistle, welted thistle’; sole (4): talpa-gâútei ‘goose’s sole’ (Leonurus
cardiaca) ‘lion’s ear, lion’s tail, motherwort, throw-wort’, talpa-lupului
‘wolf’s sole’ (Chaiturus marrubiastrum), talpa-mâĠei / -pisicii ‘cat’s sole’
(Antennaria dioica) ‘catsfoot, cudweed, mountain everlasting,
stoloniferous pussytoes’, talpa-ursului ‘bear’s sole’ (Acanthus
longifolius); foot (3): piciorul-caprei ‘goat’s foot’ (Aegopodium
podagraria) ‘bishop’s weed, goutweed, ground-elder, herb Gerard, snow-
in-the-mountain’, piciorul-cocoúului ‘cock’s foot’ (Ranunculus sp.)
‘buttercups, lesser celandine, spearworts, water crowfoots’, piciorul-
viĠelului ‘calf’s foot’ (Arum maculatum) ‘Adam and Eve, bobbins, cows
and bulls, cuckoo-pint, devils and angels, Jack in the pulpit, lords and
ladies, naked boys, starch-root, wake robin, wild arum’; back (2):
spinarea-lupului ‘wolf’s back’ (Ahtynum filix femina), spinarea-lupului
‘wolf’s back’ (Asplenium ruta muraria) ‘wall rue’; fang (2): colĠul-
lupului ‘wolf’s fang’ (Bunias orientalis), colĠul-lupului ‘wolf’s fang’

(Scutellaria altissima); hair (2): părul-ciutei ‘do’s hair’ (Rhamnus
cathartica) ‘buckthorn, common buckthorn, purging buckthorn’, părul-
porcului ‘pig’s hair’ (Equisetum telmateja)’; bladder (1): băúica-porcului
‘pig’s bladder’ (Lycoperdon bovista); bone (1): osul-iepurelui ‘rabbit’s
bone’ (Ononis spinosa) ‘(spiny) restharrow’; face (1): faĠa-mâĠei ‘cat’s
face’ (Galeopsis ladanum); head (1): capul-câinelui ‘dog’s head’
(Pulsatilla pratensis) ‘small pasque flower’; nose (1): nasul-curcanului
‘turkey’s nose’ (Amaranthus caudatus) ‘foxtail amaranth, love-lies-
bleeding, pendant amaranth, quilete, tassel flower, velvet flower’; penis
(1): puĠa-cocoúului ‘cock’s penis’ (Listera ovata) ‘European common
twayblade’; tooth (1): măseaua-ciutei ‘do’s tooth’ (Erythronium dens
canis) ‘dog’s tooth violet, dogtooth violet’.
A. The analysis of these common plant names shows that they can be
ranged within six main categories, as follows:
- Same N (animal)’s + same N (animal body part). Only two plant

species whose names include reference to animal body parts are
identical in both Romanian and English: limba-câinelui ‘dog’s tongue’
(Cynoglossum officinale) ‘dog’s tongue’ and urechea-ursului ‘bear’s
ear’ (Primula auricula) ‘bear’s ear’. Other two plant species names
are almost similar: for the Romanian limba-câinelui ‘dog’s tongue’
(Cynoglossum officinale) the English language has HOUNDStongue,
and for limba-úarpelui ‘snake’s tongue’ (Ophioglossum vulgatum) it
has Southern ADDERStongue.
- Same N (animal)’s + different N (animal body part). Four plant
species have names that include the same animal in both languages but
different animal body parts: talpa-mâĠei / -pisicii cat’s sole’
(Antennaria dioica) ‘catsFOOT’, talpa-mâĠei / -pisicii cat’s sole’
(Antennaria dioica) ‘stoloniferous pussyTOES’, ĠâĠa-caprei ‘goat’s
breast’ (Tragopogon pratensis) ‘showy goat’s-beard’, ĠâĠa-vacii
‘cow’s breast’ (Primula elatior) ‘(true) OXlip’, and ĠâĠa-vacii ‘cow’s
breast’ (Primula veris) ‘cowslip’.
- Different N (animal)’s + same N (animal body part). One plant genus
and two plant species have names belonging to this category:
măseaua-ciutei ‘do’s tooth’ (Erythronium dens canis) ‘dog’s tooth
violet, dogtooth violet’, piciorul-cocoúului ‘cock’s foot’ (Ranunculus
sp.) ‘water crowfoots’, and urechea iepurelui ‘rabbit’s ear’ (Stachys
lanata) ‘lamb’s ear’.
- Different N (animal)’s + different N (animal body part). One plant
genus and four plant species have names belonging to this category:
barba-ursului ‘bear’s beard’ (Equisetum sp.) ‘horsetails’, talpa-gâútei

‘goose’s sole’ (Leonurus cardiaca) ‘lion’s ear’, talpa-gâútei ‘goose’s
sole’ (Leonurus cardiaca) ‘lion’s tail’, ĠâĠa-oii ’sheep’s breast’
(Primula elatior) ‘(true) oxlip’, ĠâĠa-oii ’sheep’s breast’ (Primula
officinalis) ‘cowslip’, and ĠâĠa-oii ’sheep’s breast’ (Primula veris)
‘cowslip’.
- Different N (animal)’s + no N (animal body part). Five plant species
have names that can be ranged in this category: gura-leului ‘lion’s
mouth’ (Antirrhinum majus) ‘(common) snapdragon’, gura-mâĠei
‘cat’s mouth’ (Linaria vulgaris) ‘toadflax’, limba-broaútei ‘toad’s
tongue’ (Alisma plantago) ‘mad-dog weed’, limba-oii ‘sheep’s tongue’
(Alisma plantago) ‘mad-dog weed’, piciorul-viĠelului ‘calf’s foot’
(Arum maculatum) ‘wake robin’, ĠâĠa-oii / -oilor ‘sheep’s breast’
(Arnica montana) ‘leopard’s bane’, and ĠâĠa-oii / -oilor ‘sheep’s
breast’ (Arnica montana) ‘wolf’s bane’.
B. There is a single case of correspondence between the Romanian limba-

câinelui ‘dog’s tongue’ and the English dog’s tongue, on the one hand,
and the scientific name Cynoglossum officinale (L Cynoglossum < Gk
cyno ‘dog’ + Gk glossum ‘tongue’), on the other hand; the other English
common name, hounds tongue, comes from the belief that the plant could,
if a leaf was worn in the shoe, ward off dog attacks (Cynoglossum
officinale. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynoglossum_officinale).
There are four cases of correspondence between the Romanian common
name and the scientific name of the plant: R limba-úarpelui ‘snake’s
tongue’ and L Ophioglossum vulgatum (L Ophioglossum < Gk ophio
‘snake’ + Gk glossum ‘tongue’), with partial equivalence in E Southern
adders tongue; R ochiul-lupului ‘wolf’s eye’ and L Lycopsis arvensis (L
Lycopsis < Gk lyco ‘wolf’ + Gk opt ‘eye’), with Plantago indica as a
synonym; R piciorul-caprei ‘goat’s foot’ and L Aegopodium podagraria
(L Aegopodium < Gk aego ‘goat’ + Gk pod ‘foot’); R urechea-
úoarecelui ’mouse’s ear’ and L Myosotis sylvatica (< Gk my(os) ‘mouse’
+ Gk otis ‘ear’), with ochii-păsăruicii ‘bird’s eyes’ (Myosotis palustris)
and ochiul-úarpelui ‘snake’s eye’ (Myosotis arvensis and Myosotis
silvatica). There are two cases of correspondence between the English
common name and the scientific name of the plant: E dog’s tooth violet
and dogtooth violet and L Erythronium dens canis (L dens canis < L dens
‘tooth’ and L canis ‘dog’), with R măseaua-ciutei ‘do’s tooth’, and with
the following explanation: “The cormous white rootstocks are oblong and
resemble a dog’s tooth in appearance; hence the name”. (Erythronium
dens-canis. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythronium_dens-canis);
E horsetails and L Equisetum (< L equus ‘horse’ and L seta ‘bristle’),

with R barba-ursului ‘bear’s beard’ (Equisetum sp.) and părul-porcului
‘pig’s hair’ (Equisetum telmateja)’: the common name horsetail arose
because the branched species somewhat resemble a horse’s tail
(Equisetum. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum). There is no
correspondence between the Romanian common name and the scientific
name of the plant containing both animal references: R băúica-porcului
‘pig’s blatter’ and L Lycoperdon bovista (L Lycoperdon < Gk lyco ‘wolf’
+ Gk perdon ‘to break wind’), where lycoperdon means ‘wolf-farts’
(Lycoperdon. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoperdon). There is
no correspondence whatsoever between the Romanian and English
common names and their scientific counterparts containing all animal
references: R gura-leului ‘lion’s mouth’, L Antirrhinum majus (L
Antirrhinum < Gk anti ‘like’ + Gk rhis ‘nose’ + Gk inus ‘pertaining to’)
meaning ‘like a nose’ and E (common) snapdragon, with the explanation
“[it] probably refers to the nose-like capsule in its mature state”
(Antirrhinum. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antirrhinum); R
piciorul-cocoúului ‘cock’s foot’, L Ranunculus sp.) (LL ranunculus ‘little
frog’) and E ‘water crowfoots’: “This probably refers to many species
being found near water, like frogs.” (Ranunculus. Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranunculus).
Acknowledgement
The paper is the result of research conducted within the project no.
178002 Languages and cultures across space and time funded by the
Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Republic of
Serbia.
Conclusion
The only conclusions we can draw after the analysis of the common
plant names containing references to animals and animal body parts in
English and Romanian is that there are no detectable “universals” as well
as there are no possible correlations with their scientific name either. To
note, though, the huge impact of Greek in the invention of not only
scientific and technical words (Carstairs-McCarthy 2002), but also of
common plant names.
References
Antirrhinum. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antirrhinum.
Bejan, D. (1991). Nume româneúti de plante. [Romanian Plant Names].
Cluj-Napoca: Dacia.
Cynoglossum officinale. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynoglossum_officinale.
Equisetum. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum.
Erythronium dens-canis. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythronium_dens-
canis.
Gledhill, D. (2008). The Names of Plants. Cambridge: CUP.
Lycoperdon. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoperdon.
Ranunculus. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranunculus.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2010). Universal vs. specific în terminologia botanică:
numele comune de plante. [Universal vs. Specific in Botanical English:
Common Plant Names]. Agrobuletin AGIR 5: 35-39.
Schroeter, A. I. & Panasiuk, V. A. (1999). Dictionary of Plant Names.
Koenigstein: Koeltz Scientific Books.
Stearn, W. T. (1985). Botanical Latin. History, Grammar, Syntax,
Terminology and Vocabulary. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.
CREATIVE METAPHORS
IN POISONOUS PLANT NAMES
AND PETRU DRAGOESCU
Introduction
Metaphor is a widespread linguistic device highly used in common or
vernacular plant name coinage. The word metaphor is derived from Gk
metaphora meaning ‘transfer’ (< Gk metaphero ‘to carry over’, ‘to
transfer’ < Gk meta ‘between’ + Gk phero ‘to bear’, ‘to carry’) (OED).
Thus, metaphor is largely defined as semantic change based on similarity,
i.e. a similarity in form or function between the original concept named by
a word and the target concept named by this word. Besides this lead-in on
metaphor, introducing onomasiology would also be of import to the
present analysis. Onomasiology (< Gk onoma ‘name’) is a branch of
lexicology concerned with the study of words as names and with the
question of how things are named (AHDEL). It is important to note that
the coinage of a new designation usually aims at classifying the referent as
member of a familiar concept. In the name-giving process, the speaker
first selects one or two salient aspects, based on direct or indirect
analogies. Our exploration of the motivations of a chosen name draws on a
variety of cognitive associative relations. These relations may be:
contiguity relations, similarity relations, partiality relations, contrast
relations. As something which is named in terms of something else,
popular plant names abound in metaphoric phrases.
Several authors describe metaphorical processes as the basic
representation of denominational practice in popular botanical vocabulary
(Bejan 1991). Metaphor in this particular context may generally be
regarded as the conversion of an object’s name into another object’s name,
on condition there be a certain connection between the two, whatever the
semantic distance. In our case, a plant (A) and an object (B) are associated
by means of a third element (C) serving as tertium comparationis, which
measures the semantic distance between the former two elements. Thus,
only the second transferred element remains activated, constituting the
178 Creative Metaphors in Poisonous Plant Names
metaphor, on account of common features identified between the two

(Bejan 1991). The second element is a determinant or a specification,
which is added to the generic name, the carrier of the basic meaning of the
compound. The criterion Bejan (1991) considers as essential for the
inclusion of a plant name in the category of vernacular names is its being
created inside the language in an original manner, by contrast to scientific
names and names borrowed, translated, or calqued from Latin or other
languages. Few metaphors in poisonous plant names can only be
understood in terms of their Latin etymology, which allows for a lesser
degree of creativity and originality.
Generally regarded as implicit comparisons, metaphors are based on
the principles of analogy, mimesis, and similarity. Nonetheless, they are
more than merely elliptical comparisons, or ornamental substitutes, as they
also contain cognitive value. Names in naturally occurring contexts are
essentially labels for that which they designate. Yet, cognitive linguists
emphasize a more profound aspect of the issue, going beyond the
decorative notion of figure of style. In cognitive linguistics, conceptual or
cognitive metaphors imply the understanding of an idea or concept in
terms of another, which shape human perception, resulting in particular
names devised for the surrounding world.
This scope of linguistics maintains that metaphors are foundational to
our conceptual system, as they serve to facilitate the understanding of
concepts through expressions that relate to more familiar and concrete
notions. I. A. Richards introduced useful terminology to address this
matter, such as topic or tenor, vehicle, interaction, reference, and referent.
The tenor refers to the underlying idea or principal subject of the
metaphor. The vehicle conveys the borrowed idea or what the tenor
resembles. For example, in the name five-fingered root, the tenor is the
root or whole plant, while the vehicle is the finger analogy, by transferring
characteristics of a human hand to the plant’s root. The tenor and vehicle
display patterns of interaction in order to produce a new emergent
meaning for the entire phrase or compound plant name, in our case. Thus,
in the metaphorical name dead tongue, for example, the plant is viewed as
a tongue, but the interpretation of both terms is altered. As a literal
interpretation is incompatible with the context, the metaphor needs to be
addressed and reinterpreted figuratively. Furthermore, Richards describes
reference as the indicator of that realm of memory where recollections of
past knowledge and contexts are located, whereas the referent represents
the objects which are perceived and which generate the impression stored
in the thought area (Ogden & Richards 1923). Metaphors play upon a
similarity between the term used metaphorically (the vehicle) and the thing
Alina-Andreea Dragoescu and Petru Dragoescu 179
the name is a metaphor for. We conclude that, although a metaphor is

largely a statement of similarity, the examination of similarities
nonetheless uncovers the differences between the literal and the
metaphorical. Thus, metaphors are revealed by semantic intersections, as
they draw attention to the similar in the apparently dissimilar. However,
Max Black (1962) explains the ‘interaction’ model of metaphor as
fundamentally irreducible to a literal paraphrase. Interaction, unlike mere
‘substitution’ or ‘comparison’ of terms, emphasizes the cognitive and
emotional content of metaphor with their added implications. As he
explains in Models and Metaphors, a metaphor ‘selects, emphasizes,
suppresses, and organizes features of the principal subject by implying
statements about it that normally apply to the subsidiary subject’. (Black
1962) Thus, the present interpretation of metaphor primarily aims at
explaining how metaphorical meaning is created, based on a wide range of
referential correspondences. This study exhibits all aspects and functions
of metaphor: denominational, ornamental, expressive, and cognitive, as
they often overlap and display complex linguistic characteristics.
Material and Method

The data considered consists of an extensive list of names attributed to
poisonous plants, as recorded by botanical dictionaries. Vernacular plant
names are analysed in order to reveal connotations people have attached to
plants. Thus, we have drawn a corpus of metaphorical constructions,
proposing onomasiological explanations with the help of etymology and
pragmatic inference. The task of accounting for the designation of plants
by means of particular metaphors is also examined from a semantic point
of view, focusing on the cognitive metaphor approach.
Results
The following poisonous plant names have been analyzed: angel
wings, angel’s trumpet, beaver poison, belladonna, birthroot,
bitter(sweet) nightshade, bittersweet, black bryony, black cherry, black
hellebore, black locust, black nightshade, bleeding heart, bloodroot,
bloodwort, bloody fingers, boneset, chandelier plant, Christ herb,
Christmas rose, climbing nightshade, common hyacinth, cowbane,
crazyweed, dead man’s thimbles, dead men’s bells, dead nettle, dead
tongue, deadly nightshade, devil drug, devil’s apple, devil’s cherries,
devil’s ear, devil’s helmet, devil’s herb, devil’s trumpet, devil’s weed,
doll’s-eyes, dragon root, drumsticks, dumbcane, Dutchman’s breeches,
elephant ear, fairy thimbles, fairy’s glove, fairy-folks-fingers, false

hellebore, five-fingered root, folk’s glove, foxglove, gloves of Our Lady,
heart of Jesus, helleboros, hemlock, henbane, herb paris, hogweed, holy
rope, horsebane, Jamestown-weed, jimson weed, lambkill, lark’s claw,
larkspur, lice-bane, lousewort, mad seeds, mandrake, memory root,
mother of millions, mother of thousands, naughty man’s cherries,
nightshade, one-berry, palm of Christ, Palma Christi, pepper turnip,
pheasant’s eye, poison hemlock, poison ivy, poison nut, poison parsley,
poison-berry, poison-flower, rattlebox, rattlepods, scarlet berry,
snakeberry, stinking nightshade, stinkweed, tall boneset, trailing
bittersweet, trailing nightshade, true love, violet bloom, Virgin’s glove,
water hemlock, water lovage, weed of madness, weed paris, white
baneberry, white snakeroot, wild turnip, witches’ gloves, wolfsbane,
woody nightshade, and woollyheads.
In all cases, metaphors activate specific aspects or features of the
plant: physical appearance, effects, and uses. The interpretation of
metaphorical names in the case of poisonous plants may be divided into
two categories. On the one hand, there are plant names which instantly
reveal the poisonous or even lethal nature of the plant. On the other hand,
there are poisonous plant names which fail to capture this crucial piece of
information about the designated object, displaying other minor
onomasiological motivations. The latter are relatively fewer in number:
they are usually the result of metaphoric analogies of the plant’s shape or
other secondary features. Most poisonous plant names, however, allude to
the fact that the plant has toxic effects (e.g. cowbane, horsebane,
lambkill). Only few names are dull or dead metaphors (e.g. poison-
berry, poison-flower, poison hemlock), while most other plant names are
highly creative, often displaying a large array of synonymic series:
bittersweet nightshade displays a lengthy synonymic series of interrelated
metaphors (bittersweet, bitter nightshade, climbing nightshade,
poisonberry, poisonflower, scarlet berry, snakeberry, trailing bittersweet,
trailing nightshade, violet bloom, and woody nightshade). The plant is
poisonous, while being considered by some a herbal remedy, hence its
name bittersweet incorporates both positive and negative aspects. Its other
names refer to physical features like shape and colour.
Most poisonous plant names are explicit, self-descriptive and edifying
in an instantly recognizable manner. Deadly nightshade has very
illustrative names, such as devil’s cherries, devil’s herb, and naughty
man’s cherries. It is also called belladonna (It ‘fair lady’), because it was
used by women as a beauty enhancer (OED). Another possible analogy
may be drawn between the cathartic effect of beauty and the plant’s
paralyzing effect. The name naughty man’s cherries might be an allusion,

beside the shape of the fruit, to a peculiar symptom in those poisoned by
belladonna manifested by frequent movements of the hands and fingers
accompanied by bending forward (Grieve 1995).
Plant names containing the word ‘black’ are sometimes used not in
reference to their colour, but on account of their toxicity, as black stands
for poisonous. The name of the black locust contains a metaphor which
alludes to its feature of being invasive, as its toxic pods are easily carried
long distances by the wind. Likewise, black bryony has toxic berries
which are usually red, but the name carries the epithet ‘black’ on account
of the same identification of darkness with negative connotation.
By the same token, nightshade has several self-explicatory names:
devil’s weed, devil’s apple, or stinkweed. It is also known as jimson weed,
derived from Jamestown-weed in reference to Jamestown, Virginia
colony, where it was discovered by the Europeans in the 17th century,
when British soldiers mistook it for an edible plant and hallucinated for
eleven days (OED). Another story informs that the British soldiers were
drugged with it while attempting to suppress Bacon’s Rebellion and they
subsequently appearing to have gone insane. In South Africa, it is known
as mad seeds, as intoxication typically produces delirium (WE). Another
name, devil’s trumpet, alludes to the tubular shape of the funnel-like
flowers, while also connecting the plant with evil for its poisonous effects.
In the case of henbane, also known as stinking nightshade, the origins of
the word are unclear but ‘hen’ probably goes back to the root -hen, which
originally meant death rather than referring to fowl. The former name of
the plant was hen bell (as in death bell), a metaphor which was based on
an obvious analogy. However, after the meaning of ‘death’ was lost, no
association could be established between hen and bell, hence the latter
element was altered to the more practical bane, given its toxic effect
(Liberman 2008). OED also mentions hennebelle as an OE variant of the
same plant. Horsebane is also called dead tongue, probably because of the
paralyzing effect of this plant on the organs of speech (Grieve 1995).
Similarly, dumbcane is also thus called because it is a poisonous plant
which produces the immobility of the organs of speech. Hemlock, or
poison hemlock, beaver poison, and poison parsley, belongs to the same
family of plants as the parsley and parsnip, with which it can perilously be
confused. The name hemlock is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words hem
(‘border, shore’) and leac (‘leek’ or ‘plant’) (Grieve 1995).
Hemp has few popular names (holy rope), but a bulky synonymic
series of slang names (devil drug, weed of madness, assassin of youth,
Mexican ditch weed, nickel bag, rope, weed) illustrating its perilous
effects. The plant produces an exhilarating intoxication, with

hallucinations, being used as an intoxicant, hence its metaphorical names
leaf of delusion, increaser of pleasure, cementer of friendship, etc.
Another intoxicant, herb paris, or true love, one berry (because its fruit
consists of one sole berry) contains paris (< L par, paris ‘equal’) calqued
after the scientific name on account of the regularity of its leaves. The
plant has also been used as an aphrodisiac for its opium-like, though
poisonous, seeds and berries, thus suggesting the deceitful name true love.
As to the plants whose onomasiological motivations include references
to secondary features other than toxicity, most names seem to have been
given in reference to the shape of part of the plant, thus being synecdochic
metaphors. Angel’s trumpet has trumpet-shaped flowers, and the angelic
metaphor was probably suggested by its delicacy, rather than other
injurious attributes which remain clandestine. A synonym for belladonna
is black cherry, in allusion of the poisonous dark berries which are full of
a dark, inky juice. Likewise, black nightshade is thus named due its
masses of black berries. Black hellebore (< Gk helleboros, probably
meaning ‘plant eaten by fawns’ < Gk ellos / hellos ‘fawn’ + bora ‘food of
beasts’) is the name given to a plant with poisonous and medicinal
qualities, reputed to cure madness (OED). Another etymology claims the
plant name is derived from Gk elein ‘to injure’ and bora ‘food’, clearly
indicating its poisonous nature. The epithet refers to the dark coloured
rootstock (Grieve 1995). It is also called Christ herb or Christmas rose,
because it flourishes around Christmas time and it is similar in shape to the
rose. Although the name bloodroot or bloodwort seems unsuitable for this
snow-white flower, it describes the bright red root containing a red sap,
which seems to be ‘bleeding’ when cut. Some small ball-shaped flowers
bear the names belly buttons, woollyheads, or drumsticks, all alluding to
their spherical shape. This was seemingly more perceptible to the eye than
the plant’s toxicity, as it is only toxic to cattle and other livestock.
Numerous plants were given names containing words related to parts
of the body, which presented obvious analogies close at hand. For
instance, bleeding heart has bisymmetric heart-shaped flowers. Its other
popular name is Dutchman’s breeches, which is derived from the white
flowers that look like breeches. Another plant called elephant ear, heart
of Jesus, or angel wings obviously alludes to the shape of the leaves.
Devil’s ear or dragon root has several names which are connected to the
shape or the utility of the root because this is the most used part of the
plant (birthroot, memory root, pepper turnip, and wild turnip). The most
striking feature of doll’s-eyes or white baneberry is its fruit, a poisonous
white berry, whose size, shape, and black stigma scar explain its names.
The root of dropwort consists of clusters of fleshy tubers, hence its other
popular name five-fingered root. A poisonous plant belonging to the
nightshades family, mandrake, was thus called because its branched root
with sinuate bifurcations resembles the human body (AHDEL). Mother of
thousands or mother of millions received its name due to its impressive
ability for vegetative reproduction. The name was observably suggested by
the myriad plantlets growing on the fringes of its leaves, which is a more
promptly perceivable feature than its toxicity in animals. It is also called
chandelier plant, which is an obvious analogy to the pendulous shape of
its inflorescence.
Foxglove has a synonymic chain of metaphoric names: bloody fingers,
dead men’s bells, fairy thimbles, fairy’s glove, folk’s glove, gloves of Our
Lady, Virgin’s glove, and witches’ gloves. Its common names are derived
from the shape of the flowers, whose most prominent feature is the finger-
like tubular aspect, upon which fingers could easily be fitted as into a
glove. The association with witches, dead men, and blood is more relevant
in this case than that with Our Lady, the Virgin, or fairies. The apparently
zoomorphic metaphor foxglove seems to be a corruption of an
anthropomorphic metaphor, originally folksgloves. This is also confirmed
by its other vernacular names, fairy-folks-fingers (Wales) and bloody
fingers in (Scotland), which both allude to the same metaphor (WE). One
legend accounts that the spots on the foxglove were a warning sign of the
baneful juices the plant produces, hence the familiar name in Ireland dead
man’s thimbles (Grieve 1995).
Names containing animals or parts of animal body are usually named
on account of their similarity of shape that readily presents itself to the
denominator’s mind. For example, larkspur or lark’s claw is so called
from the obvious resemblance to the bird’s large hind claws. However,
hogweed, a name given in reference to plants which neither resemble, nor
are eaten by hogs, but are sooner deemed fit only for them, as it is noxious
for humans. Other names reflect the utility of the plant, such as lice-bane
or lousewort indicates that its poisonous seeds are considered to have
magical properties as herbal medicine or pesticide. Rattlepods or rattlebox
is thus named because its dry pods emit a rattling sound, such as dice in a
box. Despite their being poisonous, the name was only given on account of
the shape and onomatopoeic analogy, not in allusion of the rattlesnake, as
it may cross one’s mind. White snakeroot, whose roots remind of crawling
snakes, is also known as tall boneset, in reference to another plant,
boneset, with which it shares similar feature. The name boneset comes
from the time when the plant was used to treat the flu.
Vernacular metaphors are often based upon mythological elements,

fairytales, and popular legends, and their names account for imaginary
events or beings. For instance, common hyacinth is derived from Gk
hyakinthos, the name of a blue gem and a purple flower fabled to have
sprouted from the blood of Hyakinthos, a youth in Greek mythology who
was beloved and accidentally slain by Apollo in a jealous fight (OED).
False hellebore, also called pheasant’s eye due to its tiny brilliant scarlet
and black blossoms, is also known as Adonis, a calque after its botanical
name, derived from Adonis, the beautiful youth from whose blood it
sprang, according to the Greek legends (Grieve 1995). The common name
of Ricinus communis, castor oil, probably comes from its use as a
replacement for castoreum, a perfume base made from the dried perineal
glands of the beaver, the Latin word for which is castor. Its other common
name, palma Christi, or the calqued palm of Christ, is probably a
metaphor alluding to the fact this oil may be used to heal wounds and
cure ailments (WE).
Finally, compound or loose metaphors contain several onomasiological
motivations, concurring in plant names which exhibit both the main
feature (i.e. their being poisonous), and another element, usually relating
to physical appearance. For instance, devil’s helmet alludes to the evil
(poisonous aspect), but also to the shape of the flower, which resembles a
helmet. The plant name poison nut was named after the shape of its nut-
resembling seeds, while also indicating toxicity.
Discussion
Upon analysing the examples discussed above, several types of
metaphor have been identified:
- absolute metaphors or anti-metaphors displaying no discernible
point of resemblance between the tenor and the vehicle (gloves of Our
Lady, heart of Jesus, or true love for poisonous plants);
- compound or loose metaphors containing several points of similarity
(bleeding heart suggests the heart shape of the root, as well as the
coloured juice it contains, which resembles blood, but also its
dangerous effects);
- simple metaphors or tight metaphors presenting one point of
resemblance between the two elements (most examples discussed
above);
- implicit metaphors not specifying but implying the tenor (black
locust refers to a poisonous tree);
- synecdochic metaphors sharing the attributes of synecdoche, in

which a part of something stands for the whole (e.g. one-berry,
bloodroot, etc).
Moreover, the examination of poisonous plant names has prompted us to

remark that a particular salient feature is often associated with the encoded
concept activated by each metaphor. This feature appears to be, in most
cases, the poisonous nature of the plant, expressed in diverse, imaginative,
and vibrant language in English. In few cases, plant names allude more
unsuspectingly to less significant facts upon which metaphorical analogy
is built: shape of the root (mandrake), shape of the berries (doll’s-eyes),
colour of foliage, root, inflorescence, or fruit (black nightshade, black
bryony, bloodroot), a combination of several analogies (bleeding heart).
Besides referring to the shape of the plant, metaphors allude
especially to the features typical of poisonous plants. For instance, the
naming of some plants reflects the effect they have upon humans or
animals (dumbcane, dead tongue, and weed of madness). Toxic
properties are especially perceptible in intimidating names which call
attention to the plant’s ominous properties. The denominator rarely had a
neutral stance towards the plant named, which is reflected by the profusion
of epithets: some of the popular names for Atropa belladonna are deadly
nightshade, devil’s cherries, and devil’s herb, which allude to the toxic
effect of the plant, as do many other plant names which connote evil-doing
or evil-doers. On the other hand, dead nettle is a misleading name, as it
alludes to the fact that, unlike ordinary nettles, it does not sting when
touched, rather than to its poisonous effect on animals, which might have
been perceived as secondary information.
Plant name metaphors often allude to objects within reach, generally
revealing connections established in their makers’ mind (woolyheads,
drumsticks). Numerous names include parts of the body, which provide
various circumstances for analogies (bloody fingers, bleeding heart,
devil’s ear, doll’s-eyes, elephant ear, and pheasant’s eye). Only few plant
name metaphors are limited by the understanding of their etymology
(weed paris, hyacinth), while the greater majority display a high degree of
originality. Their complexity illustrates popular psychology, the
imagination and power of observation of their creators, and their profound
knowledge of the surrounding world.
Conclusions
This research has prompted us to conclude that metaphor is not only a
highly creative subject matter, but it is also relevant to the general study of
language functioning. What is more, the paper has hopefully proved that
cognitive metaphors are genuine facilitators of understanding,
highlighting the sway of vernacular metaphors. Significantly, poisonous
plant names illustrate a vast grasp of the surrounding world and reveal
crucial information which could be of use to any language user. Most
names appear to have potent onomasiological motivations, as metaphors
convey content and reflect the way people conceptualize the world.
According to reference and context dependence, metaphorical ‘truth’
mediates the inference of truth about plants from name metaphors. For
that reason, the study of denominational metaphors is consequential,
despite the fact that their creators are not scientific authorities. Plant name
metaphors represent an accurate source of knowledge, thus being highly
relevant to students of agricultural and horticultural studies.
References
Cluj-Napoca: Editura Dacia.
Black, M. (1962). Models and Metaphors: Studies in Language and
Philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Dragoescu, Alina-Andreea & Dragoescu, P. (2010). Creative Metaphors in
Poisonous Plant Names. In Georgeta RaĠă (Ed.), Teaching Foreign
Languages: Languages for Special Purposes, Newcastle upon Tyne:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 320-329.
Grieve, M. (1995). A Modern Herbal. Online: http://botanicaLcom/.
Liberman, A. & Mitchel, J. L. (2008). An Analytic Dictionary of English
Etymology: An Introduction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press.
List of Garden Plants. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_garden_plants.
(WE)
Ogden, C. K. & Richards, I. A. (1923). The Meaning of Meaning. New
York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Online Etymology Dictionary. Online: http://www.etymonline.com/.
(OED)
CHAPTER SIX
ETYMOLOGY
WORDS OF LATIN ORIGIN IN BOTANICAL
ENGLISH
GEORGETA RAğĂ AND SCOTT HOLLIFIELD
Introduction
The purpose of the research was to see if there are any patterns in the
naming of plants based on Latin words in contemporary English, patterns
that would make plant names easier to identify and/or learn.
The hypothesis of the research was that, given the fact that all these
names were coined more or less at the dawn of the age of scientific
discovery, in the 17th and 18th centuries, as new words to describe new
knowledge, their naming must have relied on certain patterns. The
research method consisted of analysing English plant names from an
etymological point of view.
The results show that English plant names of Latin origin are either
metonyms or English formations. Results show that Botanical English is a
good example of borrowings that have become fully parts of the English
vocabulary, despite the fact they retain traces of their foreign origin in
their pronunciation, spelling, or inflection.
The conclusion is that there is a pattern in the naming of plants with
Latin names: the proof – the large number of English formations
(particularly backformations and derivatives), on the one hand, and the
large number of plant names derived from genus names. The implications
of the research and results are considerable: they can be useful to both
students in natural sciences and teachers and/or researchers in the field of
zoology. Additional research should focus on the words of Latin origin in
the field of Botany.
The background information consisted in what is generally given as
common sense knowledge about scientific names in general and about
botanical names in particular. Apart from some lists containing English
words of Latin origin posted on Internet sites, there is no exhaustive list of
words of Latin origin in Botanical English.
190 Words of Latin Origin in Botanical English
Literature Review
The material used in the research consists of words of Latin origin
specific to the English of zoology that we have picked up from the
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2008), words that
we analysed from an etymological point of view (we were interested only
in the changes in form and sense) using Harper’s (2001), Partridge’s
(2006), and Glare’s (1983) works. As background information of classic
culture nature, we used Farrell’s (2004) and Janson’s (2002) works. The
linguistic terminology is the one supplied by Chalker & Weiner’s (1994)
and Sheehan’s (2000) works.
State of the Art

We have identified 199 names of plants of Latin origin in Botanical
English. These common names of plants are metonyms, formations or
compounds.
1. Metonyms are words that are used as substitutes for other words
with which they are in close semantic relationships (Chalker & Weiner
1994). Metonyms of Latin origin in Botanical English (a total of 129, i.e.
64%) are genus names or species names.
1.1. Genus Names. There are 127 (98%) common names from New
Latin genus names of different origin:
- 82 (65%) are New Latin genus names of Greek origin: acanthus (pl.
acanthuses / acanthi) ‘Any of various herbs or shrubs of the genus
Acanthus’ [< NL Acanthus, genus name < Gk akanthos ‘thorn plant’],
achillea ‘Any of several plants of the genus Achillea, especially A.
millefolium’ [< NL achillƝa < L < Gk achilleios < Achilles ‘plant that
healed wounds’ < Achilleus, Achilles], acidanthera ‘Any of several
African plants of the genus Acidanthera’ [< NL < Gk akis, akid-
‘needle’], aechmea ‘Any of various bromeliads of the genus Aechmea’
[< NL < Gk aikhmƝ ‘point of a spear’], agapanthus ‘A rhizomatous
plant (Agapanthus africanus)’ [< NL Agapanthus, genus name < Gk
agapƝ ‘love’ + Gk anthos ‘flower’], agave ‘Any of numerous plants of
the genus Agave’ [< NL Agave, genus name < Gk agauƝ, feminine of
agauos ‘noble’], ageratum ‘Any of various plants of the genus
Ageratum, especially A. houstonianum’ [< NL AgƝratum, genus name
< Gk agƝratos ‘ageless’], alocasia ‘Any of various aroids of the genus
Alocasia’ [< NL, probably alteration of Colocasia < Gk kolokasia
‘lotus root’], alyssum ‘1. An herb. (Lobularia maritima) 2. Any of
Georgeta RaĠă and Scott Hollifield 191
various weeds or ornamentals of the genus Alyssum. 3. An herb

(Berteroa incana)’ [< NL Alyssum, genus name, < L alysson ‘kind of
madder’ < Gk alusson ‘a plant believed to cure rabies’], amanita ‘Any
of various mushrooms in the genus Amanita’ [< NL AmanƯta, genus
name < Gk amanitai ‘a fungus’], amaryllis ‘1. Any of several plants of
the genus Hippeastrum. 2. An herb (Amaryllis belladonna)’ [< NL
Amaryllis, genus name < L, name of a shepherdess < Gk Amarullis],
anabaena ‘Any of various freshwater algae of the genus Anabaena’ [<
NL Anabaena, genus name < Gk anabainein ‘to go up’], anthurium
‘Any of various plants of the genus Anthurium’ [< NL Anthurium,
genus name < ANTH(O)- + Greek oura ‘tail’], aspidistra ‘Any of
several plants of the genus Aspidistra, especially A. elatior’ [< NL
Aspidistra, genus name < Gk aspis, aspid- ‘shield’], astilbe ‘Any of
various herbs of the genus Astilbe’ [< NL astilbƝ < A-1 + Gk stilbos
‘glittering’], calla ‘1. A calla lily. 2. A plant (Calla palustris)’ [< NL
Calla, genus name < Gk kallaia ‘wattle of a cock’], calliopsis ‘A plant
(Coreopsis tinctoria)’ [< NL < Gk kalli- ‘beautiful’ < Gk kallos
‘beauty’ + Gk opsis ‘appearance’], ceanothus ‘Any of various shrubs
or trees of the genus Ceanothus’ [< NL Ceanothus, genus name << Gk
keanothos ‘corn-thistle’], celosia ‘A plant (Celosia cristata)’ [< NL
CƝlosia, genus name < Gk kƝlos ‘dry, burnt’ (from its colour)],
chlorella ‘Any of various algae of the genus Chlorella’ [< NL
Chlorella, genus name < Gk khloros ‘green’], coleus ‘Any of various
herbs of the genus Coleus’ [< NL Coleus, genus name < Gk koleos
‘sheath’ (from the way its filaments are joined)], coreopsis ‘Any of
various plants of the genus Coreopsis’ [< NL Coreopsis, genus name <
Gk koris ‘bedbug’ + -OPSIS], corydalis ‘Any of various herbs of the
genus Corydalis’[< NL Corydalis, genus name < Gk korudallis
‘crested lark’ (from the shape of the flowers)], crinum ‘Any of various
plants of the genus Crinum’ [< NL Crinum, genus name < Gk krinon
‘lily’], croton ‘1. Any of various plants of the genus Croton. 2. A
shrub (Codiaeum variegatum)’ [< NL Croton, genus name < Gk kroton
‘castor oil plant’], cryptomeria ‘A tree (Cryptomeria japonica)’ [< NL
Cryptomeria, genus name < CRYPTO- + Gk meros ‘part’], cyclamen
‘Any of various plants of the genus Cyclamen, especially C. persicum’
[< NL Cyclamen, genus name < L cyclamƯnos < Gk kuklaminos
probably < kuklos ‘circle, wheel’ (perhaps from its bulbous roots)],
cymbidium ‘Any of various orchids of the genus Cymbidium’ [< NL
Cymbidium, genus name < L cymba ‘boat’ < Gk kumbƝ], delphinium
‘A plant of the genus Delphinium’ [< NL Delphinium, genus name <
Gk delphinion ‘larkspur’ diminutive of delphis, delphin- ‘dolphin’
(from the shape of the nectary)], dendrobium ‘Any of numerous

species of the orchid genus Dendrobium’ [< NL Dendrobium, genus
name < DENDRO- + Greek bios ‘life’], derris ‘Any of various vines
of the genus Derris’ [< NL Derris, genus name < Gk covering],
dianthus ‘A plant of the genus Dianthus’ [< NL Dianthus, genus
name, probably alteration of Gk diosanthos ‘carnation’ < Dios- ‘of
Zeus’ + anthos ‘flower’], dicentra ‘A plant of the genus Dicentra’ [<
NL Dicentra, genus name < DI-1 + Gk kentron ‘point’], dichondra
‘An herb (Dichondra micrantha)’ [< NL Dichondra, genus name < DI-
1 + Gk khondros ‘granule’], elodea ‘Any of various herbs of the genus
Elodea’ [< NL Elodea, genus name < Gk helodƝs ‘marshy’], eremurus
‘Any of several plants of the genus Eremurus’ [< NL Eremurus, genus
name < Gk erƝmos ‘solitary’ + Gk oura ‘tail’], eucalyptus ‘Any of
numerous trees of the genus Eucalyptus’ [< NL Eucalyptus, genus
name < Gk eu- + Gk kaluptos ‘covered’], euglena ‘Any of various
organisms of the genus Euglena’ [< NL euglena < Gk eu- + Gk glƝnƝ
‘eyeball’], galax ‘A plant (Galax urceolata)’ [< NL Galax, genus
name < Gk gala ‘milk’], geranium ‘1. Any of various plants of the
genus Geranium’. 2. Any of various plants of the genus Pelargonium’
[< NL Geranium, genus name < L geranium ‘crane’s bill’ < Gk
geranion, diminutive of geranos ‘crane’], gypsophila ‘Any of various
plants of the genus Gypsophila’ [< NL Gypsophila, genus name < Gk
gupsos ‘chalk’ + Gk philos ‘loving’], hemerocallis ‘Any of several
perennial Eurasian herbs of the genus Hemerocallis’ [< NL
hemerocallis < Gk hƝmerokalles ‘a kind of lily’], hydrangea ‘Any of
various shrubs of the genus Hydrangea’ [< NL HydrangƝa, genus
name < Gk hudro-, hudr- ‘hydro-’ + Gk angeion ‘vessel’], lychnis
‘Any of various plants of the genus Lychnis’ [< NL Lychnis, genus
name < L lychnis ‘a red flower’ < Gk lukhnis ‘lamp’], lycopodium ‘A
plant of the genus Lycopodium’ [< NL Lycopodium, genus name < Gk
lukos ‘wolf’ + Gk podion, diminutive of pous ‘foot’], mimosa ‘1. Any
of various mostly tropical herbs, shrubs, and trees of the genus
Mimosa. 2. An Asian tree (Albizzia julibrissin)’ [< NL Mimosa, genus
name < L mƯmus ‘mime’ (from the plant’s apparent mimicry of animal
reactions) < Gk mimos], myosotis ‘Any of various plants of the genus
Myosotis’ [< NL Myosotis, genus name < L myosotis ‘mouse-ear, a
kind of plant’ < Gk muosotis < muos, genitive of mus ‘mouse’ + ous,
ot- ‘ear’], oxalis ‘Any of numerous plants of the genus Oxalis, having
often clover-like compound leaves with three leaflets and variously
collared flowers that are usually clustered in umbels. Also called wood
sorrel’ [L oxalis ‘wood sorrel’, from Gk, from oxus ‘sour’.],
pachysandra ‘Any of several plants of the genus Pachysandra,

especially the evergreen P. terminalis’ [< NL Pachysandra, genus
name < Gk pakhus ‘thick’ + NL -andrus ‘-androus’ (after its thick
stamens)], pelargonium ‘Any of various herbs and shrubs of the genus
Pelargonium’ [< NL Pelargonium, genus name < Gk pelargos ‘stork’
(from the resemblance of a stork’s bill to its capsules)], polyanthus
‘Any of a group of hybrid garden primroses’ [< NL Polyanthus < Gk
poluanthos ‘having many flowers’], psyllium ‘An annual Eurasian
plant (Plantago psyllium)’ [< NL Psyllum < Gk psullion ‘small flea’
(from the plant’s use against fleas)], sphagnum ‘Any of various pale or
ashy mosses of the genus Sphagnum’ [< NL Sphagnus < L sphagnos ‘a
kind of moss’ < Gk sphagnos ‘a kind of shrub’], spirogyra ‘Any of
various filamentous freshwater green algae of the genus Spirogyra’ [<
NL SpƯrogyra, genus name < L spƯra ‘coil’ + Gk guros ‘ring’],
tarragon ‘An aromatic Eurasian herb (Artemisia dracunculus)’ [< NL
tarchon < MGk tarkhon < Ar tarhǌn, perhaps from Gk drakon
‘dragon, tarragon’], and thuja ‘Any of several North American or
eastern Asian evergreen trees or shrubs of the genus Thuja’ [< NL
Thuja, arborvitae genus < ML thuia ‘cedar’ < Gk].
- 26 (20%) common names come from New Latin genus names of Latin
origin: abutilon ‘Any of various plants of the genus Abutilon’ [< NL
Abutilon, genus name], arnica ‘Any of various herbs of the genus
Arnica’ [< NL Arnica, genus name], astragalus (pl. astragali) ‘the
bone of the ankle that articulates with the tibia and fibula to form the
ankle joint’ [< NL astragalus ‘vertebra’], calathea ‘Any of various
plants of the genus Calathea’ [< NL Calathea, genus name < L
calathus ‘basket’], calceolaria ‘Any of various plants of the genus
Calceolaria’ [< NL Calceolaria, genus name < L calceolus ‘small
shoe’], campanula ‘Any of various plants of the genus Campanula’ [<
NL Campanula, genus name < LL campƗna ‘bell’], capsicum ‘Any of
various plants of the genus Capsicum, especially C. annuum and C.
frutescens’[< NL Capsicum, genus name, perhaps < L capsa ‘box’],
cereus ‘Any of several cacti of the genus Cereus’ [< NL CƝreus, genus
name < L cƝreus ‘candle’ (from its shape)], cineraria ‘Any of several
plants (Senecio x hybridus)’ [< NL Cineraria, genus name < L
cinerƗrius ‘of ashes’ (from the ash-collared down on its leaves)],
cleome ‘Any of various plants of the genus Cleome’ [< NL Cleome,
genus name], cotoneaster ‘Any of various shrubs of the genus
Cotoneaster’ [< NL Cotoneaster, genus name < L cotoneum ‘quince’ +
L -aster ‘partially resembling’], cypripedium ‘Any of various orchids
of the genus Cypripedium’ [< NL Cypripedium, genus name < LL
Cypris ‘Venus’ (< Gk Kupris ‘Aphrodite’) + NL -pedium (alteration of

Gk pedilon ‘sandal’)], fraxinella ‘A plant (Dictamnus albus)’ [< NL,
diminutive of L fraxinus ‘ash tree’], fritillary ‘Any of various plants of
the genus Fritillaria’ [< NL FritillƗria, genus name < fritillus ‘dice-
box’], hydrilla ‘A submersed Old World Plant (Hydrilla verticillata)’
[< NL Hydrilla, genus name, diminutive of L hydra ‘hydra’],
laburnum ‘Any of several trees or shrubs of the genus Laburnum’ [<
NL Laburnum, genus name < L laburnum ‘broadleaved bean-trefoil’
perhaps of Etruscan origin], liquidambar ‘Any of several deciduous
trees of the genus Liquidambar’ [< NL Liquidambar, genus name < L
liquidus ‘liquid’ + ML ambar ‘amber’], nostoc ‘A freshwater blue-
green alga of the genus Nostoc’ [< NL nostoc coined by Paracelsus],
santonica ‘A perennial or shrubby Eurasian plant (Artemisia
maritima)’ [< NL Santonica < L (herba) santonica ‘of the Santoni’ (a
people of Aquitania)], spinifex ‘Any of various clump-forming,
perennial Australian grasses, chiefly of the genus Triodia’ [< NL
SpƯnifex, former genus name < L spƯna ‘thorn’ + L -fex], stramonium
‘A coarse, poisonous plant (Datura stramonium)’ [< NL Stramonium],
streptocarpus ‘Any of various chiefly African plants of the genus
Streptocarpus’ [< NL Streptocarpus, genus name < strepto- + -carpus
‘-carpous’], tuberose ‘A tuberous perennial Mexican herb (Polianthes
tuberosa)’ [< NL tǌberosa, species name, ‘full of lumps’], veronica
‘Any of various plants of the genus Veronica’ [< NL Veronica, genus
name], volvox ‘Any of various freshwater green algae of the genus
Volvox’ [< NL Volvox, genus name < L volvere ‘to roll’], and
zooxanthella ‘Any of various yellow-green algae that live
symbiotically within the cells of other organisms’ [< NL < zoo- +
xanth(o)- + -ella diminutive suffix].
- 19 (15%) have been coined as New Latin genus names of different
other origins: Ambonese (the Austronesian language of Ambon, an
island of eastern Indonesia in the Moluccas near Ceram) (1): ailanthus
‘Any of several trees of the genus Ailanthus’ [< NL Ailanthus, genus
name, alteration of Ambonese ai lanto]; Arabic (3): curcuma ‘Any of
various plants of the genus Curcuma’ [< NL Curcuma, genus name <
Ar kurkum ‘saffron’], doronicum ‘A plant of the genus Doronicum’ [<
NL Doronicum < Ar dorƯnaj < Pers darƯnak], senna ‘Any of various
plants of the genus Cassia’ [< NL Senna < Ar sanã’]; Chinook (the
language of the Chinook, a Native American people formerly
inhabiting the lower Columbia River valley and adjoining coastal
regions of Washington and Oregon, now located in western
Washington) (1): quamash ‘Any of several plants of the genus
Camassia in the lily family, especially C. quamash’ [< NL Quamash,

species name, variant of Chinook Jargon kamass]; English (1):
osmund(a) ‘Any of several ferns of the genus Osmunda’ [< NL
Osmunda, genus name < ME osmunde ‘a kind of fern’ < OF osmonde];
French (1): citronella ‘A grass (Cymbopogon nardus)’ [< NL < F
citronnelle ‘lemon oil’ diminutive of citron ‘citron’]; Hindi (1): datura
‘Any of several plants of the genus Datura’ [< NL Datura, genus name
< Hindi dhatûrû < Sanskrit dhattûrû ‘thorn-apple’]; Italian (2): lantana
‘Any of various aromatic, chiefly tropical shrubs of the genus Lantana’
[< NL Lantana, genus name < It dialectal lantana ‘wayfaring tree,
viburnum’], sorghum ‘An Old World grass (Sorghum bicolor)’ [< NL
Sorghum, genus name < It sorgo ‘a tall cereal grass’ probably < ML
surgum, perhaps variant of VL *syricum ‘Syrian, from Syria’];
Japanese (1): aucuba ‘Any of several shrubs of the genus Aucuba,
especially A. japonica’ [< NL possibly < Jap auku ‘green’ + Jap ba
‘leaved’]; Malay (4): caladium ‘Any of various plants of the genus
Caladium’ [< NL Caladium, genus name < Malay kƗladi ‘an aroid’],
casuarina ‘Any of various trees or shrubs of the genus Casuarina’ [<
NL Casuarina, genus name < Malay kƟsuari ‘cassowary’ (from the
resemblance of its twigs to the drooping feathers of the cassowary)],
nipa ‘A large palm (Nipa frutescens)’ [< NL nipa < Malay nipah],
pandanus ‘Any of numerous palm-like dioecious trees and shrubs of
the genus Pandanus’ [< NL Pandanus, genus name < Malay pandan
‘screw pine’]; Spanish (3): cohune ‘A palm (Orbignya cohune)’ [< NL
perhaps < Am Sp Mosquito okhun], guaiacum ‘A tree of the genus
Guaiacum’ [< NL guaiacum < Sp guayacan < Taino], yucca ‘Any of
various evergreen plants of the genus Yucca’ [< NL Iucca, genus name
< Sp yuca ‘cassava’ < Taino]; and Swedish (1): trillium ‘Any of
various plants of the genus Trillium’ [< NL Trillium, genus name,
probably < Sw trilling ‘triplet’ (from its three leaves)].
1.2. Species Names. There are only 2 (2%) common names from New
Latin species names of different origin: Latin (1): japonica ‘An
ornamental shrub (Chaenomeles japonica)’ [< NL Japonica, species name
< Japonia ‘Japan’] and Malay (1): bilimbi ‘A tree (Averrhoa bilimbi)’ [<
NL Bilimbi, species name < Malay bƟlimbing < Malay belimbing].
2. Formations are new words formed other than by compounding
(Chalker & Weiner 1994). There are four types of formations in our
corpus of words of Latin origin belonging to Botanical English –
backformation, derivation, folk etymology and loan translation – with
a total of 62 occurrences (31%).
2.1. Backformations are new words formed by the removal of (real or

apparent) affixes from existing words (Chalker & Weiner 1994). They are
usually revealed by the fact that the date of its first sue is later than that of
its apparent derivative. There are 10 (16%) backformations in our
corpus, formations that seem to have lost the following ‘suffixes’: -a (2):
diatom ‘Any of various algae of the class Bacillariophyceae’ [< NL
diatoma < Gk diatomos ‘cut in half’] and osmund(a) ‘Any of several ferns
of the genus Osmunda’ [< NL Osmunda, genus name < ME osmunde ‘a
kind of fern’ < OF osmonde]; -aceae (3): chenopod ‘Any plant of the
goosefoot family’ [< NL Chenopodiaceae, family name < NL
Chenopodium, type genus < Gk khƝn ‘goose’ + -podium, neuter of -podius
‘pod’], desmid ‘Any of various algae of the family Desmidiaceae’ [< NL
Desmidiaceae, family name < Desmidium, type genus < Gk desmos
‘bond’], and orchid ‘A member of the orchid family’ [< NL Orchideae,
family name < L orchis < Gk orkhis ‘testicle, orchid’ (from the slope of its
root)]; -is (1): calamite ‘Any of various trees of the genus Calamites’ [<
NL CalamƯtƯs, genus name< LGk kalamitƯs ‘reed-like’ < Gk kalamos
‘reed’]; -um (1): longan ‘An Indian evergreen tree (Euphoria longan)’ [<
NL longanum, specific epithet, from Chinese (Mandarin) long yãn < lóng
‘dragon’ + yãn ‘eye’]; -us (3): abelmosk ‘An annual or biennial plant
(Abelmoschus moschatus)’ [< NL abelmoschus < Ar Uabbalmusk ‘grain of
musk’], amaranth ‘Any of various annuals of the genus Amaranthus’ [<
NL amaranthus, genus name, alteration of L amarantus < Gk amarantos
‘unfading’], and brome ‘Any of various grasses of the genus Bromus’ [<
NL Bromus, genus name < L bromos ‘oats’ < Gk].
2.2. Derivatives are words formed from other words by a process of
derivation, i.e. by addition of affixes such as prefixes or suffixes (Chalker
& Weiner 1994). There are 48 (77%) derivatives from proper names of
admirals, botanical illustrators, botanists, countesses, diplomats, explorers,
gardeners, governors, horticulturists, librarians, missionaries, naturalists,
patrons of botany, physicians, politicians, princesses, queens, scientists,
and soldiers:
- 2 (4%) have been derived with the suffix -ad: bromeliad [< NL
Bromelia, type genus < Olaf Bromelius (1639-1705), Swedish
botanist] ‘Any of various plants of the family Bromeliaceae’ and
gesneriad ‘Any of numerous herbs or shrubs of the family
Gesneriaceae’ [< NL Gesneria, type genus < Konrad von Gesner];
- 46 (96%) of them have been derived with the suffix -ia2 ‘Things
derived from, relating to, or belonging to: personalia’ [L, neuter pl. of
-ius, and Gk, neuter pl. of -ios.]: abelia ‘Any of various shrubs of the
genus Abelia’ [< NL < Clarke Abel (1780-1826), British botanist],

allamanda ‘Any of several shrubs of the genus Allamanda’ [< NL
Allamanda, genus name < Jean Nicholas Sébastian Allamand (1713-
1787), Swiss scientist], alstroemeria ‘Any of several herbs of the
genus Alstroemeria’ [< NL Alstroemeria, genus name < Baron Clas
Alstroemer (1736-1794), Swedish naturalist], bauhinia ‘Any of
various trees, shrubs, or vines of the genus Bauhinia’ [< NL < Jean
Bauhin (1541-1612) and Gaspard Bauhin (1560-1624), Swiss
botanists], begonia ‘Any of various plants of the genus Begonia’ [<
NL Begonia, genus name < Michel Bégon (1638-1710), French
governor in the West Indies], bignonia ‘A vine (Bignonia capreolata)’
[< NL Bignonia, genus name < Jean Paul Bignon (died 1743), French
royal librarian], boltonia ‘Any of several herbs of the genus Boltonia’
[< NL Boltonia, genus name < James Bolton, 18th-c. British botanist],
bougainvill(a)ea ‘Any of several South American woody shrubs or
vines of the genus Bougainvillea’ [< NL Bougainvillea, genus name <
Louis Antoine de Bougainville], bouvardia ‘Any of several shrubs or
herbs of the genus Bouvardia’ [< NL Bouvardia, genus name <
Charles Bouvard (1572-1658), French physician], browallia ‘Any of
various herbs of the genus Browallia’ [< NL Browallia < Bishop John
Browall (1707-1755), Swedish botanist], buddleia ‘Any of various
shrubs of the genus Buddleja’ [< NL Buddleia < Adam Buddle (died
1715), British botanist], camellia ‘Any of several shrubs or trees of the
genus Camellia’ [< NL Camellia, genus name < Georg Josef Kamel
(1661-1706), Moravian Jesuit missionary], cattleya ‘Any of various
orchids of the genus Cattleya’ [< NL Cattleya, genus name, after
William Cattley (died 1832), British patron of botany], cinchona ‘Any
of several trees and shrubs of the genus Cinchona’ [< NL Cinchona,
genus name < Francisca Henriquez de Ribera (1576-1639), Countess
of Chinchon], clarkia ‘Any of various plants of the genus Clarkia’ [<
NL Clarkia, genus name < William Clark], clintonia ‘Any of various
herbs of the genus Clintonia’ [< NL Clintonia, genus name < DeWitt
Clinton], collinsia ‘Any of various plants of the genus Collinsia’ [<
NL Collinsia, genus name < Zaccheus Collins (1764-1831), American
botanist], columnea ‘Any of various plants of the genus Columnea’ [<
NL Columnea, genus name < Fabius Columna, Latin name of Fabio
Colonna (1567-1650?), Italian botanist], dahlia ‘Any of several plants
of the genus Dahlia’ [< NL Dahlia, genus name < Anders Dahl (1751-
1787), Swedish botanist], dieffenbachia ‘Any of several plants of the
genus Dieffenbachia’ [< NL Dieffenbachia, genus name < Ernst
Dieffenbach (1811-1855), German naturalist], echeveria ‘Any of
numerous plants of the genus Echeveria’ [< NL Echeveria, genus

name < Atanasio Echeverria, 19th-c. Mexican botanical illustrator],
forsythia ‘Any of several shrubs of the genus Forsythia’ [< NL
Forsythia, genus name < William Forsyth (1737-1804), Scottish
horticulturist], franseria ‘Any of various herbs or shrubs of the genus
Franseria’ [< NL Franseria, genus name < Antonio Franseri, 18th-c.
Spanish botanist], freesia ‘Any of several plants of the genus Freesia’
[< NL freesia < Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Freese (1795-1876),
German physician], fuchsia ‘Any of various shrubs or trees of the
genus Fuchsia’ [< NL Fuchsia, genus name < Leonhard Fuchs (1501-
1566), German botanist], gaillardia ‘Any of several plants of the genus
Gaillardia’ [< NL Gaillardia, genus name < Gaillard de
Marentonneau, 18th-c. French botanist], gardenia ‘Any of various
shrubs and trees of the genus Gardenia, especially G. jasminoides’ [<
NL Gardenia, genus name < Alexander Garden], gloxinia ‘Any of
several plants of the genus Sinningia’ [< NL Gloxinia < Benjamin
Peter Gloxin, 18th-c. German botanist], gmelina ‘A tree (Gmelina
arborea)’ [< NL Gmelina, genus name < Georg Gmelin (1709-1755),
German botanist], gunnera ‘Any of several plants of the genus
Gennera’ [< NL Gunnera, genus name < Johann Ernst Gunnerus
(1718-1773), Norwegian botanist], hosta ‘Any of several eastern Asian
plants of the genus Hosta’ [< NL Hosta, genus name < Nicolaus
Thomas Host (1761-1834), Austrian botanist], hoya ‘Any of several
evergreen climbing vines or shrubs of the genus Hoya’ [< NL Hoya,
genus name < Thomas Hoy (1750?-1822), British gardener], lespedeza
‘Any of various plants of the genus Lespedeza’ [< NL Lespedeza,
genus name < V. M. de Cespedez (misread as Léspedez), Spanish
governor of Florida], lobelia ‘Any of numerous plants of the genus
Lobelia’ [< NL Lobelia, genus name < Matthias de Lobel (1538-1616),
Flemish botanist and physician], magnolia ‘Any of numerous
evergreen or deciduous trees and shrubs of the genus Magnolia’ [< NL
Magnolia, genus name < Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), French botanist],
monarda ‘Any of various aromatic plants of the genus Monarda’ [<
NL Monarda, genus name < Nicolas Monardes (1493-1588), Spanish
botanist], nicotiana ‘Any of various flowering annual or perennial
herbs of the genus Nicotiana’ [< NL (herba) nicotiƗna ‘(herb of)
Nicot, nicotiana’ < Jean Nicot (1530?-1600), French diplomat],
paulownia ‘Any of several Chinese deciduous trees of the genus
Paulownia’ [< NL Paulownia, genus name < Princess Anna Paulovna
(1795-1865), Russian princess and queen of William II of the
Netherlands], poinsettia ‘A tropical American shrub (Euphorbia
pulcherrima)’ [< NL Poinsettia < Joel Roberts Poinsett], stapelia ‘Any

of various plants of the genus Stapelia’ [< NL Stapelia, genus name <
Jan Bode van Stapel (died 1636), Dutch botanist], stewartia ‘Any of
various deciduous trees or shrubs of the genus Stewartia’ [< NL
Stewartia, genus name < John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute (1713-1792),
British politician], tillandsia ‘Any of various usually epiphytic
bromeliad plants of the genus Tillandsia’ [< NL Tillandsia, genus
name < Elias Tillands (1640-1693), Finno-Swedish botanist], weigela
‘Any of various deciduous shrubs of the genus Weigela of Asia,
especially W. florida’ [< NL Weigela, genus name < Christian E.
Weigel (1748-1831), German physician], wistaria / wisteria ‘Any of
several climbing woody vines of the genus Wisteria’ [< NL Wisteria,
genus name < Caspar Wistar (1761-1818), American physician],
zinnia ‘Any of various plants of the genus Zinnia, native to tropical
America, especially Z. elegans’ [< NL Zinnia, genus name < Johann
Gottfried Zinn (1727-1759), German botanist], and zoysia ‘Any of
several creeping grasses of the genus Zoysia’ [< NL Zoysia, genus
name < Karl von Zois zu Laubach (1756-1800?), Austrian botanist].
2.3. Folk etymology or popular etymology is a popular modification

of the form of a word, in order to render it apparently significant (Chalker
& Weiner 1994). There is a single (2%) folk etymology in our corpus:
Alyce / alyce clover ‘An herb (Alysicarpus vaginalis)’ [< Probably by folk
etymology from NL Alysicarpus (vaginalis), genus name < Gk halusis
‘chain’].
2.4. Loan translations or calques are expressions adopted by one
language from another in more or less literally translated forms (Chalker
& Weiner 1994). There are 3 (5%) loan translations in our corpus:
buckthorn ‘Any of various shrubs or trees of the genus Rhamnus’
[Translation of NL cervƯ spƯna < cervƯ, genitive of cervus ‘buck’ + spƯna
‘thorn’], multiflora rose ‘A climbing or sprawling shrub (Rosa
multiflora)’ [Partial translation of NL Rosa multiflora, species name < L
rosa ‘rose’ + LL multiflora ‘multiflorous’], and ponderosa pine ‘A tall
timber tree (Pinus ponderosa)’ [Translation of NL PƯnus ponderosa < L
pƯnus ‘pine-tree’ + L ponderosa ‘heavy’].
3. Compounds are words formed by combining two or more bases (or
free morphemes) (Chalker & Weiner 1994). There is a single compound
(1%) among the words of Latin origin in Botanical English – macadamia
nut ‘The round, hard-shelled nut or the edible seed of the Australian tree
Macadamia ternifolia’ [< NL Macadamia, genus name < John Macadam
(1827-1865), Scottish-born Australian chemist] – made of a New Latin
metonymic word derived from a chemist’s name and a common noun

(nut).
4. Other Cases. There are three other types of word formation in our
corpus that are not inventoried as such by grammarians:
- 4 (2%) cases of alteration – cauliflower ‘An herb (Brassica oleracea

var. botrytis)’ [Probably alteration (influenced by FLOWER), of NL
cauliflora < L caulis ‘stem’ + L flos, flor- ‘flower’], cycad [< NL
Cycas, Cycad-, genus name < Gk kukas, erroneous reading of koikas,
accusative pl. of koix ‘a kind of palm tree’] ‘Any of various plants of
the division Cycadophyta’, pteridophyte ‘Any of various vascular
plants that reproduce by means of spores rather than by seeds,
including the ferns and related plants’ [< NL Pteridophyta, former
division name < Gk pteris, pterid- ‘fern’], tracheophyte ‘Any of
various vascular plants, including seed plants and ferns’ [< NL
Tracheophyta, division name < tracheo- + Gk phuta ‘plants’];
- 1 (1%) case of shortening and alteration: pyxie ‘A creeping
evergreen shrub (Pyxidanthera barbulata)’ [Shortening and alteration
of NL Pyxidanthera, genus name < Gk puxis, puxid- ‘box’ + Gk
anthera ‘pollen’];
- 1 (1%) case of derivation from a Greek word and a Latin prefix:
achira ‘A South American and West Indian plant (Canna edulis)’ [<
NL a- + Gk kheir ‘hand’], and 1 case of two-term common name:
lignum vitae ‘Either of two tropical American trees (Guaiacum
officinale or G. sanctum)’ [< NL lignum vƯtae < L lignum ‘wood’ + L
vƯtae genitive of vƯta ‘life’].
Unlike the words of Latin origin in the English of zoology (RaĠă,

2008), metonymic words are three times more numerous than English
formations. Thus, 64% of all the common names of plants of Latin origin
come from genus names (98%) – with 65% New Latin genus names of
Greek origin, 20% New Latin genus names of Latin origin, and 15% New
Latin genus names of different other origins (Malay 4 words, Arabic and
Spanish 3 words each, Italian 2 words, and Ambonese, Chinook, English,
French, Hindi, Japanese, Swedish 1 word each) – and from species names
(2%). To note the name nostoc, coined from Nosthryl and Nasenloch by
Paracelsus (Potts 1997), and the names spinifex and zooxanthella (coined
from Latin elements). To also note that osmund(a) ‘Any of several ferns
of the genus Osmunda’ [< NL Osmunda, genus name < ME osmunde ‘a
kind of fern’ < OF osmonde] is also a case of backformation. The large
number of plant names that have come from genus names shows that
scientific discovery in the field of botany reached, in the 17th and 18th
centuries, the highest level ever.
Unlike the words of Latin origin in the English of zoology (RaĠă,
2008), the share of English formations (31%) of Latin origin in Botanical
English is almost two times smaller than that of metonymic words. This
could be explained by the fact that these formations are still perceived by
scientists as loanwords rather than as English words. Among English
formations, the large number of derivatives (77%) confirms our
hypothesis: perceived as foreignisms, Latin words have been ‘adapted’ to
the English spelling system, with the prefix -ia specific to plant names
(96% of the derivatives contain it). Backformations – with removal of
the ‘prefixes’ -aceae and -us (3 times each), -a (2 times each), and -is and
-us (1 time each) – are sensibly less (16%), while folk etymology and loan
translations are, practically, negligible. Though the majority of back-
formations in English are verbs (Chalker & Weiner 1994), the
backformations in our corpus are exclusively nouns. To note that
osmund(a) ‘Any of several ferns of the genus Osmunda’ [< NL Osmunda,
genus name < ME osmunde ‘a kind of fern’ < OF osmonde] is also a New
Latin genus name of Latin origin.
Compounds and other cases are insignificant.
Conclusion
Results show that botanical English contains many examples of
Latinate linguistic borrowings. While these borrowings have been fully
integrated into the English vocabulary, they retain significant traces of
their foreign origins in pronunciation, spelling, or inflection. This study
suggests support for our hypothesis that there must be a pattern in the
naming of animals with Latin names is confirmed: the proof – the large
number of metonyms (plant names of Latin origin derived from genus and
species names) representing 64% of the total of words of our corpus, on
the one hand, and the large number of formations (particularly
derivatives and backformations) representing 31% of the total of words
of our corpus, on the other hand. The implications of the research and
results are considerable: they can be useful to both students in natural
sciences and teachers and/or researchers in the field of botany.
References
Farrell, J. (2004). Latin Language & Latin Culture. From Ancient to
Modern Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Glare, P. G. W. (Ed.) (1983). Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Janson, T. (2002). Speak. A Short History of Languages. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Partridge, E. (2006). Origins. A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern
English. London – New York: Routledge.
Potts, M. (1997). Etymology of the Genus Name Nostoc (Cyanobacteria).
International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology 47 (2): 584.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2008). Words of Latin Origin in the English of Zoology.
Journal of Linguistic Studies 2: 75-86.
Shipley, J. T. (1979). Dictionary of Word Origins. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield,
Adams & Co.
Listings of Prefixes, Suffixes, Roots and Combining Forms. Jefferson
(NC) & London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Stearn, W. T. (1983). Botanical Latin. History, Grammar Syntax,
Terminology and Vocabulary. Newton Abbot – London – North
Pomfret: David & Charles.
SEEDS AND SEEDLING

AND ANICA PERKOVIû
Introduction
Studying words from an etymological perspective (to see when they
entered a language, from what source, and how their form and meaning
have changed over time) can be of real help for any specialist in
agriculture and/or related branches, that needs to understand, learn, and
use them more efficiently. The words in our corpus have originated
through a rather limited number of basic mechanisms: borrowing (i.e., the
adoption of loanwords from other languages), and word formation
(derivation and composition / compounding).
Material and Method

Our analysis has been made on a corpus of terms specific to the field of
“seeds and seedlings” such as inventoried by Ross E. Koning (1994). This
“seed vocabulary”, the basic vocabulary of the students in “plant biology”,
contains 63 terms (nouns and adjectives) belonging to the following fields
related to “seeds and seedlings”:
- general vocabulary (fruit and funiculus);

- seed surfaces (alate, circumalate, comose, coronate, crested,
umbonate and verrucous);
- seed parts (aril, embryo, endosperm, hilum, micropyle, raphe, and
seed coat);
- embryo parts (coleoptile, coleorhiza, cotyledon, epicotyl, hypocotyls,
mesocotyl, pumule, radicle, and scutellum);
- seed types (cotylespermous, endospermous, and monocotyledonous);
- cotyledon number (dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous);
- cotyledon size (anisocotylous and syntropous);
204 Seeds and Seedling
- embryo types (bent embryo, broad embryo, capitate embryo, dwarf

embryo, folded embryo, investing embryo, linear embryo, micro
embryo, peripheral embryo, and rudimentary embryo);
- cotyledon position (accumbent cotyledon and incumbent cotyledon);
- seedling types (cryptocotylar, epigeous, hypogenous, and
phanerocotylar);
- seedling parts (adventitious root, cataphyll, coat, collet, eophyl,
lateral root, leaf primordial, leaf, metaphyll, primary root, root apex,
root hair, root and seed hoot apex).
We have analysed all these terms from an etymological point of view, in

an attempt to identify a possible pattern in the origin of these nouns and
adjectives, that can make them easier to understand, learn and use.

We have inventoried 29 nouns and 34 adjectives, i.e. a total of 63
terms to “seeds and seedlings”.
1. The 29 nouns have 6 different origins – Greek, Latin, Old English,
Germanic, Old High German, and Scandinavian – which they share in an
uneven manner. Thus, of 29 nouns: 13 have a Greek origin (46%), i.e. they
are direct or indirect (via Latin, Late Latin, Middle Latin and New Latin)
loanwords from Greek: cataphyll < cata- [< Gk katƗ- ‘down, through,
against, according to, toward, during’] + phyll [< Gk phǤllon ‘leaf’]
‘rudimentary scale leaf in cryptocotylar species’, coleoptile [< ML
coleoptil(um) < Gk koleǀn ‘sheath’ + Gk ptílon ‘soft feather, dawn’]
‘protective first leaf sheath surrounding epicotyl in grasses’, coleorhiza
(pl. coleorhizae) [< ML < Gk koleǀn ‘sheath’+ Gk rhƯza ‘root’] ‘protective
sheath around radicle in grasses’, cotyledon [< L cotyledon ‘navelwort’ <
Gk kotylƝdǀn ‘cup-shaped cavity’ < Gk kotulƝ ‘cup’] ‘embryonic or seed
leaf’, embryo [< ML embryon- < Gk embryon < Gk embryos ‘in growing’]
‘young sporophyte consisting of epicotyl, hypocotyls, radicle, and one or
more cotyledons’, endosperm < endo- < [Gk éndon- ‘within’] + sperm [<
ME sperme < LL sperma < Gk spérma ‘seed’] ‘food reserve formed from
syngamy of central cell and sperm’, eophyll < eo- [< Gk éós- ‘dawn’] +
phyll [< Gk phýllon ‘leaf’] ‘the first few green leaves developed by
seedlings in transition to adult leaves’, epicotyl < epi- ‘upon, on, over,
near, at, before, after’] + cotyl(edon) [< L cotyledon ‘navelwort’ < Gk
kotylƝdǀn ‘cup-shaped cavity’ < kotulƝ ‘cup’] ‘apical end of embryo axis
above cotyledon’, hypocotyl < hypo- [< Gk hypǀ- ‘under’] + cotyl <
cotyl(edon) [< L cotyledon ‘navelwort’ < Gk kotylƝdǀn ‘cup-shaped
cavity’ < kotulƝ ‘cup’] ‘embryonic stem axis between scutellum and
coleoptile in grasses’, metaphyll < meta- [< Gk meta ‘after, along with,
beyond, among, behind’] + phyll [< Gk phýllon ‘leaf’] ‘adult leaves’,
micropyle < micro- [< Gk mƯcrós ‘small’] + pyle [< Gk pylƝ ‘gate’] ‘hole
through seed coat for delivery of sperm cells’, and raphe [< NL < Gk
raphƝ ‘seam, suture’] ‘ridge on seed coat formed from fused funiculus’; 10
have a Latin origin (35%), i.e. they have been borrowed directly or
indirectly (via French, Old French) from Latin: apex (pl. apexes / apices)
(as in root apex) [< L apex ‘conical cap, tip, point, summit’] ‘root
meristem including terminal root cap’, aril [< NL arillus < ML aril(Ư)
‘dried grape pips’] ‘fleshy outgrowth of funiculus, raphe, or integuments
(seed, coat)’, collet [< F collet ‘little collar’ < col ‘collar’< L collum
‘neck’] ‘external demarcation between hypocotyl and root’, fruit [< ME <
OF < L frǌct(us) ‘enjoyment, proceeds, fruit’< past participle of frui
‘enjoy, have the use of’] ‘the mature ovary wall, generally containing
seeds’, funiculus (pl. funiculi) [< L funiculus ‘little rope’ < fǌnis ‘rope’]
‘stalk by which seed is attached to placenta in fruit’, hilum (pl. hila) [< L
hilum ‘little thing, trifle’] ‘funicular scar on seed coat’, plumule [< NL < L
plǌmula ‘small feather’ < pluma ‘down, feather’] ‘leaves of epicotyl in
seed’, primordia (sg. primordium) (as in leaf primordia) < primordium [<
L prƯmǀrdius ‘original’ + ǀrdit < ǀrdƯrƯ ‘begin’ + -us] ‘young leaves
having unexpanded blades’, radicle [< L rƗdicǌla ‘little root’ < radic-
‘root’] ‘based end of embryo axis, becoming root’, and scutellum [< NL
scutellum, alteration of L scutella ‘dish, tray’ as if meaning ‘small shield’
+ L scǌtum ‘shield’] ‘the cotyledon in grasses’; 3 have an Old English
origin (10%), i.e. they come from Old English vie Middle English: leaf [<
ME leef, OE lƝaf ‘leaf’] ‘plant part: a flat green part that grows in various
shaped from the stems or branches of a plant or tree and whose main
function is photosynthesis’, seed (as in seed coat) [< ME, OE sƝd, sǙd
‘seed’] ‘plant part containing embryo: a plant part produced by sexual
reproduction that contains the embryo and gives rise to a new individual.
In flowering plants it is enclosed within the fruit’, and shoot (as in shoot
apex) [< ME shote(n), OE seceǀtan ‘shoot’] ‘shoot meristem with leaf
primordial’; 1 has a Germanic origin (3%), i.e. it comes from Germanic
via Old French: coat (as in seed coat) [< ME cote ‘coat’ < OF < Gmc]
‘any thin layer that covers something’; 1 has an Old High German origin
(3%), i.e. it comes from Old High German via Old French: hair (as in root
hair) [< ME heer ‘hair’, OE haer < OF < OHG] ‘epidermal cells of a
young root extending outward among soil particles.’; 1 has a Scandinavian
origin (3%), i.e. it comes from Scandinavian via Old Norse: root [< ME <
ON rǀt < Scand] ‘underground base of plant: the part of a plant that has no
leaves or buds and usually spreads underground, anchoring the plant and
absorbing water and nutrients from the soil.’
2. The 34 adjectives have 3 different origins – Latin, Greek, and Old
English – which they share in an uneven manner. Thus, of the 34
adjectives: 7 have a Latin origin (50%), i.e. they have been borrowed from
Latin directly or indirectly (via Middle French, Old French): accumbent
(as in accumbent cotyledon) [< L accumbent] ‘with cotyledon edges
against hypocotyls’, adventitious (as in adventitious root) [< L adventicius
‘coming from outside’] ‘a root arising from stem, petiole, or leaf tissues’,
alate(d) [< L ƗlƗt(us) <L ala ‘wing’] ‘winged’, capitate (as in capitate
embryo) [< L capitƗtus ‘having a head’< caput ‘head’] ‘basal head-like
embryo surrounded in endosperm’, circumalate [< L circus ‘circle’ + L.
ƗlƗt(us) ‘winged’] ‘winged circumferentially’, comose [< L comǀs(us)]
‘with a tuft of trichomes’, crested < crest [< ME creste < MF < L crist(a)
‘crest’] ‘with an elevated ridge or ridges; with raphe’, dicotyledonous <
dicotyledon [< NL dicotyledonƝ(s) ‘two cotyledons’] + -ous [< ME < OF <
L -ǀsus ‘full of, abounding in, given to, characterized by, having, like,
etc.’] ‘two-cotyledons’, incumbent (as in incumbent cotyledon) [< ME < L
incumbent < L incumbere ‘lie in or on’ + L -cumbere ‘lie down’] ‘with
cotyledon sides against hypocotyl’, investing (as in investing embryo) [<
ME < L invest(Ưre) ‘to surround, to clothe (in)’ < L vestis ‘clothing’]
‘embryo with thick cotyledons as major portion with limited endosperm’,
lateral (as in lateral root) [< L laterƗl(is) < L later- ‘side’] ‘a branch root,
a secondary root, arising from root tissue’, linear (as in linear embryo) [<
L lƯneƗris ‘of, belonging to lines’], ‘axial embryo several times longer than
broad, with thin cotyledons’, monocotyledonous < monocotyledon [< NL
monocotyledon ‘one cotyledon’] + -ous [< ME < OF < L -ǀsus ‘full of,
abounding in, given to, characterized by, having, like, etc.’] ‘one
cotyledon’, primary (as in primary root) [< ME < L < prƯmƗri(us) ‘of the
first rank”] ‘derived from radicle’, rudimentary (as in rudimentary
embryo) < rudiment [< L rudiment(um) < L rudis “raw, rough”] + -ary [<
L -Ɨris “pertaining to, connected with”] ‘undifferentiated embryo in
copious endosperm’, umbonate < umbo [< umbǀn “having an umbo or
projecting boss”] + -ate [< L -Ɨtus ‘a suffix forming adjectives’] ‘with
distinct projection usually from the side’, and verrucose / verrucous <
verruc(a) [< L < verruca ‘wart’] + -ous [< ME < OF < L -ǀsus ‘full of,
abounding in, given to, characterized by, having, like, etc.’], ‘warty’; 3
have a Greek origin (38%), i.e. they have come from Greek directly or
indirectly (via Latin, Old French): anisocotylous < aniso- [< Gk aniso(s)
‘unequal’] + cotyl(edon) [< L cotyledon ‘navelwort’ < Gk kotylƝdǀn ‘cup-
shaped cavity’ < kotulƝ ‘cup’] + -ous [< ME < OF < L -ǀsus ‘full of,
abounding in, given to, characterized by, having, like, etc.] ‘unequal
cotyledons’, antitropous < anti- [< L -antƯ ‘against, opposite of’] + -
tropous [< Gk -tropos ‘pertaining to a turn’] ‘radicle pointing away from
hilum’, coronate < corona [< L corǀna ‘garland, crown’ < Gk coróne
‘crown’] + -ate [< L -Ɨtus ‘a suffix forming adjectives’] ‘with a crown’,
cotylespermous < cotyle < cotyl(edon) [< L cotyledon ‘navelwort’ < Gk
kotylƝdǀn ‘cup-shaped cavity’ < kotulƝ ‘cup’] + -spermous [a word
element used to form adjectives corresponding to nouns with stems ending
in -sperm] ‘food reserve in cotyledon’, cryptocotylar < crypto- [< Gk
kryptós ‘hidden’] + cotyl(edon) [< L cotyledon ‘navelwort’ < Gk kotylƝdǀn
‘cup-shaped cavity’ < kotulƝ ‘cup’] + -ar [< L -Ɨr(is) ‘pertaining to’] ‘with
cotyledons remaining in seed and usually below ground’, epigeous < epi-
[< Gk epƯ ‘upon, on, over, near, at, before, after’] + -genous [a suffix of
adjectives corresponding to nouns with stems in -gen] ‘cotyledons
emergent from seed and usually appearing above ground’,
hypocotylespermous < hypocotyl [< Gk] + -spermous [a word element
used to form adjectives corresponding to nouns with stems ending in -
sperm < Gk] ‘food reserve in hypocotyl’, hypogeal / hypogean /
hypogeous [< L hypogƝus < Gk hypógeios ‘underground’ < gƝ ‘ground,
earth’] ‘cotyledons remaining in seed and usually below ground,’
isocotylous < iso- [< Gk ísos ‘equal’] + cotyl(edon) [< L cotyledon
‘navelwort’ < Gk kotylƝdǀn ‘cup-shaped cavity’ < kotulƝ ‘cup’] + -ous [<
ME < OF < L -ǀsus ‘full of, abounding in, given to, characterized by,
having, like, etc.] ‘cotyledons equal in shape and size’, micro (as in micro
embryo) [< Gk mƯkrǀs ‘small’] ‘axial embryo in minute seeds less than 0.2
mm long, occupying most of seed’, peripheral (as in peripheral embryo) <
periphery [< Gk peripherƝs ‘carrying around’ < Gk pherein ‘carry’]
‘embryo pressed along side of seed coat, remainder is endosperm’,
phanerocotylar < phanero- [<Gk phaneros ‘visible, manifest’] +
cotyl(edon) [< L cotyledon ‘navelwort’ < Gk kotylƝdǀn ‘cup-shaped
cavity’ < kotulƝ ‘cup’] + -ar [< L -Ɨr(is) ‘pertaining to’] ‘cotyledons
emergent from seed and usually appearing above ground’, and syntropous
< syn- [< Gk sýn ‘with, together’] + -tropous [< Gk -tropos ‘pertaining to
a turn’] ‘radicle pointing toward hilum.’; 4 have an Old English origin
(12%), i.e. they have come directly from Old English: bent (as in bent
embryo) [< ME bend(en) < OE bendan ‘to bind, to bend’] ‘embryo with
cotyledons folded back along the hypocotyls / radicle’, broad (as in broad
embryo) [< ME brood < OE brƗd ‘broad’] ‘basal globular or lenticular
embryo surrounded in endosperm’, dwarf (as in dwarf embryo) [< ME
dwarf < OE dweorh ‘dwarf’] ‘embryo small compared to seed; seed in 0.2
to 2 mm long’, and folded (as in folded embryo) [< ME fold, fald < OE
fald, falod ‘folded’] ‘embryo with thin extensive cotyledons folded and
pleated in various ways’.
Conclusion
The following conclusions can be drawn from the analysis above:
- the number of the nouns belonging to the field of “seeds and seedlings”
(i.e., 29) is close to that of the adjectives (i.e., 34);
- the number of nouns of Greek (13 vs. 17, i.e., 46% and 50%
respectively), Latin (10 vs. 13., i.e., 35% and 38% respectively), and
English (3 vs. 4, i.e., 10% and 24% respectively) origin and their share
are very close to those of the adjectives;
- the few nouns of other origins (Germanic, Old High German, and
Scandinavian) do not belong to what is called “scientific vocabulary”;
- most of the adjectives are compounds or derivatives of the nouns,
which eases their understanding.
References
Koning, Ross E. (1994). “Seeds and Seedling Vocabulary”. Plant
Physiology Website. Online:
http://koning.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/plant_biology/seedvocab.html.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Anica. (2008). Seeds and Seedling
Vocabulary: An Etymological Approach. Proceedings of the 43rd
Croatian and 3rd International Symposium on Agriculture, 18-21
February 2008, Opatija, Croatia: 720-724.
Adams & Co.
COMMON NAMES OF PLANT DISEASES:
THE LATIN HERITAGE
GEORGETA RAğĂ AND CAMELIA GIUCHICI
Introduction
Properly understanding and learning specialised vocabularies in
agricultural academic institutions in Romania is one of the main objectives
of both studying different specialised subjects and foreign languages. As
the students learn the scientific name (in Latin) for the different
agricultural “realities” (plants, weeds, diseases, pests, etc.), understanding
the mechanisms through which they survive in the common names
designating the same reality in the different languages cannot only
facilitate their proper understanding and acquisition, but also their
reaching that degree of autonomy in approaching references that any
future specialist in agriculture longs for.
Here are the mechanisms through which 96 scientific names of plant
diseases have reached, one way or another, English, French, and
Romanian:
- phonetical and graphical integration: R esplanadă ‘esplanade’ < It

esplanada;
- phonetical integration and graphical non-integration: R mass-media
‘mass media’ < E mass media;
- phonetical non-integration and graphical integration: F redingote ‘
riding coat’ < E riding coat;
- phonetical and graphical integration: R sandvici / sandviú / sanviú
‘sandwich’ < E sandwich.
All borrowings produce changes in the borrowing language and they can
be changed themselves, too.
These languages, as well as any other language on Earth, have a lexical
structure that changes to allow the integration of the borrowings in the
new system of correlations.
210 Common Names of Plant Diseases: The Latin Heritage
Literature Review
The lexicographical analysis of the common names of plant diseases
has been done on a corpus of words from the HYPP Dictionary developed
within a project coordinated by G. Wachsman (from ACTA, Paris, France)
and edited by M. A. Caillaud (from INRA, Paris, France): 188 scientific
names of plant diseases of which only the first part has been borrowed in
English, French, and Romanian to produce common names of plant
diseases.

Of the 188 Latin names of plant diseases, only 96 have been borrowed
by at least one of the three languages in discussion.
1. The Latin borrowings into English are of the following types:
- phonetical and graphical integration (1): cercosporiose > Cercospora

cladosporioides (anamorphic name of Mycocentrospora
cladosporioides);
- phonetical integration and graphical non-integration (31):
x Ascochyta blight < Ascochyta pisi, Cercospora disease <
Cercospora beticola, Didymella stem rot < Didymella lycopersici,
Eutypa canker < Eutypa armeniacae, Fusarium disease / wilt (7
occurrences) < Fusarium oxysporum / roseum, Mycosphaerella
blight < Mycosphaerella pinodes, Nectria canker < Nectria
galligena, Pestalotiopsis < Pestalotiopsis menezisiana,
Verticillium disease / wilt (2 occurrences) < Verticillium albo-
atrum / dahliae, Xanthomonas disease (2 occurrences) <
Xanthomonas campestris / cynarae / fragariae;
x Botrytis (bunch rot) (2 occurrences) < Botrytis cinerea
(anamorphic name of Botryotinia fuckeliana), Cylindrosporium
disease < Cylindrosporium concentricum (anamorphic name of
Pyrenopeziza brassicae), Phomopsis disease < Phomopsis
cinerensis (anamorphic name of Diaporthe helianthi), Septoria
nodorum blotch < Septoria nodorum (anamorphic name of
Leptosphaeria nodorum);
x Ascochyta foot-rot < Ascochyta pinodella (synonym of Phoma
medicaginis), Coryneum blight < Coryneum beijerinckii (synonym
of Stigmina carpophila), Pinodella blight < Ascochyta pinodella
(synonym of Phoma medicaginis).
Georgeta RaĠă and Camelia Giuchici 211
2. The Latin borrowings into French are more numerous:
- phonetical and graphical integration (35):

x alternariose < Alternaria brassicae / brassicicola / dauci /
helianthi (4 occurrences), cercospor(i)ose < Cercospora beticola (2
occurrences), cladosporine < Cladosporium cucumerinum,
eutypose < Eutypa armeniacae, fusariose < Fusarium oxysporum
(6 occurrences), kabatiellose < Kabatiella zeae, mastigosporiose <
Mastigosporium rubicorum, moniliose < Monilina fructigena / laxa
(2 occurrences), pourriture phoméenne < Phoma medicaginis,
sclérotiniose < Sclerotinia minor / sclerotiorum / trifolium (4
occurrences), septoriose < Septoria apiicola, verticilliose <
Verticillium albo-atrum / dahliae;
x cercosporiose < Cercospora cladosporioides (anamorphic name of
Mycocentrospora cladosporioides), cylindrosporiose <
Cylindrosporium concentricum (anamorphic name of Pyrenopeziza
brassicae), fusariose < Fusarium nivale (anamorphic name of
Monographella nivalis), septoriose < Septoria nodorum
(anamorphic name of Leprosphaeria nodorum);
x ascochytose < Ascochyta pinodella (synonym of Phoma
medicaginis), cladosporiose < Cladosporium fulvium (synonym of
Fulvia fulva).
- phonetical integration and graphical non-integration (14):

x chancre à Didymella < Didymella lycopersici, Fusarium du pied <
Fusarium roseum, chancre à Fusicoccum < Fusicoccum amygdali,
chancre à Nectria < Nectria galligena, Pestalotiopsis <
Pestalotiopsis menezisiana, dépérissement bactérien à
Pseudomonas < Pseudomonas syringae, Pseudopeziza <
Pseudopeziza medicaginis, charbon à Sphacelotheca <
Sphacelotheca reiliana, charbon à Ustilago < Ustilago maydis;
x chancre à Cytospora < Cytospora cincta (anamorphic name of
Leucostoma cinctum), criblure à Corynum < Coryneum
beijerinckii (synonym of Stigmina carpophila), Phomopsis <
Phomopsis mali (anamorphic name of Diaporthe eres), Phomopsis
< Phomopsis sojae (anamorphic name of Diaporthe phaseolum),
Phomopsis du tournesol < Phomopsis helianthi (anamorphic name
of Diaporthe helianthi).
3. The Latin borrowings into Romanian are the least:
- phonetical and graphical integration (28):

x alternarioză < Alternaria brassicae / brassicicola / dauci /
helianthi / radicicola (6 occurrences), ascochitoză < Ascochyta
fabae, cercosporioză < Cercospora beticola, eutipoză < Eutypa
armeniacae, fuzarioză < Fusarium oxysporum / roseum (9
occurrences), monilioză < Monilina fructigena / laxa (2
occurrences), septorioză < Septoria apiicola, verticilioză <
Verticillium albo-atrum / dahliae (4 occurrences);
x cercosporioză < Cercospora cladosporioides (anamorphic name of
Mycocentrospora cladosporioides), septorioză < Septoria nodorum
(anamorphic name of Leptosphaeria nodorum);
x ascochitoză < Ascochyta pinodella (synonym of Phoma
medicaginis).
The words cercosporioză, fuzarioză, and monilioză are, according to

Romanian language dictionaries, borrowings from French. As for the
words alternarioză, eutipoză, septorioză, and verticilioză, they are either
linguistic calques after French words, or words created after Romanian
words already attested in French and borrowed from the French language.
As for the borrowings of the phonetical integration and graphical non-
integration type, it seems that any name of plant disease that does not exist
in Romanian is susceptible of being borrowed as such where there is no
popular synonym for it.
We need to say that any improper pronunciation of Latin words
designating plant diseases is susceptible of ranging within this category:
we have in mind both mispronunciations caused by the lack of knowledge
in Latin pronunciation and mispronunciations caused by the patois of the
speaker.
Conclusion
Table 6-1 is a synthesis of the types of integration of scientific names
of plant diseases in English, French, and Romanian.
As we can see, the French language ranks first in phonetical and
graphical integration with 29 scientific names, 4 anamorphic names and
2 synonyms, followed by the Romanian language with 25 scientific names
and 2 anamorphic names. There is a single anamorphic name in English
phonetically and graphically.
Georgeta RaĠă and Camelia Giuchici 213
The English language ranks first in phonetical integration and

graphical non-integration with 23 scientific names, 5 anamorphic names
and 3 synonyms, followed from a distance by the French language with 8
scientific names, 5 anamorphic names and 1 synonym. There are no such
names in Romanian if we leave aside accidental integrations caused by the
lack of knowledge of Latin.
There is no phonetical non-integration and graphical integration and no
phonetical and graphical integration either in any of the three languages
investigated here.
Table 6-1. Types of integration of scientific names of plant diseases in

English, French, and Romanian
Types of Language
integration English French Romanian
Anamorphic
Anamorphic
Anamorphic
Latin names
Latin names
Latin names
Synonyms
Synonyms
Synonyms
names
names
names
phonetical - 1 - 29 4 2 25 2 -
and graphical
integration
phonetical 23 5 3 8 5 1 (-) (-) (-)
integration
and graphical
non-
integration
phonetical - - - - - - - - -
non-
integration
and graphical
integration
phonetical - - - - - - - - -
and graphical
integration
From the point of view of languages for special purposes (English and
French for agriculturists), being a native speaker of Romanian can make
learning French easier since the former has borrowed most common names
of plant diseases from the latter, adapting them after the French model.
Though English phonetics is more difficult for native speakers of
Romanian, a good knowledge of the scientific names of plant diseases can
ease both comprehension and acquisition of this terminology.
References
Giuchici, Camelia & RaĠă, Georgeta. (2002). Common Names of Plant
Diseases: The Latin Heritage. Al IV-lea Simpozion InternaĠional
„Tinerii úi Cercetarea Multidisciplinară”, 14-15 noiembrie 2002,
Timiúoara. Timiúoara: Editura Sudura. 837-842.
HYPP. Version 1.0 copyright © 1994
Robert, P. (1996). Dictionnaire alphabétique & analogique de la langue
française. [An Alphabetical & Analogical Dictionary of the French
Language]. Paris: S.N.L.
Adams & Co.
York: Random House.
SPICES
ASTRID-SIMONE GROSZLER
Introduction
In this paper we try to bring an etymological perspective on spice names.
By etymological perspective we mean an etymological approach in the
sense of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language (1998)
where we find out that etymology means ‘establishing of a word’s origin
by explaining its formal and semantic evolution’. We try to establish
whether or not there is a connection between the origin of the word and its
meaning. We also look at the Romanian and German name of the plant
and try to establish a connection with the English term.
Aside from the etymological aspect of the origin of the words, we take
a look at the orthographic and phonetic form of the analysed plant names.
Material and Method

We have chosen thirteen English spice names. First we have identified
the origin of the English common name and, in most cases, that of the
scientific name using specific dictionaries; then we have looked for
Romanian and German corresponding names of the spices and tried to
establish whether there is a connection between their names in the three
languages.
Results
The spice names we analysed are the following:
Allspice (Pimenta dioica) takes its name from its aroma. It smells like
a combination of spices, especially cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg.
In much of the world, allspice is called pimento because the Spaniards
mistook the fruit for black pepper, which they called pimienta. Another
English name for this herb is Jamaican pepper, which relates to the
Spanish name, but also pimento (< L pimento). The German name for
allspice is Allgewürz, which is calque of the English name allspice and
216 Spices
Jamaicapfeffer again, an exact translation of the English term, but also

Piment, again relating to the Spanish origin. In Romanian, there is piper de
Jamaica, the corresponding common name of Jamaican pepper. We could
not find an occurrence of pimento or of any derived form of the word. If
we are to compare the orthographic and the phonetic forms of the herb, we
notice that there is an identity between these two forms (for the English
variant) only in the overtaken synonym, namely the Spanish pimienta. The
other forms (allspice, Jamaican pepper) undergo the rules of
pronunciation present in the English language. As for the Romanian and
German languages, since they are more phonetic than English (especially
Romanian), the phonetic changes are minor, and again there is also a
complete identity in the Spanish overtaken name, Piment, in German.
When we analyzed the spice anise (< L Pimpinella anisum), the
MWDT revealed as its origin the Middle English anis (< AF < L anisum <
Greek annƝson, anison). In turn, the Greek anison and the Latin anisum
are derived from the Arabic name anysum, since anise is native to the
eastern Mediterranean region, the Levant, and Egypt. As for its meaning,
anise is a Eurasian annual herb of the carrot family having carminative
and aromatic seeds. When we look for the German name of the herb, there
is Anis, which is an almost perfect match to the English word, but also
Kuchengewürz, which means ‘spice for cake’, thus leading to the
conclusion that anise is a spice used in cake recipes. The Romanian name
for the herb is anason, derived from the same Greek annison. When
analysing the orthographic and phonetic occurences of the words, there are
phonetic changes in the English term, since anise is pronounced [æni:s].
As for the German term Anis and for the Romanian one anason, there are
no phonetical changes.
Cardamom (< L Elettaria cardamomum) is native to the East,
originating in the forests of the Western Ghats in southern India, where it
grows wild. Today it also grows in Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Indo China and
Tanzania. The ancient Egyptians chewed cardamom seeds as a tooth
cleaner; the Greeks and Romans used it as a perfume. Vikings came upon
the spice about one thousand years ago, in Constantinople, and introduced
it into Scandinavia. In the MWDT, we find its origin in the Latin
cardamomum (which is also the second half of the spice’s scientific name)
from the Greek kardamǀmon, blend of kardamon ‘peppergrass’ and
amǀmon. The German name of the spice is Kardamom – the same as the
English name, and the Romanian name for it is cardamom verde – again,
the same as the English name, but with the specification of the colour,
verde ‘green’. Thus we can infer that all three names derive from the
Greek kardamǀmon. If we analyse the terms from a phonetical point of
Astrid-Simone Groszler 217
view, we notice that for the English term there are some differences
between the orthographic and the phonetic form, since the pronunciation
of cardamom is [kærdԥmԥm], while for the Romanian and German term
there are no differences between the two forms.
Ginger (< L Zingiber officinale) is native to India and China. It takes
its name from the Sanskrit word stringa-vera, which means ‘with a body
like a horn’ (according to the online Encyclopaedia of Spices). The
MWDT records as origin Middle English, alteration of Old English
gingifer (< ML gingiber < L zingiber < Gk zingiberi). Regarding the
meaning, there is ‘1. a thickened pungent aromatic rhizome that is used as
a spice and sometimes medicinally. 2. the spice usually prepared by drying
and grinding ginger.’ The origin of the word thus relates to its shape and
not necessarily its meaning. In German, there is Ingwer, which is clearly
derived from the Latin and Greek name, and in Romanian there is ghimber
or ghimbir, word originating from the Hungarian gyömber, which, again,
clearly derives from the Latin and Greek words. With ginger, phonetical
changes can be observed in all three languages. The English term ginger is
pronounced [dɡindɡԥ], while the German Ingwer is pronounced [iȘvԥ] and
the Romanian ghimbir [gimbir].
Lavender (< L Lavandula stoechas) originates from the Middle
English lavendre (< AF < Med L lavandula). It is native of the
Mediterranean and became widely distributed throughout southern Europe,
but nowadays it is a worldwide known herb. Widely used by the ancient
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs for mummification, medicinal
purposes and scented baths and soaps, its botanical name comes from the
Latin lavare which means ‘to wash’. It was and is still used as a refresher
for laundry. As in the case of ginger, when we analyze the German name
Lavendel and the Romanian lavandă, we notice that they originate from
the Latin lavare as well. We can notice a resemblence in the phonetic
forms of the terms in the different languages as well, although the English
pronunciation has undergone more changes than the other two. Lavender
is read [lævԥndԥ], the German Lavendel [lavendԥl] and the Romanian
lavandă [lavandԥ].
Lemon grass (< L Cymbopogon ciatrus) is a tall tropical grass. The
fresh stalks and leaves have a clean lemon-like odour because they contain
an essential oil, which is also present in lemon peel. The English name
originates from the Middle English lymon (< MF limon < ML limon-, limo
< Ar laymǌn, lƯmǌn < Pers lƯmǌ, lƯmun). In this case, the herb gets its name
form the resemblance in odour with the lemon fruit, and also because it
contains the same essential oil as the fruit. There are three German
corresponding names: Zitronengras (a perfect translation of the English
218 Spices
name), Citronella (derived from the scientific name), and Lemongras (an
almost perfect transfer of the English name). As for the Romanian
corresponding name, there is iarba lămâioasă (an almost perfect
translation of the English name). When we take a look at the English term
and its equivalents in German and Romanian, we find out that the English
and German terms are almost perfect equivalents in writing and
pronouncing, with lemon grass [lemԥn gra:s] in English and Lemongras
[lemo:ngra:s] in German. As for the Romanian term, the letters ă and â are
the orthographic signs for the phonetic transcripts of [ԥ] and [î], sounds
inexistent in English. Thus, there are only minor changes in the Romanian
phonetic form [jarba tԥmîjoasԥ].
Licorice (< L Glycyrrhiza glabra) gets its scientific name from the
Greek words glyks ‘sweet’ and rhiza ‘root’. It is the sweet tasting rhizomes
(underground stems) and roots that are used as flavourings. The MWDT
records points its origin in the Middle English licorice (< AF licoris < LL
liquiritia, alteration of L glycyrrhiza < Gk glykyrrhiza < glykys ‘sweet’
and rhiza ‘root’). The German corresponding name is Süßholz ‘sweet
wood’, relating to the Greek origin not formally, but semantically. In
Romanian, there is lemn dulce, an exact translation not of the English, but
of the German term. From a phonetic point of view, we can notice that,
like in the cases of the herbs discussed above, the pronunciation of licorice
has brought changes compared to the orthographic form [likԥris]. The
German term is pronounced [zy:sholts], thus including a few changes,
while the Romanian term pronounced [lemn dultȒe] presents almost no
difference between the orthographic and phonetic form.
According to the online Encyclopaedia of Spices, melegueta pepper (<
L Aframomum melegueta) is native to tropical West Africa and grows
mainly in Ghana. The spice is practically unknown in modern Western
cuisine, although it was used in Europe in the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance. It was a flavouring for the old wine ‘Hippocras’ and is still
used for the production of beer, wine and spirits, and for the flavouring of
vinegar. It was known under the name of Grains of paradise. Given its use
in preparing alcoholic beverages, which may induce a euphoric state if
consumed in large quantities, we can understand where it got this name
from. We notice that the first half of the name observes the Latin
melegueta, while the other half refers to the shape, the appearance of the
seeds of the herb, the part that is used. The German and Romanian names
are actually calques of the English name, thus bearing the same
etymology: Meleguetapfeffer or Paradieskörner in German, and piper de
melengueta or grăuntele paradisului in Romanian, respectively. When we
take a look at the phonetic forms of the terms in the three discussed
languages, we see that, in the case of melegueta pepper, almost no

changes occur, regardless the language analysed: English [melegweta
pepԥ], German [melegwetapfefԥ] and Romanian [piper de melegweta].
Mint (< L Mentha spp.) comes from the Greek legend of the nymph
Minthe, who caught the eye of Hades. Hades’ wife, the jealous
Persephone, attacked Minthe and was in the process of trampling her to
death when Hades turned her into an herb (which remained sacred to him).
It is a very well known and used herb. The nowadays English term
originates from the Middle English minte (< OE < L mentha, menta < Gk
minthƝ). In mint, there is complete identity between the orthographic and
phonetic ([mint]) forms. There are some minor changes in the German
phonetic form [mintse] and in the Romanian one [mentԥ].
Nutmeg (< L Myristica fragrans) is the seed kernel inside the fruit of
the nutmeg tree, and also the ground seed used as a spice. It takes its name
from its flavour, which is nutty, warm and slightly sweet. It originates
from Middle English notemigge, notemuge < OPr noz muscada < noz ‘nut’
(< L nuc-, nux). Another name for it is muscat. In German, there is an
interesting combination of the two English terms: Muskatnuss, Muskat
from muscat and Nuss meaning ‘nut’. The Romanian name is nucúoară,
which could be literally translated by ‘small nut’, which derives from the
Latin nuc-, nux. If we look at the phonetic forms, we notice that the
English term displays a change, the pronunciation being [natmeg]. In
German, there is a complete identity of the orthographic and phonetic
forms [muskatnus]. The Romanian pronunciation displays one small
change [nucȒoarԥ].
Sage (< L Salvia officinalis) originates from the Middle English (< AF
< VL *sapius < L sapere ‘to taste, have good taste, be wise’). The term is
related to the Old Saxon ansebbian ‘to perceive’. Ancient populations,
including the Aras, associated it with immortality. The genus name derives
from the Latin for ‘salvation’, salvere. The plant was used to counterattack
snakebite. If we take a look at the German and Romanian names, Salbei
and salvie, respectively, we notice that both derive from the Latin name
Salvia. When we analyse the names of sage from a phonetic point of view,
we notice that the Romanian term [salvie] is the only one not undergoing
major phonetic changes. The English sage [seidɡ], and the German Salbei
[zalbai] present greater phonetic changes.
Savoury (< L Satureja Hortensis or Satureja Montana) is a reputed
aphrodisiac. The genus Latin name, Satureja, is attributed to the Roman
writer Pliny and is a derivative of the word for satyr ‘the half-man, half-
goat with the insatiable sexual appetite’. Legends say that satyrs lived in
meadows of savoury, thus implying that it was the herb that made them
220 Spices
passionate. The English term originates from the Middle English (< AF
savur < L sapor, from sapere ‘to taste’). The English word savour means:
‘1. to enjoy and appreciate (food or drink) slowly. 2. to enjoy (a pleasure)
for as long as possible’, thus relating to the reputation of the plant.
Regarding the German name, Pfefferkraut ‘pepper herb’, and the
Romanian name cimbru originating from the Greek thymbra, or Latin
cimbrus. We can see that there is no resemblance whatsoever between the
three terms belonging to the three different languages. With savoury, the
English and Romanian terms are the ones undergoing phonetic changes,
reading [seivԥri] and [tȒimbru], respectively. The German term is almost
unchanged [pfefԥkraut].
Wasabi (< L Wasabia japonica), also called Japanese horseradish, is
a pale green root grown in cold mountain streams under some of the most
closely guarded growing practices in agriculture. The MWDT only
mentions that it is of Japanese origin. The Japanese wasabi actually refers
to the mountain hollyhock (a perennial plant of the Malvacea family), as
the plant’s leaves resemble those of a member of the Malvacea family, in
addition to its ability to grow on shady hillsides. The name Japanese
horseradish refers to the land of origin and to the flavour of the plant,
resembling the taste of horseradish, while in fact it is a mustard. When we
look for the German and Romanian names of the herb, there is the same
wasabi, but also Japanischer Kren in German and hrean japonez in
Romanian, both names representing calques of the English Japanese
horseradish. From a phonetic point of view, wasabi stays the same,
namely [wasabi] in all three languages discussed.
Discussion
In the previous section we have presented thirteen spice names. The
analyses of their origins revealed that most spices derive their English
name from the Latin or Greek denomination of the herb. Eight names
(allspice, anise, cardamom, ginger, lavender, melegueta pepper, mint,
pimento, sage) are (almost) perfect transfers from Latin or Greek and one
(licorice) is an alliteration of the Greek name, which, in turn, represents
the origin of the Latin denomination. One spice name, wasabi, preserves
its Japanese origin. Lemon grass and nutmeg take their name from their
shape and flavour and have no connection whatsoever with the Latin or
Greek origin of the scientific name. Savoury has a special etymology,
since it takes its name from its use, rather than its shape or meaning, as in
most cases.
Also, three of the thirteen herb names we have analysed have a second
or even a third English name. As already mentioned above, pimento or
allspice (a name originating from its flavour) is also called Jamaican
pepper (after the shape of the seeds, the part of the spice used in cooking);
melegueta pepper is also called grains of paradise (the name originating
from the use of the spice for preparing alcoholic beverages); and wasabi is
also called Japanese horseradish (taking its name after its flavour).
Another spice taking its name after its shape is ginger (the Indian name
stringa-vera meaning ‘with a body like a horn’).
When analysing the German and Romanian counterparts of the English
spice names, we found that, of the thirteen analysed spices, four have
literal translations of the English name both in German and Romanian (i.e.
allspice, lemon grass, melegueta pepper and wasabi - Japanese
horseradish) and one has partial translations (nutmeg); in six cases, the
German and the Romanian name have the same Latin origin as the English
name (i.e. anise, cardamom, ginger, lavender, mint, sage). For licorice,
the German and the Romanian names, though having the same meaning (G
Süssholz and R lemn dulce meaning ‘sweet wood’), have no connection
whatsoever with the English name. Savoury is the only herb where there is
no resemblance whatsoever between all three terms belonging to the three
different languages. From a phonetic point of view, in most cases, the
English term was the one undergoing changes, while the Romanian term
was the one to display almost no change.
Conclusions
All world languages (English, German, and Romanian included) have,
at various times in their histor, been enlarged by loanwords from other
languages. Since the 17th and 18th centuries, English settlers and, later,
German travellers and/or scientists encountered and accepted, during their
stays and/or travels, many of the native inhabitants’ names for their flora
and fauna, and also many of the names of their tribal customs and beliefs.
Among them, new types of dishes, new types of cooking, and the use of
spices whose presence continue to make cookbooks and/or menus more
attractive. Although we have analysed only thirteen spice names, we could
notice that most of them take their English name after the Latin scientific
name, which, in turn, originated from the Greek corresponding word. For
almost half of the analysed herbs, the German and Romanian names are
derived from the same Latin or Greek root as the English ones. This is
understandable, since Ancient Greeks were great medicine men and the
Europeans inherited a great part of their medical and herbal knowledge
222 Spices
from them. Another conclusion that can be inferred is that many spice
herbs (but also medical herbs) received a common name (see allspice,
Jamaican pepper, grains of paradise, Japanese horseradish). Few people
were educated in older times, so it was only natural that they named the
herbs after the names of well-known concepts. This tendency can be
noticed in German and Romanian as well, not just in English (for allspice,
for instance, there is the German Allgewürz, which is an exact translation
of the English term; the same goes for grains of paradise and Japanese
horseradish, which display literal translations in both German and
Romanian).
References
the Romanian Language]. (1998). Bucureúti: E.U.E. (DEX)
Encyclopaedia of Spices. Online:
http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/spiceref.html.
Groszler, Astrid-Simone. (2008). Spices: An Etymological Approach.
Journal of Linguistic Studies 1 (2): 29-34.
Guiraud, P. (1964). L’étymologie. [Etymology]. Paris: PUF.
Hristea, T. (1968). Probleme de etimologie. Studii. Articole. Note.
[Etymology issues. Studies. Articles. Notes]. Bucureúti: Editura
ùtiinĠifică.
Király, F. (1988). Etimologia. Etimologii. [Etymology. Etymologies].
Timiúoara: Universitatea din Timiúoara.
Leo Deutsch-Englisches Wörterbuch. [Leo German-English Dictionary].
Online: http://dict.leo.org.
Adams & Co.
Geddes & Grosset. (WUDT)
Sala, F. (1999). Introducere în etimologia limbii române. [Introduction to
Romanian Etymology]. Bucureúti: Editura Univers Enciclopedic.
LAND MEASUREMENT UNITS
GEORGETA RAğĂ AND FLORIN SALA
Introduction
We do not know who uses the greatest variety of units of measurement in
the world. Caught in a slow-moving transition from customary to metric
units, many peoples employ a fascinating and sometimes frustrating
mixture of units in talking about the same thing: thus, they measure the
length of a race in meters, but the length of the long jump event in feet and
inches.
Furthermore, customary units do not always form a consistent system.
Reflecting their diverse roots in a wide variety of cultures, land
measurement units are often confusing and contradictory. But from a
linguistic point of view, there are a few patterns common to many of the
land measurement units used around the world.
Material and Method

In our analysis of land measurement units we have used Russ
Rowlett‘s Dictionary of Units of Measurement (2005), a dictionary that
has attracted users from all over the world. As its author mentions, many
users were kind enough to point out errors, while others suggested
additions and improvements. This paper ranks us among this latter
category.
We have inventoried a number of 79 names of units of land area used
in the past and/or nowadays, as follows: acre [before 1000; < ME aker <
OE acer; cf. L ager ‘field’, Gk agrós ‘field’] (English-speaking countries),
alqueire (Portugal and Brazil), anna (South Asia), arpent [1570-1580; <
MF < L arepennis ‘half-acre’ < Gaulish] (French North America), bigha
(South Asia), bonnier (Belgium), bovate [< L bovis ‘cow’, ‘ox’] (syn.
oxgang) (England], bunder (Holland), caballeria (Spain), cadastral hold
(syn. kataszteri hold) (Hungary), carreau (Haiti), carucate (syn. hide)
[1375-1425; late ME < ML < carrǌcƗta ‘plough, plough team’ (L
travelling carriage, with the sense ‘wheeled plough’ in Gaul] (England),
cawney / cawny [? < Tamil cawney] (India), colp / colpa / collop (BE) [<
224 Land Measurement Units
Ir colpa ‘a unit of livestock equal to one cow or horse or to 6 sheep’]

(Ireland), commercial acre (U.S.A.), cong (Vietnam), cotka / sotka
(Russia), cuerda (syn. Spanish acre) (Puerto Rico), decare / dekare
(worldwide), dessiatina [1790-1800; < Russ desyatȓna ‘tithe, tenth’]
(Russia), dhur (South Asia), djerib / jerib (Middle East, south-western
Asia), donum / dunum [? < Turk donum] (Middle East, the Balkans,
Israel, Palestine, Croatia, former Yugoslavia), fall (worldwide), fanega /
fanegada [1495-1505; < Sp < Ar < faniqah ‘big bag’, ‘large sack’] (Spain,
Latin America), fardel (syn. farthingdale2) [1375-1425; late ME < AF,
OF < OPr < OE, equivalent to fard(a) ‘bundle’ (<< Ar fardah ‘load’ + el]
(England), farthingdale1 [‘a fourth part’] (syn. rood) (England),
farthingdale2 [‘a fourth part’] (syn. fardel) (England), feddan [< Ar
faddƗn ‘yoke of oxen’] (Egypt, Middle East, North Africa), ground
(India), hacienda [1710-1720; < Sp < L facienda ‘things to be done or
made’] (Mexico, south-western U.S.A.), hectare / hektare [1800-1810; <
F] (worldwide), hide [before 900; ME hid(e), hig(i)d ‘portion of land’,
‘family’] (syn. carucate) (England), hold (Hungary), homestead [before
1000] (U.S.A.), Hungarian acre (syn. Magyar hold) (Hungary), Irish
acre (Ireland), jitro [< L jugerum ‘yoke’] (the Czech Republic), joch (pl.
joche) [< G joch ‘yoke’ < L jugerum ‘yoke’] (German speaking
countries), journal (< F jour ‘day’ < L jugerum ‘yoke’) (France), juchart /
juchert [< L jugerum ‘yoke’] (syn. tagwerk) (Germany and German-
speaking Switzerland), jutro (pl. jutra) [< Cr jutro ‘morning’] (Croatia),
kanal (Pakistan), kappland (Sweden), kataszteri hold (syn. cadastral
hold) (Hungary), katta / kattha (South Asia), labor [< Sp labor ‘work’]
(Latin American countries), lanac [< Slav lanac ‘chain’] (former
Yugoslavia), legua (syn. sitio) (Spain), Magyar hold (syn. Hungarian
acre) (Hungary), mål [< N mål ‘measure’] (Norway), manzana [< Sp
manzana ‘apple’ < Sp manzanar ‘orchard’] (Central America), mou / mu
(China), ngarn (Thailand), nook [1250-1300; ME nok] (northern
England), olk (Iraq), oxgang (syn. bovate) (England), rai [< Thai rai
‘field’] (Thailand), rood [before 900; ME; OE rǀd ‘pole, crucifix] (syn.
farthingdale1) (England), ropani (Nepal), sao (Vietnam), sitio (syn.
legua) (Mexico, Texas), soendre (Bhutan), sotka / cotka (Russia),
Spanish acre (syn. cuerda) (Puerto Rico), stang (Wales), stremma
(Greece), tan (Japan), tarea [< Sp tarea ‘job’, ‘task’] (the Dominican
Republic, Central America), tarefa [< Port tarefa ‘job’, ‘task’] (Brazil),
tønde land [< D tønde ‘barrel’] (Denmark), tunnland [< Sw tunn ‘barrel’],
vergee [< F verger ‘orchard’] (the Channel Islands), virgate [1645-1655; <
ML virgƗta (terrae) ‘pertaining to a rod’] (syn. yard of land, yardland)
Georgeta RaĠă and Florin Sala 225
(England), yard of land (syn. virgate) (England), and yardland (syn.

virgate) (England).

A few patterns can be discerned among the land measurement units.
1. Thus, the names of some of the land measurement units are related
to different types of ‘amount’:
- the ‘share’ of an ‘amount’ of land to be worked (4): dessiatina [1790-

1800; < Russ desyatȓna ‘tithe, tenth’] (Russia), farthingdale1 [‘a fourth
part’] (England), farthingdale2 [‘a fourth part’] (England), hig(i)d
‘portion of land’, ‘family’] (England);
- the ‘amount’ of land that could be ploughed in 1 day by 1 yoke of oxen
(4): jitro [< L jugerum ‘yoke’] (the Czech Republic); joch (pl. joche)
[< G joch ‘yoke’ < L jugerum ‘yoke’] (German speaking countries);
juchart / juchert [< L jugerum ‘yoke’] (southern Germany and
German-speaking Switzerland); tagwerk [< G tagwerk ‘day’s work’]
(southern Germany and German-speaking Switzerland);
- the ‘amount’ of land to be worked (3): acre [before 1000; < ME aker <
OE acer; cf. L ager ‘field’, Gk agrós ‘field’] (English-speaking
countries); arpent [1570-1580; < MF < L arepennis ‘half-acre’ <
Gaulish] (French North America), rai [< Thai rai ‘field’] (Thailand);
- the ‘amount’ of land that could be planted with a ‘measure’ of seed (3):
fanega(da) [1495-1505; < Sp < Ar < faniqah ‘big bag’, ‘large sack’]
(Spain, Latin America), with a fanega (about 55.50 litres) of seed;
tønde land [< D tønde ‘barrel’] (Denmark), with a tønde (about 139
liters) of seed; tunnland [< Sw tunn ‘barrel’], with a tunn (about 139
liters) of seed;
- the ‘amount’ of land that could be worked with a certain number of
beasts of burden (3): bovate [< L bovis ‘cow’, ‘ox’] (England], with a
cow / ox; feddan [< Ar faddƗn ‘yoke of oxen’] (Egypt, Middle East,
North Africa), with a yoke of oxen; oxgang (England), with a cow /
ox;
- the ‘job’ to be done (3): hacienda [1710-1720; < Sp < L facienda
‘things to be done or made’] (Mexico, south-western U.S.A.), tarea [<
Sp tarea ‘job’, ‘task’] (the Dominican Republic, Central America);
tarefa [< Port tarefa ‘job’, ‘task’] (Brazil);
- the ‘amount’ of land that could be ploughed in 1 day (1): journal [< F
jour ‘day’] (France);
- the ‘amount’ of land that could be ploughed in 1 day by 1 team of oxen

(1): langdo (Bhutan);
- the ‘amount’ of land that could be ploughed in 1 morning (1): jutro (pl.
jutra) [< Cr jutro ‘morning’] (Croatia);
- the ‘amount’ of land that could be ploughed in 1 morning by 1 yoke of
oxen (1): morgen [< G morgen ‘morning’] (Northern Europe);
- the ‘amount’ of land that could be cultivated by a single farmer /
ploughman (1): labor [< Sp labor ‘work’] (Latin American countries);
- the ‘amount’ of land that could be cultivated by a single farmer /
ploughman + a team of 8 oxen (1): hide [before 900; ME hid(e),
hig(i)d ‘portion of land’, ‘family] (England);
- the ‘amount’ of pastureland supporting a certain unit of livestock (1):
colp(a) / collop [< Ir colpa ‘a unit of livestock equal to one cow or
horse or to 6 sheep’] (Ireland), a colpa (1 cow / horse or to 6 sheep).
2. A few land measurement units are related to types of ‘instruments’

used in working the land:
- the ‘instrument’ the land is marked with (2): rood [before 900; ME;
OE rǀd ‘pole, crucifix] (England), virgate [1645-1655; < ML virgƗta
(terrae) ‘pertaining to a rod’] (syn. yard of land, yardland) (England);
- the ‘instrument’ the land is worked with (1): carucate [1375-1425; late
ME < ML < carrǌcƗta ‘plough, plough team’ < L travelling carriage,
with the sense ‘wheeled plough’ in Gaul] (England).
Conclusions
Of the 79 names of land measurement units, 27 (34%) refer to
different kinds of ‘amount’ related to the working of land (land, number of
beasts, work) and only 3 (4%) refer to types of ‘instruments’ used in land
working (Figure 6-1). For the rest of the terms (62%), Rowlett’s
Dictionary of Units of Measurement (2005) does not supply the
etymology. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that 1/3 of the terms
designating land measurement units refer to ‘amounts’ of:
- land to be worked;
- time units to work the land;
- number of beasts to do the job,
i.e. the things that have ever counted most in agriculturists’ lives.
Georgeta RaĠă and Florin Sala 227
34%
62%
4%
Figure 6-1. Share of land measurement units after ‘meaning’: 34% ‘amount’, 4%
‘instrument’, 62% unknown meaning
References
Publishing Company.
Britannica Online Encyclopaedia. Online:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/259196/hectare.
DicĠionarul explicativ al limbii române. [An Explanatory Dictionary of the
Romanian Language]. (1998). Bucureúti: Editura Univers
Enciclopedic.
English Units. Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_units_of_measurement.
Finnish Units of Measurement. Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_units_of_measurement.
German Units of Measurement. Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_units_of_measurement.
Glossary of Land Records Related Words. Online:
http://etawah.nic.in/bhulekh/land_glossary.htm.

Dictionary]. Bucureúti: Ed. Academiei R.S.R
Longman.
Corporation.
Obsolete Russian Units of Measurement. Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsolete_Russian_units_of_measurement.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Sala, F. (2006). On Land Measurement Units in
Romania and Hungary (A Linguistic Approach). 5th International
Scientific Days of Land Management in the Great Hungarian Plain,
October 26-27, 2006, Mezötúr, Hungary: 1-5.
Romanian Units of Measurement. Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_units_of_measurement
Rowlett, R. (2005). Dictionary of Units of Measurement. Online:
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html.
Adams & Co.
Spanish Customary Units. Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_units_of_measurement.
Swedish Units of Measurement. Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_units_of_measurement.
Britannica, Inc.
York: Random House.
Units of Measurement in France. Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_units_of_measurement.
Units & Systems of Units. Online: http://www.sizes.com/units/index.htm.
Geddes & Grosset.
WORDS OF LATIN ORIGIN IN THE ENGLISH
OF ZOOLOGY
GEORGETA RAğĂ
Introduction
The purpose of the research was to see if there are any patterns in the
naming of animals based on Latin words in contemporary English,
patterns that would make animal names easier to identify and/or learn.
The hypothesis of the research was that, given the fact that all these
names were coined more or less at the dawn of the age of scientific
discovery, in the 17th and 18th centuries, as new words to describe new
knowledge, their naming must have relied on certain patterns.
The background information consisted in what is generally given as
common sense knowledge about scientific names in general and about
zoological names in particular.
Apart from some lists containing English words of Latin origin posted
on Internet sites, there is no exhaustive list of words of Latin origin in the
English of zoology.
Material and Method

The material used in the research consisted of words of Latin origin
specific to the English of zoology that we have picked up from the
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2008), words that
we analysed from an etymological point of view (we were interested only
in the changes in form and meaning) using Harper’s Online Etymology
Dictionary (2001), Partridge’s Origins. A Short Etymological Dictionary
of Modern English (2006), and Glare’s Oxford Latin Dictionary (1983).
As background information of classic culture nature, we used Farrell’s
Latin Language & Latin Culture. From Ancient to Modern Times (2004),
Janson’s Speak. A Short History of Languages (2002). The linguistic
terminology is the one supplied by Chalker & Weiner’s Oxford Dictionary
of English Grammar (1994) and by Sheehan’s Word Parts Dictionary.
230 Words of Latin Origin in the English of Zoology
Standard and Reverse Listings of Prefixes, Suffixes, Roots and Combining

Forms (2000).
Results
Common names of animals are either metonyms (‘words that are used
as substitutes for other words with which they are in close semantic
relationships’ – Chalker & Weiner 1994) or English formations (‘new
words formed other than by compounding’ – Chalker & Weiner 1994).
Metonyms
Metonyms of Latin origin in the English of zoology (a total of 96, i.e.
27%) come from genus names, species names, and common names.
Genus Names. There are 83 (87%) common names from New Latin
genus names of Greek origin: acarus (pl. acari) ‘a mite, especially one of
the genus Acarus’ [< NL Acarus], actinia (pl. actiniae / actinians) ‘a sea
anemone or a related animal’ [< NL Actinia], aedes (pl. aedes) ‘a
mosquito of the genus Aëdes’ [< NL Aëdes], aepyornis ‘a genus of extinct,
large, flightless birds native to Madagascar’ [< NL Aepyornis], alternaria
‘any of various fungi in the genus Alternaria’ [< NL Alternaria],
am(o)eba (pl. amoebas / amoebae) ‘a protozoan of the genus Amoeba or
related genera’ [< NL Amoeba], aphid ‘any of various small, soft-bodied
insects of the family Aphididae’ [< NL Aphis, Aphid-], aphis (pl. aphides)
‘an aphid, especially one of the genus Aphis’ [< NL Aphis], apteryx ‘any
of several flightless birds of the genus Apteryx’ [< NL Apteryx],
archaeopteryx ‘an extinct primitive bird (genus Archaeopteryx)’ [< NL
Archaeopteryx], aspergillus (pl. aspergilli) ‘any of various fungi of the
genus Aspergillus’ [< NL Aspergillus], betta ‘any of various species of
small, brightly coloured, long-finned freshwater fishes of the genus Betta’
[< NL Betta], bilharzia ‘any of several chiefly tropical trematode worms
of the genus Schistosoma’ [< NL Bilharzia, genus name, after Theodor
Bilharz (1825-1862), German physician], botrytis ‘any of various fungi of
the genus Botrytis; noble rot’ [< NL Botrytis], brontosaurus ‘a very large
herbivorous dinosaur of the genus Brontosaurus’ [< NL Brontosaurus],
ceratodus (pl. ceratoduses) ‘any of various extinct lungfishes of the genus
Ceratodus; ‘any of several Australian food fishes’ [< NL Ceratodus],
chimaera ‘a deep-sea cartilaginous fish of the family Chimaeridae; an
organism consisting of two or more tissues of different genetic
composition, produced as a result of mutation, grafting, or the mixture of
cell populations from different zygotes; an organism produced by genetic
Georgeta RaĠă 231
engineering, in which DNA from distinct parent species is combined to

produce an individual with a double chromosome complement’ [< NL
Chimaera], coccidium (pl. coccidia) ‘any of various parasitic protozoans
belonging to the order Coccidia’ [< NL Coccidium], colobus (monkey)
‘any of various large African monkeys of the genus Colobus’ [< NL
Colobus], danio (pl. danios) ‘any of various small, often brightly coloured
freshwater fishes of the genera Danio and Brachydanio’ [< NL Danio],
daphnia (pl. daphnia) ‘any of various water fleas of the genus Daphnia’
[< NL Daphnia], dasyure ‘any of various often carnivorous marsupials of
the family Dasyuridae ‘ [< NL Dasyurus, genus name], dentalium (pl.
dentalia / dentaliums) ‘any of various tooth shells of the genus
Dentalium’ [< NL DentƗlium], diplodocus ‘a very large herbivorous
dinosaur of the genus Diplodocus’ [< NL Diplodocus], drosophila ‘any of
various small fruit flies of the genus Drosophila’ [< NL Drosophila],
dugong ‘a herbivorous marine mammal (Dugong dugon)’ [< NL Dugong],
echinococcus (pl. echinococci) ‘any of several parasitic tapeworms of the
genus Echinococcus’ [< NL Echinococcus], filaria (pl. filariae) ‘any of
various slender, threadlike nematode worms of the superfamily
Filarioidea’ [< NL FƯlƗria], fusarium (pl. fusaria) ‘any of various
pathogenic fungi of the genus Fusarium’ [< NL Fusarium], galago (pl.
galagos) ‘any of several small, nocturnal African primates of the genera
Galago and Euoticus’ [< NL Galago], gambusia ‘any of various small
livebearers of the genus Gambusia’ [< NL Gambusia], gerbil ‘any of
various small, mouse like rodents of the genus Gerbillus and related
genera; the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus)’ [F gerbille < NL
Gerbillus], hydra (pl. hydras / hydrae) ‘any of several small freshwater
polyps of the genus Hydra and related genera’ [< NL Hydra], iguanodon
‘any of various large dinosaurs of the genus Iguanodon’ [< NL
Iguanodon], lemur ‘any of several small arboreal, mostly nocturnal
primates chiefly of the family Lemuridae’ [< NL Lemur], lygus (bug) ‘any
of various North American bugs of the genus Lygus’ [< NL Lygus],
mastodon ‘any of several very large, extinct proboscidian mammals of the
genus Mammut’ [< NL Mastodon], murex (pl. murices / murexes) ‘any of
various marine gastropods of the genus Murex’ [< NL Mǌrex], mysid ‘any
of various small, shrimp like, chiefly marine crustaceans of the order
Mysidacea’ [< NL Mysis, Mysid-], noctiluca ‘any of various
bioluminescent dinoflagellates of the genus Noctiluca’ [< NL Noctilǌca],
notornis (pl. notornis) ‘any of several flightless New Zealand birds, now
rare, of the genus Notornis’ [< NL Notornis], obelia ‘any of various
colonial marine hydroids of the genus Obelia’ [< NL Obelia], octopus (pl.
octopuses / octopi) ‘any of numerous carnivorous marine molluscs of the
genus Octopus or related genera’ [< NL Octopus], panchax ‘any of

various small, brightly coloured Old World tropical fishes of the genus
Aplocheilus and related genera’ [< NL Panchax, genus name],
paramecium (pl. paramecia / parameciums) ‘any of various freshwater
ciliate protozoans of the genus Paramecium’ [< NL ParamƝcium],
peripatus ‘any of numerous wormlike carnivorous animals of the phylum
Onychophora’ [< NL Peripatus], phalanger ‘any of various small arboreal
marsupials of the family Phalangeridae’ [< NL Phalanger], phylloxera (pl.
phylloxerae) ‘any of several small insects of the genus Phylloxera’ [< NL
Phylloxera], pithecanthropus ‘an extinct primate postulated from bones
found in Java in 1891 and originally designated Pithecanthropus erectus’
[< NL Pithecanthropus], plasmodium (pl. plasmodia) ‘a multinucleate
mass of cytoplasm formed by the aggregation of a number of amoeboid
cells, as that characteristic of the vegetative phase of the slime moulds; a
protozoan of the genus Plasmodium’ [< NL Plasmodium], plesiosaurus
(pl. plesiosaurs / plesiosauri) ‘a large extinct marine reptile’ [< NL
Plesiosaurus], psylla ‘any of various jumping plant lice of the family
Psyllidae’ [< NL Psylla], pyrrhuloxia ‘a large, crested finch (Pyrrhuloxia
sinuata)’ [< NL Pyrrhuloxia], quelea ‘an African weaverbird of the genus
Quelea’ [< NL Quelea], rasbora ‘any of various tropical fishes of the
genus Rasbora’ [< NL Rasbora], rhea ‘any of several flightless South
American birds of the genus Rhea’ [< NL Rhea], rhizopus ‘any of various
rot-causing fungi of the genus Rhizopus’ [< NL Rhizopus], saccharomyces
(pl. saccharomyces) ‘any of several single-celled yeasts belonging to the
genus Saccharomyces’ [< NL SaccharomycƝs], salpa ‘any of various free-
swimming chordates of the genus Salpa’ [< NL Salpa], simulium ‘any of
a genus (Simulium) of black flies’ [< NL Simulium], sinanthropus ‘an
early member of an extinct species of human beings, considered a
subspecies of Homo erectus’ [< NL Sinanthropus, genus name], smilodon
‘any of the large sabre-toothed tigers of the genus Smilodon’ [< NL
smilodon], solenodon ‘a large ratline insectivorous mammal of the family
Solenodontidae’ [< NL SolƝnodon], squilla (pl. squillas / squillae) ‘any of
various burrowing predatory marine crustaceans of the order
Stomatopoda’ [< NL Squilla], stegodon ‘any of various extinct elephant
like mammals of the genus Stegodon and related genera’ [< NL Stegodon],
stegosaurus ‘any of several herbivorous dinosaurs of the suborder
Stegosauria’ [< NL Stegosaurus], streptomyces (pl. streptomyces) ‘any of
various actinomycetes of the genus Streptomyces’ [< NL Streptomyces],
syrphus (fly) ‘any of numerous flies of the family Syrphidae’ [< NL
Syrphus], tachina (fly) any of several bristly, usually greyish dipterous
flies of the family Tachinidae’ [< NL Tachina], teredo (pl. teredos) ‘a
Georgeta RaĠă 233
shipworm of the genus Teredo’ [< NL TerƝdo], tilapia ‘any of various

cichlid fishes of the genus Tilapia’ [< NL Tilapia], tortrix ‘a moth of the
family Tortricidae; a tortricid’ [< NL Tortrix], torula (pl. torulae / torulas)
‘any of a group of fungi similar to the yeasts but lacking asci’ [< NL
Torula], treponema (pl. treponemata / treponemas) ‘any of a group of
spirochetes of the genus Treponema’ [< NL Treponema], triceratops ‘a
herbivorous dinosaur of the genus Triceratops’ [< NL Triceratops],
trichina (pl. trichinae / trichinas) ‘a small, slender parasitic nematode
worm (Trichinella spiralis)’ [< NL Trichina], trichomonad ‘any of
various flagellate protozoans of the genus Trichomonas’ [< NL
Trichomonas, Trichomonad-], tubifex (pl. tubifex / tubifexes) ‘any of
various small, slender, reddish freshwater worms of the genus Tubifex’ [<
NL Tubifex], tyrannosaurus ‘a large carnivorous dinosaur’ [< NL
Tyrannosaurus], uncinaria ‘any of numerous small parasitic nematode
worms of the family Ancylostomatidae’ [< NL UncƯnria], vorticella (pl.
vorticellae / vorticellas) ‘any of various ciliate protozoans of the genus
Vorticella’ [< NL Vorticella], zamia ‘any of various chiefly tropical
American cycads of the genus Zamia’ [< NL Zamia], and zyzzyva ‘any of
various tropical American weevils of the genus Zyzzyva’ [< NL Zyzzyva].
Species Names. Only 3 (3%) common names come from species
names: cecropia (moth) ‘a large North American silkworm moth
(Hyalophora cecropia)’ [< NL cecropia, species name], luna (moth) ‘a
large, pale-green North American moth (Actias luna)’ [< NL lǌna, species
name], and vivax ‘the protozoan (Plasmodium vivax); malaria caused by
this protozoan’ [< NL vƯvƗx, species name].
Common Names. Ten (10%) Latin common names designate different
animal species in contemporary English: astragalus (pl. astragali) ‘the
bone of the ankle that articulates with the tibia and fibula to form the ankle
joint’ [< NL astragalus ‘vertebra’], cuscus ‘any of several nocturnal
marsupials of the genus Phalanger’ [< NL cuscus, probably from a New
Guinean word], eohippus ‘a small, herbivorous, extinct mammal of the
genus Hyracotherium (or Eohippus)’ [< NL eohippus ‘small horse’],
glochidium (pl. glochidia) ‘the parasitic larva of certain freshwater
mussels of the family Unionidae’ [< NL glochidium ‘a special larval
stage’], gorilla ‘the largest of the anthropoid apes (Gorilla gorilla)’ [< NL
Gorilla < Gk Gorillai ‘a tribe of hairy women, perhaps of African origin’],
Homo sapiens ‘the modern species of human beings’ [< NL Homo
sapiƝns: Homo, genus name + L sapiƝns, present participle of sapere ‘to
be wise’], ichthyosaur(us) (pl. ichthyosaurs / ichthyosauri) ‘any of
various extinct fishlike marine reptiles of the order Ichthyosauria’ [< NL
ichthyosaurus], motmot ‘any of several tropical American birds of the
family Momotidae’ [< NL motmot, probably of imitative origin], platypus

(pl. platypuses) ‘a semi aquatic egg-laying mammal (Ornithorhynchus
anatinus)’ [< NL platypus ‘flat-footed’], and skua ‘any of several large
predatory sea birds of the genus Catharacta; any of several Arctic and
Boreal sea birds of the genus Stercorarius’ [< NL skua, alteration of
Faroese *skǌvur < ON skǌfr ‘tassel, sea gull’].
English Formations
There are four types of formations in our corpus of words of Latin
origin belonging to the English of zoology:
- backformations (new words formed by the removal of real or

apparent affixes from existing words);
- derivatives (words formed from other words by a process of
derivation, i.e. by addition of affixes such as prefixes or suffixes –
Chalker & Weiner 1994);
- compounds (words formed by combining two or more bases or free
morphemes – Chalker & Weiner 1994);
- blend / portmanteau words or lexical / word blends (words formed
by the merging of parts of two other linguistic elements – Chalker &
Weiner 1994).
Backformations. There are 152 (60%) backformations in our corpus:

acarid ‘an arachnid of the order Acarina’ [< NL Acaridae, family name],
amphipod ‘a small crustacean of the order Amphipoda’ [< NL
Amphipoda, order name], annelid ‘any of various worms or wormlike
animals of the phylum Annelida’ [< NL Annelida, phylum name],
arachnid ‘any of various arthropods of the class Arachnida’ [< NL
Arachnida, class name], arachnoid ‘any of various arthropods of the class
Arachnida’ [< NL arachnoidƝs < Gk arakhnoeidƝs ‘cobweb like’],
arthropod ‘any of numerous invertebrate animals of the phylum
Arthropoda’ [< NL Arthropoda, phylum name], artiodactyl ‘any of
various hoofed mammals of the order Artiodactyla’ [< NL Artiodactyla,
order name], bombycid ‘a moth of the family Bombycidae’ [< NL
Bombycidae, family name], bovid ‘a member of the family Bovidae’ [<
NL Bovidae, family name], brachiopod ‘any of various marine
invertebrates of the phylum Brachiopoda’ [< NL BrƗchiopoda, phylum
name], braconid ‘any of several ichneumon flies of the family
Braconidae’ [< NL Braconidae, family name], branchiopod ‘any of
various aquatic crustaceans of the subclass Branchiopoda’ [< NL
Georgeta RaĠă 235
Branchiopoda, subclass name], buprestid ‘any of various beetles of the

family Buprestidae’ [< NL BǌprƝstidae, family name], canid ‘any of
various widely distributed carnivorous mammals of the family Canidae’ [<
NL Canidae, family name], carabid ‘any of a large family (Carabidae) of
chiefly black beetles’ [< NL CƗrabidae, family name], carangid ‘any of a
large family (Carangidae) of marine food and game fishes’ [< NL
Carangidae, family name], cephalochordate ‘any of various primitive
chordate animals of the subphylum Cephalochordata’ [< NL
Cephalochordata, subphylum name], cephalopod ‘any of various marine
molluscs of the class Cephalopoda’ [< NL Cephalopoda, class name],
cestode ‘any of various parasitic flatworms of the class Cestoda’ [< NL
Cestoda, class name], chaetognath ‘any of various marine worms of the
phylum Chaetognatha’ [< NL Chaetognatha, phylum name], chalicothere
‘any of various extinct ungulate mammals of the Eocene to Pleistocene
epochs’ [< NL Chalicotherium, genus name], characid / characin ‘any of
numerous small, colourful tropical freshwater fish of the family
Characidae’ [< NL Characinidae, family name], chilopod ‘any of various
arthropods of the class Chilopoda’ [< NL ChƯlopoda, class name],
chiropter ‘a mammal that is a member of the order Chiroptera’ [< NL
Chiroptera, order name], chordate ‘any of numerous animals belonging to
the phylum Chordata’ [< NL ChordƗta, phylum name], cirriped(e) ‘any of
various crustaceans of the subclass Cirripedia’ [< NL Cirripedia], coccid
‘any of various insects of the superfamily Coccoidea’ [< NL Coccidae,
family name], coelacanth ‘any of various mostly extinct fishes of the
order Coelacanthiformes’ [< NL Coelacanthus, genus name], colubrid
‘any of numerous, widely distributed, chiefly nonvenomous snakes of the
family Colubridae’ [< NL Colubridae, family name], comatulid /
comatula (pl. comatulids / comatulae) ‘any of various marine
invertebrates of the class Crinoidea’ [< NL ComƗtulidae, family name],
copepod ‘any of numerous minute marine and freshwater crustaceans of
the subclass Copepoda’ [< NL Copepoda, order name], creodont ‘any of
various extinct carnivorous mammals of the suborder Creodonta’ [< NL
Creodonta, suborder name], cricetid ‘any of various small rodents of the
family Cricetidae’ [< NL Cricetidae, family name], crinoid ‘any of
various echinoderms of the class Crinoidea’ [< NL Crinoidea, class
name], ctenophore ‘any of various marine animals of the phylum
Ctenophora’ [< NL Ctenophora, phylum name], cyclostome ‘any of
various primitive eel like vertebrates of the class Agnatha’ [< NL
CyclostomƯ and Cyclostomata, class names], cyprinid ‘any of numerous
often small freshwater fishes of the family Cyprinidae’ [< NL CyprƯnidae,
family name], cyprinoid ‘a cyprinoid fish’ [< NL CyprƯnoidƝa, suborder
name], decapod ‘a crustacean of the order Decapoda; a cephalopod

mollusc’ [< NL Decapoda, order name], dinothere ‘any of various extinct
elephant like mammals of the genus Dinotherium’ [< NL Dinotherium,
genus name], elapid ‘any of several venomous snakes of the family
Elapidae’ [< NL Elapidae, family name], elasmobranch ‘any of numerous
fishes of the class Chondrichthyes’ [< NL Elasmobranchii, subclass
name], elaterid ‘any of numerous beetles of the family Elateridae’ [< NL
ElatƝridae, family name], ephemerid ‘an insect of the order
Ephemeroptera’ [< NL Ephemeridae, order name], eurypterid ‘any of
various large, segmented aquatic arthropods of the order Eurypterida’ [<
NL Eurypterida, order name], ganoid ‘a ganoid fish’ [< NL Ganoidei,
subclass name], gastropod ‘any of various molluscs of the class
Gastropoda’ [< NL Gastropoda, class name], gastrotrich ‘any of various
minute aquatic animals of the phylum Gastrotricha’ [< NL Gastrotricha,
phylum name], geometrid ‘any of various moths of the family
Geometridae’ [< NL Geometridae, family name], grackle ‘any of several
American blackbirds of the family Icteridae; ‘any of several Asian mynas
of the genus Gracula’ [< NL GrƗcula, genus name], hadrosaur ‘any of
various amphibious dinosaurs of the genus Anatosaurus and related
genera’ [< NL Hadrosaurus, genus name], hexapod ‘a six-legged
arthropod of the class Insecta (formerly Hexapoda); an insect’ [< NL
Hexapoda, class name], hominid ‘a primate of the family Hominidae’ [<
NL Hominidae, family name], hominoid ‘a member of the Hominoidea’
[< NL Hominoidea, superfamily name], ichthyosaur (pl. ichthyosaurs /
ichthyosauri) ‘any of various extinct fishlike marine reptiles of the order
Ichthyosauria’ [< NL ichthyosaurus], isopod ‘any of numerous crustaceans
of the order Isopoda’ [< NL Isopoda, order name], lagomorph ‘any of
various plant-eating mammals having fully furred feet and two pairs of
upper incisors and belonging to the order Lagomorpha’ [< NL
Lagomorpha, order name], lamellibranch ‘any of the bivalve molluscs of
the class Lamellibranchia’ [< NL LƗmellibranchia, class name], mantid
‘any of various predatory insects of the family Mantidae’ [< NL Mantidae,
family name], megalosaur A gigantic carnivorous dinosaur of the genus
Megalosaurus’ [< NL Megalosaurus, genus name], megapode ‘any of
various large-footed, ground-dwelling birds of the family Megapodiidae’
[< Megapodius, genus name], megathere ‘a large extinct ground sloth of
the family Megatheriidae’ [< NL Megatherium, type genus], meloid ‘any
of various soft-bodied beetles of the family Meloidae’ [< NL Meloidae,
family name], monotreme ‘a member of the Monotremata’ [< NL
Monotremata, order name], mosasaur ‘any of various very large extinct
aquatic lizards of the genus Mosasaurus’ [< NL Mosasaurus, genus
Georgeta RaĠă 237
name], muscid ‘a fly of the family Muscidae’ [< NL Muscidae, family

name], myriapod / myriopod ‘any of several arthropods’ [< NL
Myriapoda, class name], mysticete ‘any of several usually large whales of
the suborder Mysticeti’ [< NL mysticƝtus < Gk mustikƯtos, alteration of
(ho) mus to kƯtos ‘(the) whale (called) the mouse’], nautiloid ‘a mollusc of
the subclass Nautiloidea’ [< NL Nautiloidea, subclass name], nematode
‘any of several worms of the phylum Nematoda’ [< NL NƝmatoda,
phylum name], noctuid ‘any of numerous, usually dull-coloured night-
flying moths of the family Noctuidae’[< NL Noctuidae, family name],
nudibranch ‘any of various highly colourful marine gastropods of the
suborder Nudibranchia’ [< NL Nudibranchia, order name], nummulite ‘a
large, coin-shaped, fossil foraminifer of the genus Nummulites’ [< NL
NummulƯtƝs, genus name], nymphalid ‘any of various medium to large
butterflies of the family Nymphalidae’ [< NL NymphƗlidae, family name],
octopod ‘any of various cephalopod molluscs of the order Octopoda’ [<
NL Octopoda, order name], odonate ‘any of the large predacious winged
insects of the order Odonata’ [< NL Odonata, order name], oligoch(a)ete
‘any of various annelid worms of the class Oligochaeta’ [< NL
Oligochaeta, class name], ophiuroid ‘any of various marine organisms of
the class Ophiuroidea’ [< NL Ophiǌroidea, class name], opisthobranch
(pl. opisthobranchs) ‘any of various marine gastropod molluscs of the
subclass or order Opisthobranchia’ [< NL Opisthobranchia, order name],
oscine ‘a bird of the suborder Oscines’ [< NL OscinƯs, suborder name],
ostracod ‘any of various minute, chiefly freshwater crustaceans of the
subclass Ostracoda’ [< NL Ostracoda, subclass name], pelecypod ‘any of
the bivalve molluscs of the class Lamellibranchia’ [< NL Pelecypoda,
class name], pentastome ‘any of numerous tongue-shaped, soft-bodied,
colourless invertebrates of the phylum Pentastoma’ [< NL Pentastomum,
genus name], percoid ‘a fish belonging to the suborder Percoidea’ [< NL
Percoidea, suborder name], perissodactyl ‘a hoofed mammal of the order
Perissodactyla’ [< NL Perissodactyla, order name], phasmid ‘any of
various insects of the order Phasmida’ [< NL Phasmida, order name],
phoronid ‘any of the small, wormlike marine animals of the phylum
Phoronida’ [< NL Phoronida, phylum name], pinniped ‘a mammal of the
suborder Pinnipedia’ [< NL Pinnipedia, order name], platyrrhine ‘a
platyrrhine monkey’ [< NL Platyrrhina, group name], platy2 (pl. platys /
platies) ‘any of several small freshwater live bearing fishes of the genus
Xiphophorus’ [NL Platypoecilus, genus name], platyhelminth ‘any of
various parasitic and nonparasitic worms of the phylum Platyhelminthes’
[< NL Platyhelminthes, phylum name], plectognath ‘any of various
tropical marine fishes of the order Tetraodontiformes or Plectognathi’ [<
NL PlectognathƯ, order name], plesiosaur [< NL Plesiosaurus, genus

name], pogonophore ‘any of various wormlike marine invertebrates of the
phylum Pogonophora’ [< NL Pogonophora, phylum name], polych(a)ete
‘any of various annelid worms of the class Polychaeta’ [< NL Polychaeta,
class name], pongid ‘an anthropoid ape of the family Pongidae’ [< NL
Pongidae, family name], pratincole ‘any of several Old World shore birds
of the genus Glareola’ [< NL prƗtincola < L prƗtum ‘meadow’ + L incola
‘inhabitant’], primate ‘a mammal of the order Primates’ [< NL PrƯmƗtes,
order name], psocid ‘any of various small, soft-bodied, sometimes winged
insects of the order Psocoptera’ [< NL Psocidae, family name],
pterodactyl ‘any of various small, mostly tailless, extinct flying reptiles of
the order Pterosauria’ [< NL Pterodactylus, genus name], pteropod ‘any of
various small marine gastropod molluscs of the subclass Opisthobranchia’
[< NL Pteropoda, order name], pterosaur ‘any of various extinct flying
reptiles of the order Pterosauria’ [< NL Pterosauria, order name],
pycnogonid ‘any of various marine arthropods of the class Pycnogonida’
[< NL Pycnogonidae, family name], pyralid ‘any of numerous small or
medium-sized moths of the diverse, widely distributed family Pyralidae’
[< NL Pyralidae, family name], reduviid ‘any of various predatory bugs of
the family Reduviidae’ [< NL Reduviidae, family name], rhizopod ‘a
protozoan of the phylum Rhizopoda’ [< NL Rhizopoda, phylum name],
rodent ‘any of various mammals of the order Rodentia’ [< NL Rodentia,
order name], rotifer ‘any of various minute multicellular aquatic
organisms of the phylum Rotifera’ [< NL Rotifera, phylum name], salp
‘any of various free-swimming chordates of the genus Salpa’ [< NL Salpa,
genus name], saturniid ‘any of various often large and colourful moths of
the family Saturniidae’ [< NL SƗturniidae, family name], satyrid ‘a
butterfly of the family Satyridae’ [< NL Satyridae, family name],
sauropod ‘any of various large semi aquatic dinosaurs of the suborder
Sauropoda’ [< NL Sauropoda, suborder name], scarabaeid ‘any of the
numerous stout-bodied, lamellicorn beetles of the family Scarabaeidae’ [<
NL Scarabaeidae, family name], schistosome ‘any of several chiefly
tropical trematode worms of the genus Schistosoma’ [< NL Schistosoma,
genus name], schizopod ‘any of various shrimp like crustaceans of the
orders Euphausiacea and Mysidacea’ [< NL Schizopoda, order name],
sciurid ‘a sciurid rodent’ [< NL Sciǌridae, family name], scolopendrid
‘any of numerous centipedes of the family Scolopendridae’ [< NL
Scolopendridae, family name], scombroid ‘a scombroid fish’ [< NL
Scombroidei, suborder name], scorpaenid [< NL Scorpaenoidei, suborder
name], scorpaenoid ‘a scorpaenoid fish’ [< NL Scorpaenoidei, suborder
name], serotine ‘any of a widely distributed genus (Eptesicus) of usually
Georgeta RaĠă 239
small brown bats’ [< NL sƝrotinus, species name], serranid ‘any of

various fishes of the family Serranidae’ [< NL Serranidae, family name],
silurid ‘a silurid fish’ [< NL Silǌridae, family name], siphonophore ‘any
of various transparent, often subtly coloured marine hydrozoans of the
order Siphonophora’[< NL Siphonophora, order name], sparid ‘a member
of the Sparidae’ [< NL Sparidae, family name], sphingid ‘a moth of the
family Sphingidae; a hawk moth’ [< NL Sphingidae, family name],
staphylinid ‘any of numerous beetles of the family Staphylinidae’ [< NL
Staphylinidae, family name], stomatopod ‘any of various marine
crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda’ [< NL Stomatopoda, order name],
strongly(e) ‘any of various nematode worms of the family Strongylidae’
[< NL Strongylus, genus name], syrphid ‘any of numerous flies of the
family Syrphidae’ [< NL Syrphidae, family name], tabanid ‘any of
various bloodsucking dipterous flies of the family Tabanidae’ [< NL
TabƗnidae, family name], tanager ‘any of various small New World
passerine birds of the family Thraupidae’ [< NL tanagra], teiid ‘a lizard of
the family Teiidae’ [< NL Teiidae, family name], teleost ‘a teleost fish’ [<
NL Teleostei, group name], tenebrionid ‘a beetle of the family
Tenebrionidae’ [< NL Tenebrionidae, family name], testudinate ‘a turtle
or tortoise’ [< NL TestǌdinƗta, order name], tetra ‘any of numerous small,
colourful tropical freshwater fish of the family Characidae’ [NL
Tetragonopterini, group name], tetrabranchiate ‘a tetrabranchiate
cephalopod’ [< NL TetrabranchiƗta, order name], therapsid ‘any of
various reptiles of the order Therapsida’ [< NL ThƝrapsida, order name],
theropod ‘any of various carnivorous dinosaurs of the suborder
Theropoda’ [< NL Theropoda, suborder name], thylacine ‘a large wolf
like carnivorous marsupial (Thylacinus cynocephalus)’ [< NL Thylacinus,
genus name], titanosaur ‘any of various plant-eating, amphibious
sauropod dinosaurs of the genus Titanosaurus’ [< NL Titanosaurus, genus
name], titanothere ‘any of various extinct herbivorous hoofed mammals of
the genus Brontotherium and related genera’ [< NL Titanotherium, genus
name], tortricid ‘any of various small, thick-bodied moths of the family
Tortricidae’ [< NL Tortricidae, family name], trematode ‘any of
numerous flatworms of the class Trematoda’ [< NL Trematoda, class
name], trilobite ‘any of numerous extinct marine arthropods of the class
Trilobita’ [< NL TrilobƯtƝs, class name], trypanosome ‘any of various
parasitic flagellate protozoans of the genus Trypanosoma’ [< NL
Trypanosoma, genus name], tyrannosaur ‘a large carnivorous dinosaur’
[< NL Tyrannosaurus, genus name], urodele ‘any of various amphibians
of the order Caudata’ [< NL ǋrodƝla, order name], vespertilionid ‘any of
various widely distributed insect-eating bats of the family
Vespertilionidae’ [< NL Vespertilionidae, family name], vespid ‘any of

various widely distributed social insects of the family Vespidae’ [< NL
Vespidae, family name], and viverrid ‘a member of the Viverridae’ [< NL
VƯverridae, family name].
Derivatives. There are 101 (40%) suffixed derivatives of Latin origin
in the English of zoology, and some of the affixes (-al, -an, -ate, etc.)
seem to have specialised to designate ‘animals’:
- -al ‘of, relating to, or characterized by’ (1): brachyural ‘a member of

the Brachyura’ [< NL Brachyura, suborder name + -al];
- -an ‘of, relating to, or resembling’ (75): acanthocephalan ‘any of
various worms of the phylum Acanthocephala’ [< NL Acanthocephala
+ -an], acanthopterygian ‘any of a large group of fishes of the super
order Acanthopterygii’ [< NL Acanthopterygii + -an], actinian (pl.
actiniae / actinians) ‘a sea anemone or a related animal’ [< NL Actinia
+ -an], amphibian ‘a cold-blooded, smooth-skinned vertebrate of the
class Amphibia; an animal capable of living both on land and in water’
[< NL Amphibia + -an], annelidan ‘any of various worms or wormlike
animals of the phylum Annelida’ [< NL Annelida + -an], anuran ‘an
amphibian of the order Salientia (formerly Anura or Batrachia)’ [< NL
Anura, order name + -an], aphidian [< NL Aphis, Aphid- + -an],
arachnidan [< NL Arachnida + -an], ascidian ‘any of various
sedentary marine animals of the class Ascidiacea’ [< NL Ascidia + -
an], baluchithere ‘a very large, extinct rhinoceros like mammal of the
genus Baluchitherium’ [< Baluchi(stan) + -there ‘an extinct mammal’],
brachyuran ‘a member of the Brachyura’ [< NL Brachyura, suborder
name + -an], bryozoan ‘any of various small aquatic animals of the
phylum Bryozoa’ [< NL Bryozoa, phylum name + -an], cephalopodan
[< NL Cephalopoda + -an], cetacean ‘any of various aquatic, chiefly
marine mammals of the order Cetacea’ [< NL CƝtƗcea + -an],
chelonian ‘a reptile of the order Chelonia’ [< NL Chelonia + -an],
chiropteran ‘a mammal that is a member of the order Chiroptera’ [<
NL Chiroptera + -an], cladoceran ‘any of various small, mostly
freshwater crustaceans of the order Cladocera’ [< NL Cladocera + -
an], coleopteran / coleopteron ‘any of numerous insects of the order
Coleoptera’ [< NL Coleoptera + -an], crossopterygian ‘a member of
the Crossopterygii, a group of bony fishes ‘ [< NL Crossopterygia + -
an], crustacean ‘any of various predominantly aquatic arthropods of
the class Crustacea’ [< NL CrustƗcea + -an], dermapteran ‘any of
various insects of the order Dermaptera’ [< NL Dermaptera + -an],
dibranchiate ‘a member of the order Dibranchiata’ [< NL
Georgeta RaĠă 241
Dibranchiata + -ate], dipnoan ‘any of various fishes of the group

Dipnoi’ [< NL Dipnoi + -an], entomostracan ‘any of various small
crustaceans formerly constituting the subclass Entomostraca’ [< NL
Entomostraca + -an], foraminifer(an) (pl. foraminifera /
foraminifers) ‘any of the chiefly marine protozoans of the order
Foraminifera’ [< NL ForƗminifera + -an], heliozoan ‘any of various
aquatic protozoans of the order Heliozoa’ [< NL Heliozoa + -an],
hydrozoan ‘any of numerous coelenterates of the class Hydrozoa’ [<
NL Hydrozoa + -an], hymenopter·an / hymenopteron ‘an insect of the
order Hymenoptera’ [< NL Hymenoptera + -an], lepidopteran ‘an
insect belonging to the large order Lepidoptera’ [< NL Lepidoptera + -
an], mastigophoran ‘any of various protozoans of the class
Mastigophora’ [< NL Mastigophora + -an], mecopteran ‘any of
various carnivorous insects of the order Mecoptera’ [< NL Mecoptera
+ -an], megalosaurian [< E megalosaur + -an], metazoan ‘a
multicellular animal of the subkingdom Metazoa’ [< NL Metazoa + -
an], moneran ‘a member of the kingdom Monera (or Prokaryotae)’ [<
NL MonƝra + -an], monogenean ‘any of various trematodes of the
order Monogenea’ [< NL Monogenea + -an], nemertean / nemertine
‘any of several velvety, usually brightly coloured worms of the phylum
Nemertina (or Nemertea)’ [< NL NƝmertƝs + -an], neuropteran ‘a
carnivorous insect of the order Neuroptera’ [< NL Neuroptera + -an],
nudibranchian [< NL Nudibranchia + -an], onychophoran ‘any of
numerous wormlike carnivorous animals of the phylum Onychophora’
[< NL Onychophora + -an], ophidian ‘a member of the suborder
Ophidia or Serpentes; a snake’ [< NL Ophidia + -an], ornithischian ‘a
dinosaur of the order Ornithischia’ [< NL Ornithischia + -an],
orthopteran / orthopteron ‘an insect of the order Orthoptera’ [< NL
Orthoptera + -an], percoidean ‘a fish belonging to the suborder
Percoidea’ [< NL Percoidea + -an], phylloxeran [< NL Phylloxera + -
an], planarian ‘any of various small, chiefly freshwater turbellarian
flatworms of the order Tricladida’ [< NL PlƗnƗria + -an],
platyrrhinian ‘a platyrrhine monkey’ [< NL Platyrrhina, group name],
plecopteran ‘any of numerous weak-flying insects of the order
Plecoptera’ [< NL Plecoptera + -an], pogonophoran ‘any of various
wormlike marine invertebrates of the phylum Pogonophora’ [< NL
Pogonophora + -an], polyzoan ‘any of various small aquatic animals
of the phylum Bryozoa’ [< NL Polyzoa + -an], poriferan ‘any of
various members of the phylum Porifera’[< NL Porifera + -an],
proboscidean / proboscidian ‘a mammal of the order Proboscidea’ [<
NL Proboscidea + -an], prosimian ‘a primate of the suborder
Prosimii’ [< NL ProsƯmiƯ + -an], protozoan / protozoon (pl.

protozoa(ns) / protozoons) ‘any of a large group of single-celled,
usually microscopic, eukaryotic organisms’ [< NL Protozoa + -an],
pteropodan [< NL Pteropoda + -an], radiolarian ‘any of various
marine protozoans of the order Radiolaria’ [< NL RadiolƗria + -an],
rhizocephalan ‘any of various small aquatic crustaceans of the order
Rhizocephala’ [< NL Rhizocephala + -an], rhizopodan [< NL
Rhizopoda + -an], rhynchocephalian ‘a rhynchocephalian reptile’ [<
NL Rhynchocephalia + -an], salientian ‘an amphibian of the order
Salientia’ [< NL Salientia + -an], sarcodinian ‘a protozoan belonging
to the super class Sarcodina’ [< NL SarcodƯna + -an], saurian ‘any of
various reptiles of the suborder Sauria’ [< New L Sauria + -an],
saurischian ‘a dinosaur of the order Saurischia’ [< NL Saurischia + -
an], scyphozoan ‘any of various marine coelenterates of the class
Scyphozoa’ [< NL Scyphozoa + -an], selachian ‘a member of this
order’ [Probably < NL SelachiƯ + -an], sertularian ‘any of various
colonial hydroids of the genus Sertularia’ [< NL Sertularia + -an],
sirenian ‘any of several large, cylindrical, herbivorous marine
mammals of the order Sirenia’ [< NL SƯrƝnia + -an], sporozoan ‘any
of numerous parasitic protozoans of the class Sporozoa’ [< NL
Sporozoa + -an], suctorian ‘a protozoan of the class Suctoria’ [< NL
Suctoria + -an], teleostean ‘a teleost fish’ [< NL Teleostei + -an],
testacean ‘any of various rhizopods of the order Testacea’ [< NL
TestƗcea + -an], theropodan [< NL Theropoda + -an], thysanuran ‘a
wingless insect of the order Thysanura’ [< NL Thysanura + -an],
trichopteran ‘an insect of the order Trichoptera’ [< NL Trichoptera + -
an], turbellarian ‘any of various free-living chiefly aquatic ciliate
flatworms of the class Turbellaria’ [< NL TurbellƗria + -an], and
xiphosuran ‘an arthropod of the order Xiphosura’ [< NL Xiphosǌra + -
an];
- -ate ‘characterized by’ (3): coelenterate ‘any of various invertebrate
animals of the phylum Coelenterata’ [< NL Coelenterata + -ate],
dinoflagellate ‘any of numerous minute, chiefly marine protozoans of
the order Dinoflagellata’ [< NL Dinoflagellata + -ate], nudibranchiate
[< NL Nudibranchia + -ate];
- -iasis ‘a pathological condition characterized or produced by’ (1):
histomoniasis ‘an infectious disease of turkeys and some wildfowl that
is caused by a protozoan (Histomonas meleagridis)’ [< NL
Histomonas];
- -ine ‘of or relating to’ (5): australopithecine ‘any of several extinct
humanlike primates of the genus Australopithecus’ [< NL
Georgeta RaĠă 243
AustralopithƝcus + -ine], dryopithecine ‘an extinct ape of the genus

Dryopithecus’ [< NL DryopithƯcus + -ine], gregarine ‘any of various
sporozoan protozoans of the order Gregarinida’ [< NL GregarƯna + -
ine], rusine (antler) ‘an antler with three tines, as that of the sambar’
[< NL Rusa + -ine], and viverrine ‘a member of the Viverridae’ [< NL
vƯverrƯnus + -ine];
- -ite ‘resident of’ (1): termite ‘any of numerous pale-coloured, usually
soft-bodied social insects of the order Isoptera’ [< NL Termes + -ite];
- -(o)id ‘resembling; having the appearance of; related to’ (10):
acanthocephalid ‘any of various worms of the phylum
Acanthocephala’ [< NL Acanthocephal + -id], chalcid ‘any of various
minute wasps of the superfamily Chalcidoidea’ [< NL Chalcis + -id],
chrysomelid ‘any of various beetles of the family Chrysomelidae’ [<
NL Chrysomela + -id], cichlid ‘any of various tropical and subtropical
freshwater fishes of the family Cichlidae’ [< NL Cichla + -id], clupeid
‘any of various widely distributed soft-finned fishes of the family
Clupeidae’ [< NL Clupeidae + -id], gad(o)id ‘a fish of the family
Gadidae’ [< NL Gadus + -oid], psyllid ‘any of various jumping plant
lice of the family Psyllidae’ [< NL Psylla + -id], pyralidid ‘any of
numerous small or medium-sized moths of the diverse, widely
distributed family Pyralidae’ [< NL Pyralidae + -id], sciaenid [< NL
Sciaena + -id], and sciaenoid ‘a sciaenoid fish’ [< NL Sciaena + -id];
- -ous ‘possessing; full of; characterized by’ (1): brachyurous ‘a
member of the Brachyura’ [< NL Brachyura, suborder name + -ous].
It is not very clear what the ending -y means, since none of the meanings
supplied by language dictionaries fits the following derivatives (4
occurrences): cavy (pl. cavies) ‘any of various tailless South American
rodents of the family Caviidae; ‘any of various similar or related rodents’
[< NL Cavia, genus name + -y], platyrrhiny [< NL Platyrrhina + -y],
saury (pl. sauries) ‘any of several offshore marine fishes of the family
Scomberesocidae’ [< NL saurus + -y], and tody (pl. todies) ‘any of various
small birds of the family Todidae’ [Probably < F todier + -y].
Compounds. There is a single compound (0%) among the words of
Latin origin in the English of zoology: tilefish (pl. tilefish / tilefishes) ‘a
reddish-blue percoid marine food fish (Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps)’
[Tile- (short for < NL Lopholatilus, genus name) + FISH].
Portmanteau words. The single (0%) portmanteau word in our corpus
is merganser ‘any of various fish-eating diving ducks of the genus Mergus
or related genera’ [< NL < L mergus ‘diver’ + L Ɨnser ‘goose’] (Figure 6-
2).
0%
0%
40%
60%
Figure 6-2. English formations in the English of Zoology: 60% backformations,

40% derivatives, 0% compounds, 0% portmanteaus
Discussion
It is interesting to note that the share of English formations (73%) of
Latin origin in the English of zoology is almost three times larger than
that of metonymic words (27%). This could be explained by the fact that,
on the one hand, they are old formations, and in time even scientists began
to perceive them more and more as English words rather than as
loanwords. The large number of backformations (60%) confirms this
hypothesis: perceived as foreignisms, Latin words were slightly ‘adapted’
to the English spelling system. The large number of derivatives (40%)
also supports the hypothesis, since derivation occurs only within the
system, never outside it. Moreover, certain affixes, such as -an, are
specific to animal names (75% of the derivatives contain it). Compounds
and portmanteau words are, practically, negligible.
As for metonymic words, they come from genus names (87%), from
Latin common names (10%), and from species names (3%). The large
share of animal names that have come from genus names shows the fact
that scientific discovery in the field of zoology reached, in the 17th and 18th
centuries, the highest level ever.
Georgeta RaĠă 245
Conclusions
Results show that the English of zoology contains good examples of
Latin borrowings that have become fully parts of the English vocabulary,
despite the fact that they retain traces of their foreign origin in their
pronunciation, spelling, or inflection (see the plural forms of the nouns
supplied above).
Our hypothesis that there must be a pattern in the naming of animals
with Latin names is confirmed: the proof – the large number of English
formations (particularly backformations and derivatives) representing
73% of the total of words of our corpus, on the one hand, and the large
number of animal names derived from genus names (87% of the total
metonymic names).
The implications of the research and results are considerable: they can
be useful to both students in natural sciences and teachers and/or
researchers in the field of zoology.
Additional research should focus on the words of Latin origin in the
field of Botany.
References
Farrell, J. (2004) Latin Language & Latin Culture. From Ancient to
Modern Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Glare, P. G. W. (Ed.). (1983). Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Janson, T. (2002). Speak. A Short History of Languages. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Latin Dictionary Headword Search Result. Online:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/resolveform?redirect=true&lang=
Latin.
List of Latin Words with English Derivatives. Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_words_with_English_deriv
atives.
Partridge, E. (2006). Origins. A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern
English. London – New York: Routledge.
Rata, Georgeta. (2008). Words of Latin Origin in the English of Zoology.

Journal of Linguistic Studies 2 (2008): 75-86.
Listings of Prefixes, Suffixes, Roots and Combining Forms. Jefferson
(NC) & London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Adams & Co.
Word Study Tool / Word Analysis. Online:
http://latinlexicon.org/word_study_tool.php.
CHAPTER SEVEN
A COMPARATIVE APPROACH
AGRICULTURAL TERMINOLOGY
IN MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATION
ANDREEA VARGA
Terminology as an integrating part of a language constitutes a living

organism which is constantly liable to alterations and enrichment. From
this vantage point, it is a tool endorsing information, research, science and
scientific culturem and, nonetheless, it is a means of higher qualification
for an individual in his profession. Perforce, we cannot eschew the
paramount importance of learning terminology in the context of the
European Union standardization of scientific language, but also against the
background of a European Union nation, such as Romania, in which
technical language becomes a prerequisite for the employment in
international multilevel enterprises or for any other foreign investment.
Thus, terminology becomes a sui generis mechanism encompassed
harmoniously in multicultural communication. We refer below to the
domain of agriculture stricto sensu and to the difficulties emerging in the
process of learning this particular scientific language.
Terminology as defined by Daniel Gouadec (1990) refers to a scientific
discipline whose main focus is the system of specialized linguistic
designations, their content, the nature of the interrelations between the
constituents of this system, the relation between the concept on the one
hand and its representation on the other, the tenets tackling the specialized
representations accordingly, and their applicability in the language and
professional activities. The linguistic unity for terminology is the term
denoting the representation of a concept. Some specialists construe
terminology as a subsystem of the lexicon pertaining to a language,
eliciting the similar features of the terminological units and the lexical
units. However, the technical language presupposes some idiosyncratic
traits such as being accurate, univocal, unambiguous (the relationship
between the representation and the concept is reflexive, each concept has
only one pendant term; albeit it does not comprise the whole meaning of
the concept it undoubtedly aspires to), interdependent (the terms in a
scientific field are interconnected, related to each other). Nonetheless,
other proponents disinter terminology as a science per se, as science about
250 Agricultural Terminology in Multicultural Communication
science: “Une science est bien d’abord une terminologie” (A science is

first of all a terminology) (Bernard Quemada, in Gouadec 1990),
stemming in linguistics (the representations are tantamount to the signifier
while the value of the concept is equal to the signified) and ontology, the
study of concepts and systems of concepts. However, if we are to minify
terminologies, they can be defined as specialized vocabularies.
The coherence of the representation systems which lay the foundation
of terminologies is determined by the particularity of the field (conceptual
field and usage of the representations), of the object or of a process, of the
referent or of a category of referents, and by the particularity of a given
corpus (the terminology of a text or of a corpus of documents). However,
the terminology of a given corpus is immutably circumscribed, while
coherence is engendered by applying the corpus. Circumscription is
subdued to subjectivity: since the conceptual fields entwine, a fortiori,
some boundaries have to be imposed regarding what is considered to
pertain to that lexical network.
The concept of standardization is corollary to the need of imposing
clear boundaries within special semantic fields and communicating at the
same level on an international scale. The concept is ambivalent on the
basis of the fact that it comprises technical standards, also known as
specification standards, and terminology standards. Technical standards
expound a process of concurring upon the technical specifications and
other criteria employed as rules, guidelines or definitions of features to
ensure that materials, products, services, and processes are interlocking
and interoperable. From the vantage point of the international
communication level, the foregoing goals are achieved via consensus
agreements between national delegations and other institutions which need
to approve of specifications, criteria applied in the classification,
manufacture and supply of materials, testing and analysis, terminology and
provision of services. Regarding terminological applicability,
standardization establishes which technical terms will be employed in a
standard and underscores the criteria by means of which the term needs to
be understood. This enables standardizing groups to use the necessary
tools to draft terminologically and conceptually pertinent standards. What
is more, terminology standards differentiate themselves from technical
standards in so far as they do not provide specifications for a product,
service or process: they designate the terms along with the definitions to
facilitate the understanding of the key concepts in a given standard.
ISO/IEC, one of the main organizations demarcating standardization,
purports the standard as being “a document, established by consensus and
approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated
Andreea Varga 251
use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed

at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.”
(Standardisation. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization)
Other concepts subsuming under the umbrella of standardization in
terminology are harmonization and officialization. The former advances a
process of aligning terms and definitions between languages or between
variants within a language carried into effect by means of
recommendations since this process is divested of the power entailed by a
standard. Officialization, on the other hand, represents a process
performed by an authoritative body which selects a term or a name and
invests it with an official status.
Furthermore, the concept of databank is of paramount importance in
the context of standardization and on the background of a technology
evolving at such a rapid pace at present. If the first systems of terms date
back in the 18th century, when biologist Carl von Linné wrote his work
Systema Naturae, expounding his binominal system positing animals and
plants, and continued with Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier in the field of
chemistry, terminology has developed by leaps and bounds due to the
impetus of the 20th century when the first efforts of technical language
standardization were at an inceptive stage. Currently, there are
informatized and structured systems of data collection sorting out, using
and rendering the terminological databases available. The banks of data
comprise terminological catalogues in which all of the enlisted terms can
be easily identified in valid contexts due to the fact that the source which
employed them is mentioned.
At a national level, terminology touchstones are immutably espoused
in the national language(s), thus the standards become monolingual.
However, multilingual standards, which are often indispensable, are
adopted by each country and are carried into practice by means of
equivalence, definitions in the national language or simply by borrowing
the term which will subsequently be assimilated by the source language.
To further proceed with our analysis, we expound the techniques of
equivalence and borrowings applied to the field of agriculture.
Equivalence, defined under a larger scope, constitutes the result of a
translation process revolving around the identity relation between two
terms pertaining to two different languages and possessing almost the
same connotation and denotation. Reduced to a more narrow meaning,
equivalence is a translation technique which presupposes rendering a term
or set phrase in the source language into a different term in the target
language, but preserving the correspondence with the same reality.
Equivalences are established between texts integrating in a certain culture,
in a particular communication context: they are perceived as consequences

of the interaction between the translator and the text. Several types of
equivalence can be distinguished:
- cognitive (engendered by the semantics of the text and the knowledge

brought forth by the translator, based on real or unreal experiences);
- emotional (intuitive);
- denotative (conveying the information advanced by the source
language text);
- connotative (preserving the style, the language register, the sociolect,
the geographical outreaching of the expressions);
- standard or normative (according to the genre of the text for
translation, for example, a textbook, an advertisement, etc.);
- pragmatic or dynamic (adapted to the knowledge of the reader in order
to be comprehended).
An eloquent example of equivalence is the translation of the term

agribusiness from English into Romanian. The equivalent in the target
language is, de facto, a definition of the term ‘the practice of agriculture
and the entire activities pertaining to agriculture (the manufacturing and
distribution of farm equipment and supplies and the processing, storing,
shipping, and marketing of agricultural products)’. Although the
combining form agri- preserved from the Latin word agricola which
further on roots in ager ‘field’ can be identified in Romanian as well (e.g.,
agricol) or in French (e.g., agricole), it cannot be translated in
combination with the word business. Consequently, the equivalence is
rendered by means of defining the term. A similar case is that of county /
agricultural agent, which does not entail a correspondent in Romanian
and is defined as ‘government representative whose main concern is to
counsel the farmers in matters of agriculture’. A term which has an
equivalent both in Romanian and in French is fruit farming having the
correspondents pomiculture in French and pomicultură in Romanian. In
this case, however, the English language did not inherit the Latin pomum
‘fruit’, but the Latin fructus meaning ‘something that proffers sweetness,
satisfaction, pleasure’. A most conspicuous example is that of the term
designating a spice, rosemary, which has the equivalent of romarin in
French and rozmarin in Romanian. The particularity resides in the fact
that although the terms elicit the same object and resemble phonetically,
they posses different meanings. The English term is preserved as a name
Rose-Mary, while the French and the Romanian equivalents stem in the
Andreea Varga 253
Latin rosmarinus ‘dew of the sea’, and constitute a concoction of the

adjectives ros ‘dew’ and maris ‘sea’.
Borrowings are also frequent in the field of agriculture. Except for the
Greek and Latin terms inherited by the aforementioned languages, there
are terms designating animal breeds or species which have been preserved
in their inceptive form. One such example is chinchilla, the name of an
animal raised for its fur, original from South America. The term is Spanish
and was traced back to a dialect pertaining to an Indian Peru tribe;
however, it was borrowed as such in all languages. Another such example
is the Holstein breed of cattle having its denomination in the German
duchy bearing the same name.
From the foregoing demonstration, it is foreseeable that learning
terminology is not a facile process and the multifarious problems emerging
need to be analyzed and solutions espoused. Students might encounter
difficulties in decoding the written texts at least in an inchoate stage. They
are liable to produce errors due to the abusive extension of lexical
structures and semantic sphere of the terms in the source language.
Consequently, students might be liable to invent inexistent terms or they
might just have a silent reaction due to lack of courage and insecurity.
Thus, teaching technical language should yield a gradual process of
familiarization with the fundamental structures. When introducing the new
vocabulary, students should be provided with the keywords which impede
the global understanding of the text. After having understood the
keywords, the rest of the vocabulary can be inferred from the context.
Thus, the student should be able to produce descriptive sentences
regarding the acquired technical issues in his field, construct short
dialogues on a given subject or write short summaries of the studied texts,
the ability to reconstruct the informational message of a technical text by
means of identifying some essential guidelines. The subsequent stage in
teaching terminology constitutes an evolution towards more technical,
specialized texts. Consequently, students can be taught terminology
through methods of semantization which can be direct comprising
extralinguistic methods – images – and linguistic methods – synonyms,
antonyms, formal structure. The indirect methods make reference to the
technique of translation. Thus, students should be able to comprehend the
entire text and thus provide equivalents from the source language to the
target language. Any future specialist should easily deal with technical
documents in foreign languages. The final purpose of learning terminology
is to acquire oral comprehension skills of the technical information, to
write reports, to deliver speeches, to build international relations of
cooperation. However, the student should ferret out that terminology falls
within a corpus of words, that it is an entire mechanism which should be

understood as such and which should be used as an instrument in his field.
On balance, employing terminology as a means of communication at a
multicultural level and its interlocking operating concepts of
standardization and bank of data has become a prerequisite in the field of
technology per se. The institutions working in this sense, improving the
standards and keeping pace with the language alterations and
technological novelties are a paragon for communication as a live and
permanent process.
References
Gouadec, D. (1990). Constitution des données. [Constitution of Data].
Paris: Afnor. Online: http://www.gouadec.net/publications.html.
Lungu Badea, G. (2003). Dictionary of Terms Employed in the Theory,
Practice and Didactics of Translation. Timiúoara: Ed. Orizonturi.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (1999). Curs practic de limba engleză – profilul agricol
(anul al II-lea de studiu). [A Practical Course of English – Agriculture
(2nd year)]. Timiúoara: Editura Mirton.
Standardisation. Online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization.
Varga, Andreea. (2007). Terminology in the Context of Multicultural
Communication. Proceedings of Lingua Summit 2007, Trenþin,
Slovakia: 4 p.
Vintilă-Rădulescu, I. (1999). Terminology and Its Current Problems.
Bucureúti: Editura Academiei Române.
ROMANIAN AGRICULTURAL TERMS
AND THEIR ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS
OANA BOLDEA
Introduction
When dealing with the terminology of a certain field, it is sometimes not
an easy task to translate the terms accurately, whether the translation is
from Romanian into English or the other way around. The task becomes
ever more difficult when the terms are not formed by one word only, but
when we have to work with phrases, complex terms. These need our closer
attention, or else we run the risk of not only giving the wrong equivalents,
but also of coming up with ridiculous ones.
However, giving the perfect equivalent is not a matter of guessing; if
we look closely at the way the phrases are made up, in general, we can
notice that there are some rules governing their formation. By noticing
these rules and by taking them into consideration, we can supply the
perfect equivalent in the language we need to convey the message.
It is the purpose of this paper to identify the possible rules which
govern phrase formation in Romanian as well as in English. We believe
that emphasizing them is helpful for the linguists, but also for the
Romanian specialist in agriculture who, at one point, may find
himself/herself in the position of having to convey a message in English
with no dictionary at hand at the time.
We start from the premise that Romanian uses more words to name the
same thing than English does. We base our assumption on the fact that
Romanian is a synthetic language, while English is an analytic one. Hence,
Romanian makes use of inflections and prepositions, while English prefers
juxtaposition. It remains to see whether the analysis proves our assumption
to be right or wrong.
256 Romanian Agricultural Terms and Their English Equivalents
Material and Method

For the purpose of our research, we chose a corpus found in Fodder
Crops and Agriculture (RaĠă et al. 2002), a compendium of agricultural
technical terms in Romanian, English and French. As French is not of
interest for the present study, all the terms in this language have been left
aside. We only worked with English and Romanian terms.
More precisely, we had 1,900 terms in view for the study, grouped in
the chapter “general vocabulary”. Thus, we have not taken into
consideration the terminology in the chapter dedicated to vocabulary
having to do with botany, nor have we dealt with the names of plants
occurring in the third chapter of the book. Our interest lay exclusively on
the second chapter, already mentioned, tackling so-called “general”
terminology.
The method used is that of comparative lexical analysis. Also, we used
the quantitative method to establish the frequency with which a certain
construction occurs. And then, on the basis of word count, we identified
the general rule or trend in phrase formation both in Romanian and in
English.
Some books were used for the theoretical background of the paper.
Thus, Crystal’s Linguistics (1990) proved extremely useful. The same can
be said about Matthew’s Morphology (1993). However, books by
Romanian researchers were equally useful, for instance, Ciobanu’s
Adaptation of the English Element in Romanian (1997).

After analyzing the 1,900 entries in the corpus, we found 751 terms
made up of more than one word. One cannot but notice that out of these,
349 phrases contain a noun and an adjective in Romanian. The interesting
part is that many of them have English equivalents in which no adjective is
found. For example:
- R argilă aluvionară = E silt loam;

- R comunitate vegetală = E plant community;
- R defoliere estivală = E summer grazing;
- R diminuare cromatică E colour reduction.
Thus, in 173 cases, English displays a clear preference for “Noun + Noun”
constructions, as opposed to Romanian, which favours the “Noun +
Oana Boldea 257
Adjective” construction. This means that, in almost half the cases, English
will use the “Noun + Noun” construction.
Going further with our analysis, we find out that, out of the same
number of phrases (751), 415 of the Romanian ones contain a preposition.
The prepositions we found were cu ‘with’, de ‘of’, din ‘from’, în ‘in’, la
‘to’, pe ‘on’, ‘per’, pentru ‘for’, and prin ‘through’. Generally speaking,
the phrases are made according to the same rule, namely “Noun +
Preposition + Noun” (expressions such as infestare cu buruieni ‘weed
infestation’, îngrăúământ de primăvară ‘spring fertiliser’, irigare prin
inundare ‘flooding irrigation’, uscat la aer ‘air-dried’, zonă de păúunat
‘grazing area’, etc.).
Still, there are some cases (all involving the preposition în ‘in’) where
the phrases are made up either by “Adjective + Preposition + Noun” or
“Participle + Preposition + Noun”, as in bogat în frunze ‘leaf rich’.
However, these cases are extremely rare (only 3 occurrences in 415
phrases, i.e. less than 1%). That is why we can conclude that the general
feature is “Noun + Preposition + Noun”, in what the Romanian phrases
containing prepositions are concerned.
Table 7-1 presents the findings regarding the phrases containing
prepositions in Romanian and English, comparatively.
Table 7-1. Prepositions and their occurrence in agricultural terms
Romanian Number of Romanian Number of phrases

preposition phrases containing the containing a preposition
preposition in the English equivalent
cu ‘with’ 27 -
de ‘of’ 311 3
din ‘from’ 5 -
în ‘in’ 34 -
la ‘to’ 18 -
pe ‘on’, ‘per’ 5 1
pentru ‘for’ 5 2
prin ‘through’ 10 -
From the table, we notice that the preposition de ‘of’ occurs in most
Romanian phrases, namely in 75% of the cases. It is, by far, the most often
used preposition, as it results from the analysis. The other two prepositions
occurring in a fair share of phrases are în ‘in’ and cu ‘with’, but they are
far behind the abovementioned preposition, occurring in only 8.19% and
6.50% of the cases, respectively. The fourth most frequent preposition is la
‘to’ (occurring in 4.33% of the phrases), followed by prin ‘through’

(2.40%). The other prepositions used in Romanian phrases concerning
agriculture are din ‘from’, pe ‘on’, ‘per’ and pentru ‘for’, each occurring
only 5 times, i.e. in 1.20% of the cases (Figure 7-1).
350
311
300
250
200
150
100
50 34 27 18 10 5 5 5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Figure 7-1. Prepositions and their occurrence in agricultural terms: 311 de, 34 în,
27 cu, 18 la, 10 prin, 5 din, 5 pe, 5 pentru
If we look at the third column of Table 7-1, namely that which contains
data referring to the occurrence of prepositions in the English equivalents
of the Romanian phrases discussed above, we can see that we have only 6
phrases containing prepositions, i.e. a little over 1% of the Romanian
phrases. The English prepositions found here are of (occurring 3 times, in
equivalents for Romanian terms containing preposition de), for (which
occurs 2 times in equivalents for Romanian terms containing preposition
pentru), and per (occurring only 1 time, in an equivalent for a Romanian
term containing preposition pe).
As only 1% of the Romanian terms containing prepositions have
equivalents similarly formed in English, one is entitled to say that making
up phrases by means of prepositions is not the general rule for phrase
formation in English. Instead, we can notice that all English phrases
(except those very few already discussed) are of the “Noun + Noun” type.
Thus, Romanian phrases have the following English equivalents:
- R câmp de ameliorare = E improvement field;

- R floră de pajiúte = E meadow flora;
- R indice de nutriĠie ) = E nutrition index;
- R izolare în hibridare = E hybridation isolation;
Oana Boldea 259
- R raĠie de furaj = E feed intake;

- R reacĠie la fertilizare = E fertilizer response;
- R ritm de producĠie = E production rate;
- R vaci de lapte = E dairy cows;
- R zonă de restituire = E restitution area.
Another aspect of our study was related to the Genitives in Romanian, i.e.
we wanted to find the equivalents for those Romanian phrases that contain
genitive forms. We were interested in seeing whether the English terms
also make use of the genitive or not. The findings are inciting: of the 144
Romanian terms using genitive forms, only 3 have English equivalents
which use a genitive also, be it the “‘s genitive” or the “of genitive”. Thus:
- R greutatea lăstarului = E tiller’s weight;

- R sănătatea animalului rumegător = E ruminant’s health;
- R umiditatea solului = E soil’s moisture.
Given the fact that only 2% of the Romanian phrases containing genitives
have English equivalents formed in the same way, we can say that, as a
rule, the English expressions avoid using the genitive, as opposed to
Romanian ones.
Conclusions
The results of the research confirmed our hypothesis. We started from
the initial idea that English uses fewer words to express a concept than
Romanian does. Thus, we analyzed a corpus of 1,900 agricultural terms in
order to get an idea about how they are made up, according to what rules,
and, at the same time, we wanted to establish whether the English
equivalents for these terms were formed according to the same rules.
Much as we had predicted, the English phrases proved to use a lot less
prepositions and genitive forms than the Romanian ones. The structure is
less periphrastic: the preferred structure seems to be the “Noun + Noun”,
avoiding genitives and prepositions as much as possible.
References
Boldea, Oana. (2005). On some Romanian Agricultural Terms and Their
English Equivalents. Scientific Papers. Faculty of Agriculture,
XXXVII: 677-681.
Ciobanu, Georgeta. (1997). Adaptation of the English Element in
Romanian. Timiúoara: Editura Mirton.
Crystal, D. (1990). Linguistics. London: Penguin Books.
Leech, G. (1996). An A – Z of English Grammar & Usage. London:
Longman.
Press
RaĠă, Georgeta, Moisuc, Al. & Samfira, I. (2002). Fodder Crops and
Agriculture. Timiúoara: Editura Orizonturi Universitare.
Press.
Publishing Company.
ENGLISH LOANWORDS IN THE ROMANIAN
LAND IMPROVEMENT VOCABULARY
Introduction
One of the most outstanding features of Modern Romanian is its large and
varied vocabulary. Romanian has borrowed many words from many other
languages and made them its own. In the modern period, a large number of
new affixes have been taken from French, Latin, Greek, and a few others.
Beginning with the middle of the 19th century, and still going apace, is the
fertile coinage of scientific, technical, scholarly, commercial, and political
terms that have swelled the Romanian vocabulary to such proportions that
even the largest unabridged dictionaries can select and define only a small
portion of the total number of words that actually exist.
The Romanian language has taken over a large number of words from
English. These borrowings or loanwords have, nevertheless, become a
permanent part of Romanian language. Most of them have been modified
to bring them into line with the phonological rules of Romanian, and as
such they can help a non-native English speaking Romanian or they can,
on the contrary, confuse them. This is also the case of the land
improvement vocabulary.
Material and Method

Our corpus of words was selected from Pricop & Marcu’s Dictionary
of Land Improvement (1987-1989). Of the 4,801 entries in the dictionary,
only 30 are loanwords of English origin, a rather small number if we
compare it with French loanwords (378) or German loanwords (80).

Loanwords can attain different degrees of assimilation into the
language. Linguists (Chalker & Weiner 1994) have identified four types of
assimilation and, consequently, four groups of loanwords: totally
262 English Loanwords in the Romanian Land Improvement Vocabulary
assimilated words, words retaining traces of their origin, words

assimilated in their form but semantically tied to a foreign context, and
words which have not yet achieved general currency. All the English
loanwords in our corpus must have fallen, initially, into the last category,
but they now belong to the following groups:
1. Totally assimilated words, i.e. words assimilated to the native
word-stock and that are phonetically and orthographically integrated: R
badland < E badlands ‘a barren area characterized by numerous ridges,
peaks, and mesas cut by erosion’ (W); R buldozer < E bulldozer ‘1. A
powerful, tractor-driven machine equipped with a heavy steel blade: used
for clearing wooded areas and moving soil in road construction’ (W); R
caterpillar < E Caterpillar ‘a tractor whose driving wheels gear with self-
laid, wide metal belts whereby its weight is distributed over a large area,
permitting the tractor to move over soft or rough terrain; a trade name’
(W); R dispecer < E dispatcher ‘2. One who directs the movements of
trains, trucks, etc., and maintains records of such movement’ (W); R
macroelement < E no mention in any of the two English language
dictionaries mentioned in References; R mulci < E mulch ‘any loose
material, as straw, placed about the stalks or plants to protect their roots’
(W); R prefiltrare < E pre-filtering, for which the Explanatory Dictionary
of the Romanian Language mentions “after English”; R screper < E
scraper ‘2. A horse-drawn or motor-driven apparatus having a large metal
scoop or scoops, for scraping up, transporting, and dumping dirt’ (W); R
stoc ‘1. water supply. 2. materials stored’ (DIF) < E stock ‘2. A quantity of
something accumulated, as for future use’ (RHDEL) or ’10. A quantity of
something acquired or kept for future use; 14. Raw material’ (W); R stres
< E stress ‘3. Mech. A force or system of forces which tends to produce
deformation in a body on which it acts’ (W); R termogramă < E, F, or G,
but without any mention in the English language dictionaries cites in
References. To note that the trade name Caterpillar has become a common
name in Romanian. Other loanwords are not mentioned in the Romanian
explanatory dictionary, which makes it impossible for us to trace their
origins. Thus, R bermă might come from either the E berm(e) or from the
F berme. As for R conveyer, it presumably comes from the E conveyer,
but the latter does not occur as such in Romanian language dictionaries or
in English language dictionaries, where only E conveyor is mentioned.
Some of these loanwords have been assimilated so well that they have
produced derivatives in Romanian. Though not mentioned by the
Romanian language dictionary mentioned in References, they do exist and
they are used in land improvement: R dispecerizare < R dispecer, R
dispecerat < R dispecer, and R mulcire < R mulci.
2. Words retaining traces of their origin, i.e. words fully part of the
Romanian vocabulary, but that retain traces of their foreign origin in their
pronunciation, spelling, or inflection: R bullgrader ‘the trade name of a
soil-moving bulldozer’ < E Bullgrader is not mentioned by Romanian or
English language dictionaries; R bushel < E bushel ‘1. A measure of
capacity; four pecks, 35.238 l or 2150.42 cubic inches’ (W); R Darcy < E
Darcy ‘a rock permeability measure unit equal to 0.987 ȝm2’ is not
mentioned by Romanian or English language dictionaries; R dash-pot ‘a
hydraulic damper used to soften a mechanism movements’ < E dash-pot is
not mentioned by Romanian or English language dictionaries; R data
processing < E data processing ‘processing of information, esp. the
handling of information by electronic machines in accordance with strictly
defined systems of procedure’ (RHDEL) or ‘the operation of digital or
analogue computers’ (W); R dry farming < E dry farming ‘in an arid or
dry country, the raising of crops without irrigation, mainly by saving the
moisture of the soil and by raising drought-resisting crops’ (W); R
hardpan < E hardpan ‘1. A layer of firm detritus under soft soil’ (W); R
jet < E jet ‘1. That which spurts out from a narrow orifice; a gushing flow’
(W); R know-how < E know-how ‘ Colloq. Knowledge of how to perform
a complicated operation or procedure; technical skill’ (W); R marketing <
E marketing ‘the total of activities by which transfer of title or possession
of goods from seller to buyer is effected, including advertising, shipping,
storing, and selling’ (RHDEL); R plotter < E plotter ‘3. A contrivance, as
for plotting coordinates’ (W); R reset < E reset ‘the act of resetting, or that
which is reset; specifically, a resetting of type’ (W); R vortex < E vortex
‘1. A mass of rotating or whirling fluid, especially when sucked spirally
toward a centre; a whirlpool; an eddy’ (W). To note that the trade name
Bullgrader has become a common name in Romanian.
3. Words assimilated in their form but semantically tied to a
foreign context: R airlift ‘a device for raising water, the functioning of
which is based on specific weight difference between water and air-water
emulsion’(DIF) < E airlift ‘1. The operation of transporting foodstuffs and
other commodities […] by airplane […]; 3. The load carried by such a
transport method’ (W); R display ‘a device (screen) for displaying
alphanumerical and graphical information’ (DIF) < E display ‘1. The act
of spreading out, unfolding, exhibiting, or bringing to the view or to the
mind. 2. Ostentatious show. 3. Printing. A style of type calculated to
attract attention. 4. The matter so displayed’; R mull ‘intermediary humus;
in most cases, a humus characterised by an intimate mixture between
organic matter and mineral soil, and having a slightly acid or neutral
reaction’ (DIF) < E mull3 ‘1. A thin, soft, cotton, rayon, or silk dress
264 English Loanwords in the Romanian Land Improvement Vocabulary
goods. 2. A variety of soft, thin muslin used as a base for medicated

ointments, as mulla’ (W).
Conclusions
The richness of the Romanian vocabulary is in large part due to
borrowing from many other languages of the world, sometimes in such a
way as to allow fine denotative, connotative, or stylistic distinctions
between semantically related or nearly synonymous words to grow up. We
have seen that 11 of the loanwords (36%) are totally assimilated words
(they are phonetically and orthographically integrated), while other 14
loanwords (47%) are words retaining traces of their origin (in
pronunciation, spelling, or inflection), and other 3 loanwords (10%) are
words assimilated in their form but semantically tied to a foreign context.
Two loanwords (7%) are untraceable and, therefore, impossible to range
within one of the three categories above. Despite the small number of
loanwords from English and their rather restricted use, the high
percentage of words totally assimilated and the even higher percentage of
words fully part of the Romanian vocabulary show the extraordinary
ability of the Romanian language to turn loanwords into permanent
words.
References
Romanian Language]. (1998). Bucureúti: Editura UE.
Pricop, G. & Marcu, C. (1987-1989). DicĠionar de îmbunătăĠiri funciare.
[A Dictionary of Land Improvement]. Vol. I-II. Bucureúti: Editura
Ceres. (DIF)
RaĠă, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Anica. (2007). On English Loanwords in the
Romanian of Land Improvement. Scientific Papers. Faculty of
Agriculture XXXIX (2): 675-678.
Publishing Company. (W)
AGRICULTURAL ENTOMOLOGY
IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN:
COLOUR AND/OR COLORATION?
GEORGETA RAğĂ
AND ELENA-MIRELA SAMFIRA
Introduction
Teaching English for Special Purposes in a university centred upon
nature and its uses (and abuses) arises a series of questions engendered
mainly by the fact that sometimes the language we teach/learn or translate
from/into has not always coined the right terms or phrases for the right
items or situations. This seems also to be the case for noun phrases
containing colour and coloration. The problem is that, on the one hand,
these words are, at least, partially interchangeable, i.e. they are defined by
the same features, and, on the other hand, Romanian, for instance, has one
word to render colour (R culoare) and two words to render coloration (R
colorare and coloraĠie). Therefore, there are two sources of error in the
approach of the fields of insects and insect behaviour.
Material and Method

The method we used is the comparative one. We inventoried all the
noun phrases containing colour and coloration and looked up for their
definitions. We then compared the number of occurrences in both types of
noun phrases and checked for the proper Romanian equivalents.

In Gordth & Hendrick’s Dictionary of Entomology (2001), a large
number of noun phrases designating insect colours include either colour or
coloration. From the very beginning, Gordth defines coloration as ‘1. The
capacity or quality of colour. 2. In insects, an arrangement of colours by
266 Agricultural Entomology in English and Romanian
pigments or structural modification of the integument’, completely

ignoring to define colour.
Thus, 7 of the 26 noun phrases (26.92%) contain the word colour:
cuticular colour ‘colour contained mostly in the epidermis, including
permanent browns, blacks and yellow’; diffraction colour ‘iridescent
colouring due to the presence of a diffraction grating’; interference colour
‘one of the three forms of structural (physical) colour’; pigmentary colour
‘any of several colours that are derived from substances of a definite
chemical composition’; scattering colour ‘structural colour that is
produced from the scattering of light from a surface, such as irregular and
diffuse light reflected from ground glass, or the scattering of light within
the tegument’; structural colour ‘physical colour produced by surface
structure (setae, scales, sculpture) that reflect or break up light (by
refraction or diffraction) into spectral colours or combinations of them’;
and subhypodermal colour ‘any colour that is contained in the fat-body
and haemolymph of an insect’.
In these noun phrases, colour is defined in two ways (Table 7-2).
Table 7-2. Definitions of colour
Noun phrases with colour Colour defined as

‘colour’ ‘colouring’
cuticular colour +
diffraction colour +
interference colour +
pigmentary colour +
scattering colour +
structural colour +
subhypodermal colour +
As for coloration, it has 18 occurrences: advancing coloration ‘any colour

(e.g., yellow) or combination of colours that appears nearer the observer
than other viewed in the same plane’; alluring coloration ‘any colour,
colour pattern or combination of colours that are attractive to some species
of insects (prey) and displayed (used) by predaceous species as part of
their feeding strategy’; anticryptic coloration ‘any combination of colours
on the body that expose, reveal or draw attention to an organism’; apetetic
coloration ‘combinations of colour or colour patterns that resemble some
part of the environment or the appearance of another species’; aposematic
coloration ‘warning coloration’; combination coloration ‘colours arising
from a combination of pigmentary and structural colours’; cryptic
coloration ‘coloration patterns of animals that make their outline form,

shape or body patterns less apparent, and thereby conferring a degree of
protection from predation’; directive coloration ‘directive marks of
colours that tend to divert the attention of any enemy or predator from
more vital parts of the organism’; disruptive coloration ‘colour patterns of
an animal that obscure the outline of an animal and thereby confer
protection from predators’; epigamic coloration ‘combination of colours
or colour patterns displayed by animals during the attraction of mates or
courtship’; episematic coloration ‘recognition colours in the theory of
mimicry’; procryptic coloration ‘combination of colours or patterns of
colour on the body or appendage that serve in protective resemblances and
for concealment as a protection against predators’; protective coloration
‘any pattern or arrangement of colours in an animal that enables it to
escape detection by resembling or blending into its surroundings’;
pseudepisematic coloration ‘colours displayed in a body that are critical in
aggressive mimicry and alluring coloration’; pseudoaposematic
coloration ‘combination of colours or colour patterns that lead to
protective mimicry’; seasonal coloration ‘a change or difference in aspect
ad in colour in two or more succeeding broods in the same species in the
same or in different seasons’; sematic coloration ‘warning and signalling
colours in insects’; and warning coloration ‘conspicuous colours or
patterns of colour which are frequently associated with qualities which
render their possessor unpalatable, offensive or dangerous to predators’.
In these noun phrases, coloration is defined in 6 different ways, except
for alluring coloration (defined in 3 different ways), and apetetic
coloration, aposematic coloration, procryptic coloration, protective
coloration, and pseudoaposematic coloration (defined in 2 different
ways) (Table 7-3).
Conclusions
Noun phrases containing colour seem to be better coined since in 7 of
the 8 occurrences it is defined as ‘colour’. Noun phrases containing
coloration are not so well coined as the former ones, since only 1 of the 18
occurrences defines coloration as ‘coloration’. It is interesting to note,
though, that some noun phrases with colour and some noun phrases with
coloration are defined as ‘colours’ or as ‘colour patterns’.
268 Agricultural Entomology in English and Romanian
Table 7-3. Definitions of coloration
Noun phrase with Coloration defined as

coloration
arrangement
difference in
combination
(marks of)
coloration
of colours
colour(s)
change /
pattern
pattern
colour
colour
colour
advancing coloration + +
alluring coloration + + +
anticryptic coloration +
apetetic coloration + +
aposematic coloration + +
combination coloration +
cryptic coloration +
directive coloration +
disruptive coloration +
epigamic coloration +
episematic coloration +
procryptic coloration + +
protective coloration + +
pseudepisematic coloration +
pseudoaposematic + +
coloration
seasonal coloration +
sematic coloration +
warning coloration + +
References
CABI Publishing.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2004). Agricultural Entomology: ‘Colour’ and/or
‘Coloration’?. 4th International Scientific Days of Land Management in
the Great Hungarian Plain, October 21-22, 2004, Mezötúr, Hungary:
1-5.
NAMES OF FODDER PLANTS
IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN
OANA BOLDEA
Introduction
This paper presents an analysis of the means of vocabulary enrichment.
The idea it starts from and it attempts to prove is that English and
Romanian have more in common than one might guess, if we think that
one is a Germanic language and the other a Romance one. We try to see
whether or not Latin plays a great part in English as well, where the
popular names of plants are concerned. And the hypothesis we attempt to
prove in our study is that most words can be traced back to Latin, either as
the origin of the borrowing or at least as the source of the loan.
Material and Method

The approach used is the comparative etymological one. For this, the
etymologies of the words were analyzed, in Romanian and in English as
well, with greater emphasis on the English words. The reason is, on the
one hand, that, for the Romanian ones, the etymology is easier to infer for
a native speaker of this language and, on the other hand, because it is only
natural that Romanian should have most words of Latin origin since it is a
Romance language. The study focuses on borrowings as a means of
enriching the vocabulary. The process by which one word starts being
used in one language, after having previously been used in another, is
called a borrowing. Such words are commonly called loanwords,
although the term is by no means exact: the words are not given back to
the language they were “borrowed” from. Loan blend denotes a word the
meaning of which is borrowed but only part of the form is kept from the
original language, while a loan shift refers to a word the meaning of
which is borrowed but the form is nativized. Another concept used in the
paper is that of calque or loan translation, a borrowing where the parts
of the borrowed word are translated item by item into equivalent parts in
the new language. The conclusions show that calque lies at the basis of
270 Names of Fodder Plants in English and Romanian
most words where borrowings are concerned. When discussing word

borrowing, distinction should be made between the terms source of
borrowing (the language from which the word was taken into the target
language) and origin of borrowing (the language to which the word can
be traced). Thus, for many of the words analyzed here, the source is Latin,
but it is not the origin, which in some cases may be Greek or some other
language, as shown the conclusions. The material used in the study was a
collection of names of fodder plants found in Fodder Plants and
Agriculture (RaĠă et al. 2002). As the interest was in the names of the two
plants in English and Romanian, the terminology in French in the
abovementioned reference book was left aside. Other books studied
provided the theoretical ground for the paper (etymology and
borrowings).
Findings, Discussion and Conclusions

The findings of the study are extremely inciting. Looking at the
etymology of the words, one can notice that our initial idea on the subject
was correct: most of the names of fodder plants come from Latin in both
languages. This is not unexpected, as all scientific names are in this
language. One such example is izma piperată, the English equivalent
being peppermint, while the Latin is mentha piperita. Another such word
is the Romanian mei, the English equivalent being millet, while the Latin
name is Panicum milliaceum. The different phonetic systems in the two
languages under discussion gave two variants of the same word: millium.
However, there is an even more interesting part, namely there are some
English words clearly coming from Latin but whose Romanian equivalents
have no such roots, while the expectation would be the opposite, since
Romanian is a Romance language and English is a Germanic one. One
such example is, for instance, iarba grasă, whose English equivalent is
purslane, while the Latin name is Portulaca oleracea. The English term
has been used since Middle English, coming from Latin via French.
Actually, the Romanian grasă also comes from Latin, but from another
word (grassus), not the one denominating the plant in question. Naturally,
this is not the only such example. The same happens with the English
basil, which clearly comes from the Latin basilicum, while in Romanian
the term for the same plant is busuioc – not only it does not come from the
same name of plant in Latin, but it does not come from Latin at all: it is
traceable to a Bulgarian word. In the same way, the etymon of păpădie is
Bulgarian, while the name of the same plant in English is dandelion,
coming via French from the Latin dens leonis. Another example is the
Oana Boldea 271
Latin Berberis vulgaris, which gave barberry in English, while the

Romanian term is dracilă, having nothing to do with the aforementioned
etymon; it comes from a Slavic word meaning ‘bramble’.
Another aspect found through this study is that there are different
means by which the words are derived. One class of words includes those
which come directly from the Latin term, in which case there are some
changes due to the phonetics of the language and to the influences from
other languages. When this is the case, Latin is the origin of the
borrowing. Such a term is Cichorium, which gave cicoare in Romanian
and chicory in English.
Another English word having Latin as the origin language is rosemary.
Actually, with this term, we come across another means of enriching the
vocabulary, namely folk etymology. The word appeared in Middle
English, influenced by rose and the name Mary, coming from the Latin
ros (‘dew’) and maris (‘sea’). The English felt the final s as the mark of
the plural and eliminated it. This is how, what initially meant ‘dew of the
sea’ turned into what it is nowadays. Folk etymology is also responsible
for the English mandrake: in Middle English, it appeared as a variant of
mandrage, which was the shortened form of mandragora. Little by little, it
changed into mandrake, people taking it as coming from man and drake
(probably due to the fact that it names a plant the root of which is thought
to resemble people or monsters). For the abovementioned mandragora
Latin plays a part, although the word does not come from it. In this case,
Latin is the source of the borrowing, not its origin. The roots of this word
must be searched for in the Greek mandragoras. This is only an example
from the second class of names, those for which Latin is only the source.
Another item belonging to this class is the English thyme, coming from
the Greek thymon via the Latin thymus. The same holds good for the word
carrot, coming via French from Latin, where it was borrowed from Greek.
A third class of terms is represented by those which come from the
Latin term indirectly, by means of translating the meaning of it, i.e.
calque. Such are, for instance, the Romanian floarea-soarelui and the
English sunflower, both rendering the meaning of the Latin Helianthus
annus. Or the Romanian lupin alb and the English white lupine, both
clearly translations of the Latin Lupinus albus. Another such term is the
Latin Vicia villosa, which has been translated măzăriche păroasă into
Romanian and hairy vetch into English. Other plants have got their name
in different ways than those presented above. There are terms coming from
other languages than Latin. One such an example is the English burdoch
(the equivalent of the Romanian brusture, with unknown etymology),
which comes from the Scandinavian term burre added to the Irish word
272 Names of Fodder Plants in English and Romanian
deoch. Strawberry is another such term, which comes from the German
words stroh and beere. Still other plants got their names due to the history
of the region in which they are used. Such is, for instance, the Romanian
firuĠă, which, in English, is Kentucky bluegrass, since, in the United
States, Kentucky is the main region where it can be found in large
amounts. Kentucky’s popular name is “Bluegrass State”, clearly showing
the great abundance this type of fodder. Timothy is another term
pertaining to this class: it was named after Timothy Handson, an American
farmer who grew this grass and spread its cultivation in early 18th century.
References
Boldea, Oana. (2004). The Influence of Latin on the Names of Some
Fodder Plants. Proceedings of the 4th International Scientific Days of
Land Management in the Great Hungarian Plain, Mezötúr, Hungary.
Crystal, D. (1999). The Penguin Dictionary of Language. Harmondsworth:
Penguin Books.
Romanian Language]. (1998). Bucureúti: Editura Univers Enciclopedic.
R.S.R..
RaĠă, Georgeta, Moisuc, Al. & Samfira, I. (2002). Fodder Crops and
Agriculture. Timiúoara: Editura Orizonturi Universitare.
ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN NAMES OF PLANTS
IN FOOD ADDITIVES GUIDES
OANA BOLDEA
Introduction
The multitude of changes that have taken place in Romania in the past
years have had a great impact upon the Romanian language itself. After
1989, our country has opened up towards Western countries, in an attempt
to catch up with the new ideas and technologies the Romanians did not
have access to before. This was the starting point of a great influx of
objects (“object” here having the large meaning used in linguistics) into
Romania. Together with the new products and technology imported into
our country, we have had to solve the problem of the specific terminology.
In the source language they had their name, but in Romanian they did not.
This is the problem people have had to find solutions for when the
following questions arose:
What happens with those names?
How do we render them into Romanian?
There are two main ways to deal with this:
- solve it within the lexical resources the Romanian language offers;

- borrow new words.
The matter is an extremely complex one, encompassing a wide range of

terms coming from various languages and belonging to all fields of
activity. Still, English seems to be prevalent as language providing terms
Romanian has to deal with. This is not surprising, on the one hand,
because technology has been developing rapidly in the English-speaking
countries and, on the other hand, because English has become an
international language, spoken all over the world. The paper deals only
with a small part of this general matter, trying to find ways of
accomplishing the task of translating the English terminology appearing in
274 English and Romanian Names of Plants in Food Additives Guides
the Food Additives Guide. We are trying to see how the terms can be
adopted into Romanian without sounding awkward.

For the practical side of the study, we have used the Food Additives
Guide (2002). This is a compendium of additives used in the Food
Industry. The Guide is made up of several chapters, each presenting a
different class of additives:
- unnumbered;
- colours (E100-E181);
- preservatives (E200-E290);
- antioxidants and acidity regulators (E296-E385);
- thickeners; emulsifiers and stabilizers (E400-E495);
- flavour enhancers (E620- E640);
- anticaking agents (E500-E585);
- glazing agents and sweeteners (E900-E1520).
It presents the names of the additives, their description and also the
negative effects they can have on the health of the consumer. Their
description includes the physical appearance (colour and aspect) as well as
the material they are made of. The present study is restricted to those
additives derived from plants. In the source mentioned previously, the
additives come with their denomination, which can be a number, a
“proper” name or both. Naturally, we have taken into consideration those
which appear with names, and not represented by figures, as they are the
ones to challenge a translator’s inventiveness and other creative resources.
Translating “E250” should be no problem.
For the theoretical background of this paper, books dealing with
linguistics and specifically with lexicology proved extremely useful in
understanding the general phenomenon of enriching the vocabulary, since
word building is considered to be a boundary area between lexicology and
grammar. Thus, we have read works written by outstanding Romanian
researchers, like LeviĠchi (1975) or Bădescu (1984). Of course, foreign
books on the matter have also been consulted, in an attempt to have as
complete an understanding of the phenomenon as possible. Such works are
Quirk’s A University Grammar of English (1973) and Swan’s Practical
English Usage (1995).
Another type of reference books used is that of the dictionaries,
providing information either about the etymology of some names of plants,
Oana Boldea 275
or about the plants themselves. Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged

Dictionary is one of the dictionaries displaying general information, while
DicĠionar botanic poliglot (Vaczy 1980) and DicĠionar etnobotanic (Borza
1984) contain specific information about plants.
The method used is that of the analysis of the means of enriching the
vocabulary. This analysis helps understanding how new words appear into
the language. We have been interested especially in derivational analysis.
This refers to the relation of morphemes within the word and interrelations
(from the structural point of view) between different types of words, trying
to establish the structural patterns words are built on. The two main means
of word building are derivation and composition. Derivation is the
means analysed here. Also called affixation, it consists in adding affixes
to the stems of different words in order to form new words. Affixes may
be classified from various points of view: according to their origin, to the
parts of speech they serve to form, to the meaning they render, to the parts
of speech they form, to their productivity, etc. We have been especially
interested in the classification according to the part of the word they are
added to (the beginning or the end, hence prefixes and suffixes), the
meaning (if any) they bring to the word, and their origin. We have also
dealt, to a certain extent, with borrowings, which refer exactly to the
introduction of something from one language into another. In the case of
our paper it is loanwords referring particularly to special terminology –
names of additives in the food industry.
Conclusions
After analysing the names of the additives obtained from plants, we
have seen that all those formed by affixation are actually made up with the
help of suffixes. So, this is the first thing to note: no prefixation in the
formation of English names of additives. The suffixes used are -in, -ine, -
ic and, not so productive, -an. The problem appearing for the translator is
what to do when having to render into Romanian the words ending in -in
and -ine, respectively, since both of them are noun suffixes, so they are
both added to nouns to form nouns. Moreover, they seem to be equally
productive. We will analyse them one by one.
Thaumatin is the name of a sweetener derived from the tropical plant
Thaumococcus danielli. It is an example of how the first mentioned suffix
works. Formed in the same way, curcumin is an orange-yellow colouring
agent derived from the root of the curcuma plant. Another example is
tannin, derived from the nutgalls and twigs of oak trees, and occurring
naturally in tea. Interestingly enough, its name comes from ME tan ‘oak
bark’, coming from the Latin tannum.
There are quite a number of examples for the formation of words
employing the second suffix, of which we mention here caffeine (coming
from tea, kola nut or coffee and, etymologically, from coffee), asparagine
(obtained from legumes, its etymon being asparagus) and quinine (coming
from the cinchona bark, and etymologically from the word Quechua kina
‘bark’).
Both suffixes are of Greek origin and have approximately the same
meaning: ‘pertaining to’, ‘of the nature of’. It seems that a certain
distinction of use is attempted, namely basic substances have the ending -
ine rather than -in (caffeine, quinine), while -in is used for certain neutral
compounds, glycerides, glucosides, and proteids (palmitin, for instance).
In what the translation into Romanian is concerned, we are interested if we
are to render the words by means of the masculine for -in and the feminine
for -ine, since this seems to be the case with the English words. The
translation into Romanian is usually done by -ină, as DicĠionarul
explicativ al limbii române (1998) does not mention a suffix -in. Thus,
traditionally, -ină has been used for preserving, in Romanian, the
derivational process used for the formation of the word in English. This is
the case of most names of additives used in the Guide, especially those the
Romanian translations of which have been used for a while, such as
caffeine or lecithin. In the same way, we tend to supply words like
curcumin, or palmitin. Quinine is a special case: since it is also called
quinina in English, we could claim that, actually, we are rendering this
term by the Romanian chinină, and not the other one, and in this case it is
no longer felt as a derivative word. We could, then, say that the translator
is merely observing an unwritten rule which states that the translator
should tend to change as little of the word as possible (as allowed by the
phonetic system of the target language) when introducing it as a novelty
into the language. But this way of translating by -ină is by no means a set
rule. The translation of tannin seems more appropriately done by the
Romanian tannin (by the masculine, not the feminine). We believe this is
possible because the word is no longer felt as a derivative.
Another suffix used is -ic. This is a suffix forming adjectives. It
appears in such names as citric acid (coming from citrus), fumaric acid
(coming from the name of the plant it is derived from, namely plants of the
genus Fumaria) or benzoic acid (coming from benzoin, a resin exuded by
trees native to Asia). It is also of Greek origin, and in Romanian it is
transposed as it is, since the Romanian language allows it. Thus, the
translations of the abovementioned words will be acid citric, acid fumaric,
Oana Boldea 277
and acid benzoic. The case of aspartic acid is somewhat special, in that it
has three other names: aminosuccinic acid, asparaginic acid, and
asparagic acid. Although all names can be transposed into Romanian as
they are, it would be best for one of them to become a commonly used
term in order to avoid any possible misunderstandings.
The less productive suffix is -an. It appears in the name carrageenan
coming from a sort of purplish-brown seaweed called Irish moss or
carrageen (Chondrus crispus), or in sorbitan. Just like -ic, this is also an
adjectival suffix. We do have this suffix in Romanian, but there is a
problem while translating it, because in Romanian the suffix -an is an
augmentative as in bogătan (‘very rich’) or in băietan (‘lad’). That is why
we believe the best way to render the word carragenan into Romanian is
caragină, since caragenan would seem awkward, although caragină is
also the Romanian for the plant the substance comes from, carrageen.
Still, in what sorbitan is concerned, the most probable rendering in
Romanian is by the same form as in English, as the -an ending can also be
found in other chemistry-related Romanian such as butan, etan, propan.
There are also other types of names in the Food Additive Guide from
the point of view of their formation and of their translation. The English
language generally displays a certain tendency for compound words, and
it is only natural for it to be easily observed here as well. The compounds
are usually translated into Romanian by means of paraphrase. Thus,
sodium fumarate, guar gum, and quillaia extract become fumarat de
sodiu, guma de guar, extract de quillaia in Romanian.
The general tendency is for a translator to keep the form of the word,
as much as the phonetical rules of the language allow it, when it
denominates a new concept or object. No change happens with the
following words denominating additives like aronia (derived from Aronia
arbutifolia), acacia (derived from the sap of Acacia Senegal), or plants
such as curcuma, tara, guar. And little change is made in others, where it
is not possible to keep the form as it is, as in the case of the words ending
in -th in English. Because Romanian does not have such a possibility, the
h will drop in amaranth and tragacanth. But still the larger part of the
word is maintained.
References
Boldea, Oana. (2004). Names of Plants in Food Additives Guide. Lucrări
útiinĠifice, Facultatea de Agricultură XXXVI: 548-551.

Crystal, D. (1999). The Penguin Dictionary of Language. Harlow:
Longman.
Food Additives Guide. (2002). Online: FoodAG.com.
R.S.R..
Quirk, R. & Greenbaum, S. (1973). A University Grammar of English.
Harlow: Longman.
Mirton.
Salapina, Galina. (1974). Limba engleză contemporană. [Contemporary
English]. Tipografia UniversităĠii din Timiúoara.
Press.
ENGLISH PLANT NAMES
AND THEIR GERMAN COUNTERPARTS
AND BILJANA IVANOVSKA
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to notice the way in which English plant
names formed with animal names are rendered in the German language.
By that we mean to notice not just whether or not these particular English
plant names have German equivalents, but also how many of these
equivalents observe the choice of the animal name instead of just giving a
semantic equivalent.
As we have mentioned the term equivalency, we think it useful to
extend on it. The concept of textual equivalence comes up, defined as the
combination of similarities in source text and target text information flow
and the cohesive roles of source text and target text devices in their
respective texts. We may speak of functional equivalence when we deal
with the translator’s decision as to which consideration to be taken into
account at any time.
Even if we cannot speak of actual text in the case of plant names, we
do have to take into account the definitions presented above, since the
same translation rules apply in the case of a text as in the case of mere
plant or animal names. As we note later in the paper, the processes of both
textual and functional equivalency are used in finding the German name
for English plant names since, in several cases, there is no perfect
equivalency between the English and German equivalents, even though we
could establish some instances where perfect equivalency occurred.
We noticed that in some cases the animal names used in the two
languages are the same, while in others they are not.
280 English Plant Names and Their German Counterparts
Material and Method

We have inventoried 78 English common plant names containing
different animal names gathered from English language and specialised
dictionaries and books. Then we have looked for the German counterparts
of the English plant names analysing their equivalency and frequency. We
have, thus, made a contrastive analysis of the concepts in English and
German.
Results
The plant names we have analysed contain different animal names,
ranging from insects (e.g. fly agaric) to molluscs (e.g. oyster fungus),
birds (e.g. gooseberry), and mammals (e.g. ox-eye daisy). Below, we
group the plant names according to the plant group they pertain to:
- ferns and mosses: adder’s tongue (fern), hart’s tongue (fern),

stagshorn clubmoss (also running ground pine and running clubmoss);
- grasses, rushes and sedges: cocksfoot grass, false fowl sedge;
- mushroom names: fly agaric, oyster fungus, turkey tails, wolf-fart
puffball (also pear-shaped puffball), yellow stagshorn fungus;
- seaweed and coastal plants: crab’s eye lichen;
- trees and shrubs: alder buckthorn, bird cherry, buckthorn, cowberry
(also cranberry, red bilberry, and alpine cranberry), crab apple, dog
rose, dogwood, goat willow (with the variants great sallow and
sallow), gooseberry, horse chestnut, sea buckthorn;
- waterplants: common duckweed, common horsetail, hare’s tail
cottongrass, mare’s tail, narrow leaf cattail, water horsetail, wood
horsetail;
- wild flowers: alpine mouse-ear, bear’s foot, bee orchid, bird’s-foot
(trefoil), bird’s-nest orchid, black horehound, bloody crane’s-bill,
bristly ox-tongue, buckshorn plantain, catsear, common fleabane,
common mouse-ear, common storksbill, common water-crowfoot,
cow parsley, cowslip, creeping crowfoot (or creeping buttercup),
cuckoo flower, cut-leaved crane’s-bill, dog’s mercury, fat hen, field
chickweed, fly orchid, foxglove (or lady’s glove), frog orchid,
goatsbeard, greater butterfly orchid, harebell, henbane, hogweed,
horseshoe vetch, houndstongue, ivy-leaved toadflax, lion’s foot,
lizard orchid, lousewort, meadow crane’s-bill, monkey flower,
mouse-ear hawkweed, ox-eye daisy, pignut, ragged robin, red
chickweed (also scarlet pimpernel), red goosefoot, sea wormwood,
Astrid-Simone Groszler and Biljana Ivanovska 281
sheep sorrel, smooth hawksbeard, viper’s bugloss (or blueweed),

wood crane’s-bill, wormwood, yellow horned-poppy.
If we examine both English and German plant names, we can see there are
several classes:
- perfect equivalency between English and German plant names: E

adder’s tongue – G Natternzunge, E bee orchid – G Bienen-Ragwurz,
E bird cherry – G Vogelkirsche, E bird’s-nest orchid – G Vogel-
Nestwurz, E bloody crane’s-bill – G Blutstorchschnabel, E common
storksbill – G Reiherschnabel, E dog-rose – G Hundsrose, E fly agaric
– G Fliegenpilz, E fly orchid – G Fliegen-Ragwurz, E houndstongue –
G Hundszunge, E meadow crane’s-bill – G Wiesenstorchschnabel, E
monkey flower – G Affenblume, E oyster fungus – G Austernpilz, E
red goosefoot – G Roter Gänsefuß, E wood crane’s-bill – G
Waldstorchschnabel, etc.;
- almost perfect equivalency between English and German plant names:
E common fleabane – G großes Flohkraut, E goatsbeard – G
Bocksbart, E hart’s tongue – G Hirschzungenfarn, E horse chestnut –
G gewöhnliche Rosskastanie, E lousewort – G blattreiches Läusekraut,
E mouse-ear hawkweed – G kleines Habichtskraut (there is only the
attribute of a mouse, G klein ‘little’), E viper’s bugloss – G
Natternkopf, E yellow stagshorn fungus – G Klebiger Hörnling, etc.;
- no equivalency in German for English plant names: E bristly ox-
tongue – G Natternkopf-Bitterkraut (E ox is replaced by G Natter
‘adder’, animals from different classes), E cat’s ear – G Ferkelkraut, E
fat hen – G weißer Gänsefuß (the animal name in German is ‘goose’),
E goat willow – G Weidenkätzchen (instead of goat there is Kätzchen
‘kitty’, still a mammal, but a different order), E lizard orchid – G
Bocksriemenzunge), E mouse-ear – G Hornkraut (we are dealing with
a different body part here, namely ‘horn’ instead of ‘ear’), E stagshorn
clubmoss – G Keulen-Bärlap (with the variant Wolfsklaue, still
mammals, but Bär means ‘bear’ and Wolf ‘wolf’), E turkey tails – G
Schmetterlingstramete (the German name takes another class, namely
insects, Schmetterling ‘butterfly’), etc.;
- no animal name in German plant names(e.g. E alder buckthorn – G
Faulbaum, E cow parsley – G Wiesenkerbel, E cowberry – G
Preiselbeere, E crab apple – G Zierapfel, E dogwood – G Hartriegel,
E fox glove – G Fingerhut, E gooseberry – G Stachelbeere, E ox-eye
daisy – G Wiesenmargerite, E wolf-fart puffball – G Birnenstäbling,
etc.;
- no German counterpart for the English plant name: E crab’s eye-

lichen.
Discussion
In the previous section, we brought forth an account of English
common plant names containing animal names and their German
counterparts. We have seen that all but one English plant name (i.e. 1%)
entail an equivalent. Our present findings differ in this respect from our
previous research of the Romanian equivalents of the English plant names.
In that particular case, we found a larger percent of English common plant
names containing an animal name which had no Romanian equivalent,
namely 14%. This difference in percentage, 14% as opposed to 1%, can be
explained by the fact that some plants common in the UK are not found in
the native Romanian flora, whereas the German climate facilitates their
presence in Germany.
If we look at all the numbers, we can see that from the 78 English
names analysed:
- 34 (i.e. 44%) do not entail animal names;

- 26 (i.e. 33%) observe the English choice in animal names;
- 3 (4%) observe the same animal body part name;
- 2 (almost 3%) take a different animal name;
- only 1 (i.e. 1%) does not account for a German equivalent.
Thus, though almost all English common plant names containing an

animal name entail a German equivalent, these counterparts do not always
take an animal name.
Our research has clearly shown that though almost all English common
plant names containing an animal name entail a German equivalent, these
counterparts do not always take a German animal name, a fact which may
be determined by the part of the plant we look at when choosing the
respective animal name.
Also, when taking a look at our findings regarding their Romanian
counterparts, we find out that the percentage of German plant names
containing the same animal name is quite higher than that of Romanian
plant names (i.e. 33% as opposed to 29%).
Conclusions
After having analysed the 78 common English plant names containing
an animal name and their German counterparts, we have found that:
- 1% do not exhibit a German common plant name, as opposed to 14%

of the Romanian counterparts;
- 3% take a different animal name;
- 4% observe the same animal body part name;
- 33% observe the English choice in animal names;
- 44% do not entail animal names.
Comparing the percentages, we notice that even though the percentage of

plant names containing the same animal or animal body part name in
German is larger than that of plant names containing a different animal or
animal body part name (33%, respectively 4%, vs. 15%, respectively 3%),
the greater percentage (i.e. 44%) of plant names do not contain any animal
name.
References
Baker, M. (Ed.) (2001). Routledge Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies.
New York: Routledge.
British Wild Flowers. Online: http://www.british-wild-flowers.co.uk/.
Englisch-Deutsch Wörterbuch. [English-German Dictionary]. Online:
http://www.dict.cc/.
Gartendatenbank. [Garden Data Bank]. Online:
http://www.gartendatenbank.de/.
Groszler, Astrid-Simone & Ivanovska, Biljana. (2010). English Common
Names of Plants and Their Romanian Counterparts. In Georgeta RaĠă
(Ed.), Teaching Foreign Languages: Languages for Special Purposes.
Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 36-41.
Groszler, Astrid-Simone & Ivanovska, Biljana. (2011). English Plant
Names Containing an Animal Name and Their German Counterparts.
In Georgeta RaĠă (Ed.), Academic Days of Timiúoara: Language
Education Today. 36-41.
Groszler, Astrid-Simone. (2009). English Plant Names Containing an

Animal Name and Their Romanian Counterparts. Journal of Linguistic
Studies 3 (2): 17-20.
Index der medizinischen Pflanzen. [Index of Medicinal Plants]. Online:
http://www.samen-online.com/heilpflanzeninfos/pflanzenindex/
index.html.
RaĠă, Georgeta, Grigoriu, Alma-Lioara & Imbrea, Ilinca-Merima. (2005).
Flora Marii Britanii. Nume de plante în limbile latină, engleză úi
română [British Flora. Names of Plants in Latin, English and
Romanian]. Timiúoara: Mirton.
Wiesenblumen / Waldblumen. (Namen und Angaben der Blumen gemäss
FLORA HELVETICA). [Wood Flowers. Names and Uses of Flowers from
Flora Helvetica]. Online:
http://www.waldwiesenblumen.gabathuler.org.
ENGLISH PLANT NAMES
AND THEIR ROMANIAN COUNTERPARTS
AND BILJANA IVANOVSKA
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to see how English plant names formed with
the help of animal names are represented in the Romanian language. By
that we mean to see not just whether or not these particular English plant
names have a Romanian equivalent, but also how many of these
equivalents observe the choice of the animal name instead of just giving a
semantic equivalent.
In terms of equivalency, we think it useful to extend on the concept. In
Baker (2001), there is a definition of equivalency as
‘the relationship of a source text (ST) and a target text (TT) that allows the
TT to be a translation of the ST in the first place. Equivalence relationships
are also said to hold between parts of STs and parts of TTs. […]
equivalence is commonly established on the basis of: the source language
(SL) and target language (TL) words supposedly referring to the same
thing in the real world, i.e. on the basis of their referential or denotative
equivalence; the SL and TL words triggering the same or similar
associations in the minds of native speakers of the two languages, i.e. their
connotative equivalence; the SL and TL words being used in the same or
similar contexts in their respective languages, i.e. what Koller (1989) calls
text-normative equivalence; the SL and TL words having the same effect
on their respective readers, i.e. pragmatic (Koller 1989) or dynamic
equivalence (Nida 1964); the SL and TL words having similar
orthographic or phonological features.’
Another concept that comes up is textual equivalence, defined as the

combination of similarities in ST and TT information flow and the
cohesive roles of ST and TT devices in their respective texts. We may
speak of functional equivalence when we deal with the translator’s
decision as to which consideration to be taken into account at any time.
286 English Plant Names and Their Romanian Counterparts
Even though we cannot speak of actual text in the case of plant names,
we still have to take into account the definitions presented above, because
the same translation rules apply in the case of texts as in the case of mere
plant or animal names. Later in the paper, we point out that the processes
of both textual and functional equivalency are used in finding Romanian
names for English plant names since there is no perfect equivalency
between the English and Romanian plant names. We noticed that, in some
cases, animal names used in the two languages are the same, whereas in
others they are not.
Material and Method

We have inventoried 80 English common plant names containing
different animal names, picked up from English language and English
specialised dictionaries and books. Then we have looked for the Romanian
counterparts of the English plant names analysing their equivalency and
frequency. We have also studied 59 Romanian common plant names
containing animal names and analysed their English counterpart. Thus, we
have undertaken a contrastive analysis of the concepts in the two
languages.
Results
The plant names we have analysed contain different animal names,
ranging from insects (fly agaric) to molluscs (oyster fungus), birds
(gooseberry), and mammals (ox-eye daisy). We have grouped these plant
names according to the plant group they pertain to.
First, we studied mushroom names: fly agaric, oyster fungus, turkey
tails, wolf-fart puffball, yellow stagshorn fungus.
In plant names denominating ferns and mosses, we found: adder’s
tongue (fern), hart’s tongue (fern), stagshorn clubmoss.
In trees and shrubs, the research revealed: alder buckthorn, bird
cherry, buckthorn, cowberry, crab apple, dog rose, dogwood, goat
willow, gooseberry, horse chestnut, sea buckthorn.
Wild flowers brought forth a large number of names: alpine mouse-
ear, bear’s foot, bee orchid, beebread, bird’s-foot trefoil, bird’s-foot,
bird’s-nest orchid, black horehound, bloody crane’s-bill, bristly ox-
tongue, buckshorn plantain, cat’s-ear, common fleabane, common
storksbill, common water-crowfoot, cow clover, cow parsley, cowslip,
creeping crowfoot, cuckoo flower, cut-leaved crane’s-bill, dog’s
mercury, fat hen, field chickweed, fly orchid, foxglove, frog orchid,
goatsbeard, greater butterfly orchid, harebell, henbane, hogweed,

horseshoe vetch, houndstongue, ivy-leaved toadflax, lion’s foot, lizard
orchid, lousewort, meadow crane’s-bill, monkey flower, mouse-ear
hawkweed, ox-eye daisy, pignut, ragged robin, red chickweed, red
goosefoot, sea wormwood, sheep sorrel, smooth hawksbeard, viper’s
bugloss, wood crane’s-bill, wormwood, yellow horned-poppy. Names
denominating water plants are: common duckweed, common horsetail,
duck’s meat, hare’s-tail cottongrass, horse pipes, mare’s-tail / marestail,
narrow leaf cattail, water horsetail, wood horsetail.
Sea and costal plants revealed crab’s-eye lichen, while grasses, rushes
and sedges revealed cocksfoot grass, false fox sedge.
If we examine the Romanian plant names, we can see there are names
in which occur the same animal as in the English name and plant names in
which there are names of other animals.
The following pertain to common plant names exhibiting the same
animal: E adder’s tongue (R limba úarpelui), E bee orchid (R albină), E
bird’s-foot trefoil (R unghia-găii – gaie is chough, a bird related to the
crow), E bird’s-nest orchid (R cuibul rândunelii), E buckthorn (R spinul
cerbului), E common storksbill (R ciocul berzei with the variant ciocul-
cucoarei) – there is the same Romanian translation for cut-leaved / bloody
crane’s-bill, crane meaning cocor / cucoară in Romanian, E cowslip (R
ĠâĠa vacii with the variant ciuboĠica cucului, cuc meaning ‘cuckoo’), E
cuckoo flower (R scuipatul cucului), E dog’s mercury (R buruiană
câinească), E fly agaric (R muscariĠă, with the variant pălăria-úarpelui –
‘snake hat’), E goat willow (R salcie căprească), E goatsbeard (R barba
caprei, ĠâĠa caprei), E hart’s tongue (R limba cerbului), E houndstongue
(R limba câinelui), E lousewort (R păducherniĠă), E mare’s tail (R coada
calului, with the variants barba ursului, urs meaning ‘bear’, and coada
iepei, iapă meaning ‘mare’), E ox-eye daisy (R ochiul boului), E red
goosefoot (R talpa gâútei), E viper’s bugloss (R viperină), E yellow
stagshorn fungus (R barba caprei).
As for the plant names containing other animal names, they are as
follows: E alder buckthorn (R lemn câinesc – instead of buck we have
câine ‘dog’), E black horehound (R urechea porcului – again the animal
name in Romanian is ‘pig’, a mammal but from another order), E common
duckweed (R linte broútească where ‘duck’ is replaced by broască ‘frog’,
animals from different phyla), E horse chestnut (R castan porcesc –
instead of horse there is porc ‘pig’, still a mammal, but again a different
order), E oyster fungus (R păstrăv de fag – păstrăv meaning ‘trout’, still
an aquatic animal but from another phylum), E stagshorn clubmoss (R
brânca ursului / barba ursului – urs meaning ‘bear’).
There are also instances where Romanian common plant name does
not include an animal name: E bird cherry = R mălin negru, E cowberry =
R meriúor, smirdar, afin roúu, afin, coacăz de munte, E crab apple = R
măr pădureĠ, E dog rose = R cacadâr, măceú, răsură, rujă, rug sălbatic,
trandafir sălbatic, E dogwood = R sânger, E gooseberry = R agriú, E sea
buckthorn = R cătină albă, E stagshorn clubmoss = R pedicuĠă, E turkey
tails = R iască, E wolf-fart puffball = R pufai, even though there are
several Romanian names, none of them contains a colour name, etc.).
A last category of English common plant names containing animal
names is the one with no Romanian counterparts whatsoever: common
water-crowfoot, fly orchid, frog orchid, greater butterfly orchid,
horseshoe vetch, monkey flower, pignut, etc.
We also found 56 Romanian common plant names containing an
animal name. Although all had an English counterpart, none of the English
equivalents contained an animal name: R băúica porcului = E puffball, R
băúina calului = E giant puffball, R burete păstrăv = E dryad’s saddle, R
buretele viperei = E death cap, R cerga ursului = E bracken, R cireaúa
lupului = E deadly nightshade, R coada rândunicii = E liverwort, R coada
úoricelului = E yarrow, R coada-mâĠei-de-baltă = E sphagnum moss, R
guúa porumbelului = E bladder campion, R iarba limbricilor = E milk
vetch, R lemnul câinelui = E spindle tree, R ochiul lupului, limba-boului =
E bugloss, R oiĠe = E wood anemone, R pălăria-úarpelui, burete úerpesc
= E parasol mushroom, R păstrăv de pădure = E peppery milk cap, R pita
vacii = E cep, R porumbel = E blackthorn, R porumbul úarpelui = E lords
and ladies, R spinarea lupului = E lady fern, R struĠiúori = E lesser
clubmoss. However two of them contained animal body parts (R copita
calului = E hoof fungus, R untul vacii = E green winged orchid, lady
orchid). As for the animal names in the Romanian common plant names
we analysed, they range from annelids (R iarba limbricilor – the animal
name used here is ‘round worm’) to fish (R limba peútelui the animal
name used here is ‘fish’) amphibians (R izma-broaútei – the animal name
used here is ‘frog’), reptiles (R buretele viperei – the animal name used
here is ‘viper’), to birds (R coada rândunicii – the animal name used here
is ‘swallow’), and mammals (R Ġolul lupului – the animal name used here
is ‘wolf’).
Discussion
In the previous section, we brought forth an account of English
common plant containing an animal name and their Romanian
counterparts. We have seen that most English plant names entail an
equivalent, but a very small number of plant names still remains which
bear no equivalent in the Romanian language. This can be explained by
the fact that some of the plants common in the UK are not found in the
native Romanian flora. The choice of the animal name coming up in the
English and Romanian equivalents may be determined by the shape of the
plant or by some kind of resemblance with the animal referred to.
If we look at numbers, we can see that of the 80 English plant names
studied, only 7 do not account for a Romanian equivalent, which
represents 14%. Deepening our investigation, we could find out that, from
the remaining 73 Romanian counterparts, 32 (i.e. 40%) do not entail
animal names, that 22 of the Romanian common plant names (i.e. 29%)
observe the English choice in animal names, while the other 14 (17%) take
different animal names. Thus, though most English common plant names
containing an animal name entail a Romanian equivalent, these
counterparts do not always take a Romanian animal name.
As for the 56 additional Romanian common plant names containing an
animal name, 2 of them (3.5 %) entailed animal body parts.
Conclusions
After having analysed the 80 common English plant names containing
an animal name and their Romanian counterparts, we have found that:
- 7 English plant names do not have a Romanian counterpart, which may

be determined by the fact that the respective plants are not native to
Romania;
- 14 English plant names contain a different animal name in Romanian;
- 22 English plant names have the same animal names as in Romanian;
- 32 English plant names do not have animal names in the Romanian
counterpart.
Comparing the percentages, we can see that even though the percentage of
plant names containing the same animal name in Romanian is larger than
that of plant names containing a different animal name (29% vs. 17%), the
greater percentage (i.e. 40%) of plant names do not contain any animal
name at all.
After extending our research on Romanian common plant names
containing animal names, we found not only English common plant names
whose Romanian counterparts do not contain animal names, but also
Romanian common plant names containing an animal name, whose
English counterparts do not entail animal names.
References
Baker, M. (Ed.) (2001). Routledge Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies.
British Wild Flowers. Online: http://www.british-wild-flowers.co.uk/.
Groszler, Astrid-Simone & Ivanovska, Biljana. (2010). English Common
Names of Plants and Their Romanian Counterparts. In Georgeta RaĠă
(Ed.), Teaching Foreign Languages: Languages for Special Purposes.
Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 36-41.
Groszler, Astrid-Simone. (2009). English Plant Names Containing an
Animal Name and Their Romanian Counterparts. Journal of Linguistic
Studies 3 (2): 17-20.
British Flora. Names of Plants in Latin, English and Romanian.
Timiúoara: Ed. Mirton.
COMMON NAMES OF YELLOW WILD FLOWERS
OANA BOLDEA
Introduction
Plants have played an important role in people’s lives, whether it was for
their nutritional values, their medicinal uses, or, simply, for their beauty.
Even from times immemorial, people started to recognize them and to
keep them in mind for one or more of their characteristics. Many of the
names given to the plants in the old times, the so-called “common names”
or “vernacular names”, can tell us many things about the plants in
question.
It is extremely interesting to study wild plants rather than garden plants
from the point of view of their vernacular names. Since garden plants have
very well-known names, it seemed more intriguing to focus our attention
on wild flowers, which are commonly met in Romania and Great Britain.
People gave the flowers names they considered suitable, and we were
extremely incited by the different approaches people used in the process of
naming. We wanted to see whether these names tell us different things
about the flowers and about the people who named them. Another aim was
to identify possible similitudes between the processes of naming.
The idea of the study seemed of interest to us as a teacher of English
teaching students in Horticulture. When teaching a language, one surely
teaches also about the culture of that country. And we found that this
process of naming wild plants, process which started a very long time ago,
tells a lot about the way people think. Sometimes, the name provides
information as to what practices were used involving that plant (that is the
function of the plant, which can be medicinal, religious, practical or food-
related). In other cases, the name gives a description of the flower in
question, or tells about its whereabouts.
292 Common Names of Yellow Wild Flowers in English and Romanian
Material and Method

The material used in conducting this study comprised both Romanian
and English books on the subject. The English book we focused on was
The Oxford Book of Wild Flowers (Nicholson et al. 1982), which provided
the English common names of the flowers. As it also contains pictures of
the flowers themselves, it was a lot easier to identify them and then look
for their Romanian names, as well.
The Romanian book which proved to be of utmost importance in our
research was DicĠionar etnobotanic by Borza (1968). Fortunately, this
dictionary includes both Romanian common names and Latin names of the
plants, and also gives the common names in various languages. Usually,
the languages given are languages spoken in Romania by minorities
(German, Hungarian, and Russian). Still, as sometimes English names are
also given, it was of real help in the study.
The etymology of the English words was found also in the Webster
Encyclopaedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language (1996).
The material analyzed comprised 150 flower names. As we wanted to
limit, in a way, the number of names under analysis, we chose to deal only
with yellow flowers. But although the number of the plants is the one
mentioned above, the number of names is far larger: for each plant, we
found at least 3 names in each language. Sometimes we found even 10
names for the same plant. The explanation can be found in the fact that the
names were all used in different parts of the country.
Romanian and English names were the interest of this paper, but
sometimes Latin names proved important too, either because it was similar
to the English or to the Romanian name, or because it brought some new
information about the plant. That is why the Latin name is also sometimes
mentioned and analyzed.

The results of the study are very inciting. Just as we supposed at the
beginning, the names can tell many things about the plant itself. We can
differentiate several classes of names of plants based on the process of
naming.
First of all, there are the names which describe the appearance of the
flower. Thus, there are names referring to the colour of the plant (either of
the leaves or of its inflorescence). Such an example is the English
silverweed, named this way because of the colour of its leaves. The
Romanian equivalent is argentină, with its variants arginĠică and arginĠel,
Oana Boldea 293
clearly referring to the same thing as its English counterpart. We only

found one English name of this plant, but eight Romanian names, not all
referring to the colour of the plant. Some of them refer to its use: buruiana
scrântiturii, scrântitoare, scrintea, scrinteală. All these names refer to the
fact that the plant was often used in folk medicine to treat hurt ankles, or
simply placed in shoes to keep the feet comfortable when walking long
distances. Interestingly enough, although we found the same use in
English, the name does not reflect it. This is not all: the Romanians also
gave another name to this plant, iarba gâútii, which refers to the place
where the plant can usually be found: on closely-grazed land, such as
goose greens, hence the name. Actually, this name resembles very much
the Latin name, which is Potentilla anserina L. Besides the names
referring to the colour of the plant, there are those referring to the colour
of its inflorescence. Thus, there is goldilocks, which in Latin refers to the
same characteristic: Ranunculus auricomus L., but which in Romanian is
totally different: buruiana de nouă daturi refers to its use rather than to its
appearance, while talpa cocoúului refers to the shape of its leaves. Another
class is that of names giving information about the shape of the plant. We
are talking about the shape of the leaves, as in herb tuppence, also known
as pennywort, which owes its name to the fact that the leaves are almost
round, as a coin. The Latin name also has the same meaning: Lysimachia
numularia L. Also, the shape of the inflorescence has been taken into
consideration when naming other plants, such as globe flower, with the
perfect Romanian equivalent bulbuci. It is clear that both refer to the
globe-like inflorescence of the plant. Other names refer to the whole plant,
as in creeping Jenny, which is a plant that “creeps” on the ground.
Although the name usually refers to the leaves, to the flower or to the
entire plant, sometimes other parts of the plant were taken into
consideration. Such an example is a plant whose all three names (English,
Latin and Romanian) refer to the supposed resemblance of its fruiting
receptacle to a mouse’s tail: E mouse tail, Myosurus minimus L., R
codiĠucă. Though less common than the ones already mentioned, there are
instances when other characteristics are emphasized by the name of the
plant. Thus, there is a plant named stinkweed obviously because of its
strong smell. This characteristic seemed to strike the Romanians too, since
the Romanian name is puturoasă ‘stinky one’. The taste is also one of the
features taken into account when naming plants. Such a plant is wall
pepper, with the Latin name Sedum acre L., both referring to the bitter,
peppery taste of its tiny swollen leaves. However, the Romanian name has
no bearing on this characteristic: it refers to the fact that, in the past, it was
used in folk medicine in treating haemorrhoids: buruiana de trânji,
trânjoaică (as trânji is the vernacular name used in some parts of Romania
for the abovementioned medical condition). There are also other physical
characteristics underlined by the names. One such example is touch-me-
not, which owes its name to the fact that the ripe seeds explode when
touched, shooting out their seeds. The Latin name refers to the same thing:
Impatiens carpensis noli-tangere L. Obviously, the Romanians were not
struck by this characteristic, since the Romanian name gives information
about the use of this plant, rather than about anything else: slăbănog,
buruiana celor slabi. The plant was used in folk medicine. Bladderwort is
a good example for the class including other characteristics of the plants
emphasized by their names. Its name comes from the fact that it has small
bladders on its leaves. The Romanian name refers to something else,
namely to the place where it grows, i.e. on water: otrăĠel de apă. Although
the English name of wayside cudweed, also known as marsh cudweed,
refers to the fact that it grows in damp places and on waysides, the
Romanian name of the same plant underlines one of its physical aspects:
the fact that the leaves are woolly on both sides. Thus, the Romanian
names are iarbă flocoasă, iarbă lânoasă, lânărică. Honeysuckle, a well-
known plant both in Romania and Great Britain, has been given this
interesting name because its light colour and strong scent attract moths and
bees that pollinate it while gathering nectar. We have presented so far
names of plants referring to one of their physical characteristics. But more
often than not, the name refers to more than one such characteristic. For
instance, the name buttercup refers to both the colour and the shape of the
flower. The Romanian name does not refer to the same thing: it is called
piciorul cocoúului ‘cock’s foot’, due to the shape of its leaves.
Besides the special characteristics of one plant or another, the names
also refer to the places where they grow. These names make up the
second large class of names classified according the naming process. Thus,
there are names such as rock rose, due to the fact that it grows on chalk
and limestone. As a matter of fact, it is not a rose at all, but it resembles
one, and it was given its Latin name (Helianthemum chamaecistus L.),
which means ‘sunflower’, probably because the flowers open fully only in
bright sunshine. The Romanian name keeps the meaning of the Latin one:
ruja soarelui. Woodbine (better known as honeysuckle) is yet another
example for this class. The name refers to its habit of twining lightly round
the trees and shrubs on which it climbs. The already-mentioned wayside
cudweed or marsh cudweed falls into the same category.
As stated above, many plant names refer to more than one
characteristic. Here are some that combine one physical characteristic
with the place where the plant grows. The yellow stonecrop refers both
Oana Boldea 295
to the colour of its flowers and to the fact that it forms mats of short stems
in dry places such as walls, roofs, sand dunes, and even grassland. It is
also known as wall pepper and biting stonecrop, both names clearly
referring to the same habit of growing on walls; the second characteristic
emphasized, however, is not the same as before, so we are not talking
about the colour, but about the taste. Pepper and biting both indicate the
peppery taste of the leaves. The same holds true for yellow waterlily,
which gives us information about the place where the plant is to be found
(on water) and also about the colour of the flower (yellow).
A third large class of names is composed of the names referring to the
use people gave these plants. Several under classifications are possible.
First of all, there are the plants used in folk medicine and the names of
which are given according to the disease they treat. In some cases, the
plant is no longer used for the purpose stated by its name. This is what
makes the study the more interesting, since by looking at a plant’s name
one can learn a lot about the past of the people that named it. Such a plant
is the already-mentioned silverweed, whose English name says nothing
about the use, but whose Romanian name buruiana scrântiturii tells us
that it used to be important in treating sore ankles. In the same way, the
plant which in English bears the name creeping cinquefoil (referring to
the fact that the flowers are made up of five petals each and also to the
way it grows) has a Romanian name which indicates that it was used in
folk medicine for the illness called apucătură (an illness characterised by
sleepiness, spasms and convulsions). The Romanian name is buruiana
apucatului: it indicates both what it is used for and also the fact that it
grows wild, that it is not a garden plant. There is another plant the names
of which refer to its use in traditional medicine: the plant called tormentil
(word coming from torment ‘pain, anguish, annoyance’), which clearly
reflects that it was used against something that was troubling sick people.
Actually, in Great Britain its roots used to be boiled in milk to treat
diarrhoea in children and calves, thus putting a stop to an annoying
situation, as the name suggests. Interestingly enough, although the plant
was recognized as a medicinal plant in Romania, too, its use is totally
different, as the name lets us know. It is called strâmsurea, and it is still
used in folk medicine for the disease called strânsura la coú, a disease of
the lungs. The yellow loosestrife, the English name of which is a
mistranslation of the Latin Lysimachia (the plant is said to have been
named after a certain Lysimachos), has four distinct Romanian names, all
providing different information about the plant, depending on the part of
the country they come from. Thus, the generic name gălbenele refers
merely to its colour. Another name, iarba sângelui, is a proof that in
traditional medicine the plant was used for diseases of the blood (both in
humans and in animals). The third name found for this plant (Lysimachia
vulgaris in Latin) is floare de lungoare. As lungoare is the common
Romanian name for typhoid fever, we easily understand another use this
plant had in folk medicine. And it would be misleading to believe that the
fourth name found for the same plant, buruiana de argint, refers to the
colour of the plant, especially since the plant does not resemble silver at
all. In order to really understand its meaning, we have to remember that
argint has the meaning of ‘syphilis’ in the Romanian countryside. Then
the mystery is solved: the plant was used in treating syphilis. This
interpretation is supported by another name of the flower: ruúinici
‘(Approximately) shame on you’. If we think of the fact that this disease
was considered shameful, everything makes sense.
A series of wild plants were also used for religious or even
superstitious reasons. We placed the religious reasons in the same class
with superstitious since, more often than not, these two are intertwined, as
we shall see below. One example is St. John’s wort, which was associated
(in many countries, not only in Britain) with Saint John the Baptist. It used
to be hung in doors and windows to prevent the access of evil spirits. It has
the same name in Romanian too: floarea lui Ioan (‘John’s flower’), iarba
lui Sfântu Ion (‘St. John’s grass’). Somewhat related to these names are
other two names: iarba crucii and iarba spaimei – which again tell us
about the mixture between popular beliefs and religion. In Romania, it has
the same use already stated for Britain: it is believed to protect against evil
spirits. Still, in Romania we found other various names of the same plant
which account for its being used in circumstances related to medicine.
Thus, it is also known as iarba sângelui, because it is a traditional remedy
for the cattle which eliminate blood in their urine. It is also called
pojarniĠă (< pojar ‘measles’) due to its use in treating measles. Another
name for cowslip is paigle because the heads of nodding flowers are
thought to symbolize St. Peter’s bunch of keys. Bedstraw is known in
Romanian as floarea lui Sântion, again related to Saint John. It is the best
example of how religion and superstition intertwine (another name for it is
sânziene, or drăgaică), as the same flower has names which refer to
religion (St. John the Baptist’s birth) but also names indicating feasts
having nothing to do with religion, but with superstition. It is true that the
two celebrations follow shortly one after the other. The plant is thought to
bring luck, keep the cattle in good health, wealth, and a long and happy
life. That is why people used to hang it at their gates, bring it in their
homes and make wreaths of it which they threw on the roofs of their
houses. Yet another Romanian name of this plant has nothing to do with
Oana Boldea 297
beliefs, whether religious or not. It refers to a much more practical use –

curdling milk to make cheese: închegătoare or smântânică.
The latter name is to be included in the last class of names we will deal
with here: the class of names indicating what we called practical uses.
The English name of one and the same plant, yellow bedstraw or lady’s
bedstraw, refers exactly to such a use, since in old days people used to
sleep on a mattress of dried bedstraw and other plants covered with a
sheet. Such a mattress smelt pleasant and could be easily burnt and
renewed when it became soiled. Wormwood owes its name to the fact that
its aromatic scent made people use it to keep away moths and other
insects. There is another plant the names of which are the perfect
translation from one language into the other: broom, with the Romanian
equivalent mături. It is clear that this plant has been used for the same
thing in both countries, i.e. in broom-making. Even the Latin name reflects
the same thing. It is called Sarothamus scoparius L., the first word
meaning ‘a shrub growing like a broom’, and the second word having the
meaning of ‘a broom made of twigs’. Another use of this plant was that of
keeping witches away (probably because the link existing in superstition
between brooms and witches). The name dyer’s greenweed tells a lot
about the use of the flower. The plant was once used because a greenish-
yellow dye was obtained from the leaves and stems – as both English and
Latin names suggest (Latin Genista tinctoria L., where tinctoria means
‘used in dyeing’). Although it is no longer used for this purpose, the name
perpetuates its history. In Romania, it was used for the same reason: yet,
the name tells us nothing about that. Instead, one of its names, grozamă,
indicates that it was used in folk medicine against what the Romanians
called poceală ‘paralysis’.
Conclusions
As predicted at the beginning, the study of the naming processes in
English and Romanian presented inciting results concerning not only the
mechanisms of thought when naming the plants, but also the beliefs they
had and the traditional ways of using the plants.
According to the process of naming, we could classify the names in
three main classes (all having their own subdivisions):
- one including names which take into account the characteristics of the
plant;
- another comprising names which indicate the places where the plants
grow;
- names suggesting the uses that the plants have, or had at some time in
the past.
This classification is by no means a clear-cut one, since many plant names

can be found which indicate two or even all three of the abovementioned
features of plants (e.g., dyer’s greenweed).
References
Boldea, Oana. (2004). On the Common Names of Yellow Wild Flowers in
Romanian and English – a Contrastive Approach. Lucrări útiinĠifice.
Seria agronomie 48.
Nicholson, B. E., Ary, S. & Gregory, M. (1982). The Oxford Book of Wild
Flowers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mirton.
TRUE AND FALSE BERRIES
GEORGETA RAğĂ
Introduction
Many English words have multiple meanings, which are all uses of the
same word that have grown apart over time. These meanings are
ultimately related. Thus, the word berry designates both ‘any small,
usually stoneless, juicy fruit, irrespective of botanical structure, as the
huckleberry, strawberry, or hackberry ‘ and, in botany, ‘a simple fruit
having a pulpy pericarp in which the seeds are embedded, as the grape,
gooseberry, currant, or tomato’. Or, this makes it a very misleading term
from a botanical point of view: there are a lot of names of fruits that end
in -berry owing their names to the fact that the fruits are small.
A berry develops from an ovary containing one or more carpels
containing one or more ovules, so berries typically contain more than one
seed (e.g. grapes and gooseberries). A tomato also is classified as a berry:
cut in half, it displays distinct sections, each representing a separate carpel
with many seeds.
There are several different types of berries: a ‘true’ berry has a
relatively soft pericarp with a thin exocarp or skin (e.g. tomato, pepper,
eggplant, grape, and persimmon); a ‘pepo’ is a berry with a comparatively
thick exocarp, or rind (e.g. cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkin, cucumber,
and squash); a ‘hesperidium’ is a berry with a leathery skin containing oils
(e.g. citrus fruits, including oranges, lemons, and grapefruits).
Some fruits with the word berry in their names, such as raspberry and
strawberry, develop differently and are not really berries at all.
How to translate such English common names into another language
(Romanian, for example), is a good question to ask, if we take into account
that specialists such as agronomists or horticulturists need to do so mainly
when dealing with specialised texts (literature). Can present dictionaries be
of real help or not? And if they are, in what measure?
300 True and False Berries in English and Romanian

We have inventoried 68 names of plant and/or fruit ending in -berry
using some of the best encyclopaedias and dictionaries in the world. We
then have tried to see if these names have Romanian equivalents or not, or
if there is any other way lexicographers managed to help a non-native
English-speaking specialist.

We have inventoried a number of 53 ‘-berry’ plant names designing
true berries. These 53 common names have only 24 Romanian
equivalents. They belong to the following 11 families of plants:
- ERICACEAE – 30 common names in English, with only 16

corresponding Romanian equivalents (the symbol Ø stands for ‘no
equivalent’): E American cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon, syn.
Oxycoccus macrocarpon) large, tart, red fruit = R Ø, E bear
huckleberry (Gaylussacia ursina) unpalatable reddish-black fruits = R
Ø, E bearberry (Arctostaphyllos uva-ursi, Rhamnus purshiana) = R
cruúân american, lemn-câinesc, E bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)
edible sweet and black berries = R afin, E black huckleberry
(Gaylussacia baccata) edible black fruits = R Ø, E blue berry
(Vaccinium myrtillus) = R afină, coacăză neagră, E bog whortleberry
(Vaccinium oxycoccos) = R răchiĠele, E buckberry (Gaylussacia
ursina) unpalatable reddish-black fruits = R Ø, E cowberry (Vaccinium
vitis-idaea) = R meriúor, E cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpum) = R
meriúor American, E cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) = R răchiĠele,
E cranberry (Vaccinium vitis idaea) = R meriúor, meriúoară, E
dangleberry (Gaylussacia frondosa) dark-blue sweet fruits = R Ø, E
European cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) = R Ø, E foxberry
(Vaccinium vitis-idaea) = R cruúân american, lemn-câinesc, E
highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) sweet blue or black
berries = R Ø, E huckleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) (Gaylussacia) = R
afin, E June berry (Sorbus aucuparia) = R scoruú-de-munte, E large
cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon, syn. Oxycoccus macrocarpon)
large, tart, red fruit = R Ø, E lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium
angustifolium) sweet blue or black berries = R Ø, E moss berry
(Vaccinium oxycoccos) = R răchiĠele, E mountain cranberry
(Vaccinium vitis-idaea) = R Ø, E red bilberry (Vaccinium vitis idaea)
= R meriúor, E red huckleberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) = R meriúor,
Georgeta RaĠă 301
E red whortleberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) = R meriúor-de-munte, E

small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) = R Ø, E southern gooseberry
(Vaccinium macrocarpon, syn. Oxycoccus macrocarpon) large, tart,
red fruit = R Ø, E swamp blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) sweet
blue or black berries = R Ø, E whinberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) edible
sweet and black berries = R Ø, E whortleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)
edible sweet and black berries = R afină;
- ROSACEAE – 6 common names in English, with only 2 Romanian
equivalents: E black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) brilliantly,
glossy black small fruits = R Ø, E Juneberry (Amelanchier sp.) = R Ø,
E purple chokeberry (Aronia prunifolia) small fruits = R Ø, E red
chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) brilliantly, glossy red small fruits = R
Ø, E service-berry (Amelanchier canadensis) = R (specie de arbust), E
small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) = R răchiĠele;
- BERBERIDACEAE – 3 common names in English, with no Romanian
equivalent: E (common) barberry (Berberis vulgaris) edible, strongly
acidic bright coral red, cylindrical fruit = R Ø, E Japanese barberry
(Berberis thunbergii) red fruit = R Ø, E Thunberg barberry (Berberis
thunbergii) red fruit = R Ø;
- CAPRIFOLIACEAE – 4 common names with 1 Romanian equivalent:
E American cranberry bush (Viburnum americanum, Viburnum
opulus var. americanum, Viburnum trilobum) red berries = R Ø, E
highbush cranberry (Viburnum americanum, Viburnum opulus var.
americanum, Viburnum trilobum) red berries = R Ø, E sheepberry
(Viburnum lentago) = R Ø, E sheepberry (Viburnum opulus) = R
călin;
- GROSSULARIACEAE – 4 common names in English, with 2
Romanian equivalents: E American gooseberry (Ribes hirtellum)
acidic berries = R Ø, E blackberry (Ribes nigrum) = R coacăz negru,
E European gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa, syn. Ribes grossularia)
acidic berries = R Ø, E gooseberry (Ribes grossularia) = R agriúă;
- ACTINIDIACEAE – 1 common name in English with no Romanian
equivalent: E Chinese gooseberry (Actinidia chinensis, Actinidia
deliciosa) edible small, oval brownish-green fruit with a distinctive
green flesh, with tiny purplish seeds surrounding a white core, better
known under the name kiwi = R Ø;
- MELIACEAE – 1 common name in English with no Romanian
equivalents: E Chinaberry (Melia sp.) yellow fruit = R Ø;
- PHYTOLACCACEAE – 1 common name in English with no
Romanian equivalents: E pokeberry (Phytolacca americana) attractive,
though often poisonous, rounded berries = R Ø;
- RANUNCULACEAE – 1 common name in English with 1 Romanian

equivalent: E baneberry (Actaea spicata) fruits are white, red, or black
berries = R arbalĠ;
- ULMACEAE – 1 common name in English with 1 Romanian
equivalent: E hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) = R celtis occidental,
sâmbovină-americana;
- VERBENACEAE – 1 common name in English with 1 Romanian
equivalent: E pigeonberry (Duranta erecta, Duranta plumieri,
Duranta repens) small yellow fruit = R Ø. Other 32 ‘-berry’-named
plants design false berries.
They have only 8 Romanian equivalents and they belong to the following
2 families:
- ROSACEAE – 25 common names in English, with only 5 Romanian

equivalents: E American red raspberry (Rubus idaeus subsp.
strigosus) black through purple and red to yellow drupes = R Ø, E
beach strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) the fruit is an aggregate of
numerous nutlets = R Ø, E black raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) black
through purple and red to yellow drupes = R Ø, E blackberry (Rubus
fruticosus) a fruit which is an aggregate of small, purplish-black drupes
= R mur, E boysenberry (Rubus ursinus, Rubus macropetalus) a fruit
which is an aggregate of small, purplish-black drupes = R Ø, E
cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus) edible orange-yellow berries = R
(un fel de mur), E dewberry (Rubus caesius, Rubus flagellaris) a fruit
which is an aggregate of small, purplish-black drupes = R mur, rug, E
European red raspberry (Rubus idaeus) black through purple and red
to yellow drupes = R Ø, E flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus) = R
Ø, E garden strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) = R Ø, E loganberry
(Rubus ursinus, Rubus macropetalus) a fruit which is an aggregate of
small, purplish-black drupes = R (hibrid de zmeură úi mure), E
meadow strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) the fruit is an aggregate of
numerous nutlets = R Ø, E ornamental raspberry (Rubus odoratus) =
R Ø, E raspberry (Rubus idaeus) black through purple and red to
yellow drupes = R zmeur, zmeură, E red raspberry (Rubus idaeus)
black through purple and red to yellow drupes = R Ø, E sand
strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) the fruit is an aggregate of numerous
nutlets = R Ø, E sow-teat blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) a fruit
which is an aggregate of small, purplish-black drupes = R Ø, E
strawberry (Fragaria elatior) = R căpúun, E strawberry (Fragaria
vesca) = R frag, fragă, fragi-de-pădure, fragi-iepureúti, E
Georgeta RaĠă 303
thimbleberry (Rubus odoratus) = R Ø, E western dewberry (Rubus

ursinus, Rubus macropetalus) a fruit which is an aggregate of small,
purplish-black drupes = R Ø, E white blackberry (Rubus sp.) a fruit
which is an aggregate of small, white drupes = R Ø, E wood
strawberry (Fragaria vesca) the fruit is an aggregate of numerous
nutlets = R Ø, E woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) the fruit is an
aggregate of numerous nutlets = R Ø, E youngberry (Rubus ursinus,
Rubus macropetalus) a fruit which is an aggregate of small, purplish-
black drupes = R (specie de mur american);
- MORACEAE – 7 common names in English with 3 Romanian
equivalents: E black mulberry (Morus nigra) compound fruits = R
agud negru, dud negru, E fruitless mulberry (Morus alba, Morus
bombycis) compound fruits = R Ø, E mulberry (Morus) = R dud, E red
mulberry (Morus rubra) compound fruits = R dud roúu american, E
silkworm mulberry (Morus alba, Morus bombycis) compound fruits =
R Ø, E Texas mulberry (Morus microphylla) compound fruits = R Ø,
E white mulberry (Morus alba, Morus bombycis) compound fruits = R
Ø.
Conclusions
The 53 common names of true berries have 24 Romanian equivalents
(45.28%), which is better than in the case of the 32 common names of
false berries for which there are only 8 Romanian equivalents (25%). The
total percentage reaches 37.64% (32 Romanian equivalents for 85 English
common names ending in -berry).
This means that the specialist has either to render the English common
name by a scientific (Latin) name (e.g. E American cranberry = R
Vaccinium macrocarpon, syn. Oxycoccus macrocarpon, with additional
description of the plant or fruit: large, tart, red fruit), or by an explanatory
phrase: E service-berry (Amelanchier canadensis) = R (specie de arbust ‘a
bush species’).
References
Publishing Company.

LeviĠchi, L. & A. Bantaú. (1995). DicĠionar englez-român. [English-
Longman.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2006). A Case of Polysemy in the English of
Horticulture: True and False Berries. Language and the media – One
language: many worlds. Zagreb – Split: HDPL. 603-612.
RaĠă, G. (2005). True and False Berries in English and Romanian: A
Contrastive Approach. Scientific Works L (6), Plovdiv, Bulgaria: 411-
414.
York: Random House.
Publishing Company.
Geddes & Grosset.
METAPHORS IN COMPOUND ENGLISH
AND ROMANIAN PLANT NAMES
Introduction
Metaphor is highly used in common speech and plant name coinage is
especially abundant in metaphorical processes. This figure of speech
associates nature to human beings by means of characteristic features or
salient properties. Hence, it may be argued that plant names originating in
anthropomorphic notions build upon the complementarities between
nature and human nature in a harmonized view of the living world. It is
our aim to analyse the role that this specific type of metaphor plays in
scientific, as well as vernacular denominational practices. Thus,
anthropomorphized plant names illustrate the major theme of
anthropomorphism, which is undoubtedly a breeding ground for
metaphors. Being closely connected with myth and fable, personification
also steps into play, as a trope by which non-human beings are ascribed
human characteristics, endowed with human qualities, represented as
possessing human form, or spoken of in anthropomorphic language.
Besides explaining such analogies between nature and human nature,
another aim of this study is to find explanations for the choice of some
plant names which are often related or analogous in English and
Romanian, being calqued after the Latin denomination. However, names
are sometimes surprisingly diverse and distinctive from a semantic point
of view, revealing justifications for their chosen names at the same time.
The interpretation of metaphorical names often results in the attribution of
surfacing properties, which are not normally associated with that which is
signified, according to the rules of semantic composition a posterior
devised by linguists. Thus, Bejan (1991) explains that metaphor – the
basic process of denominational practice in popular botanical vocabulary –
is based on two elements: an identification morpheme of the plant class
and a specific variable which specifies different plant properties or marks
an opposition within the same class. Nonetheless, the present
interpretation of metaphor primarily aims at explaining how these
306 Metaphors in Compound English and Romanian Plant Names
properties are derived by their imaginative inventors, but also how

metaphor is created and understood. We argue that this resourceful process
of imagination involves no special interpretive mechanism that pragmatics
may provide, but stands to reason in natural ways. Our main concern is
with the ‘emergent property’ issue, typical of pragmatic approaches to
metaphor, as well as the truth-conditional pragmatic approach.
Material and Method

We have drawn an inventory of metaphorical constructions, advancing
explanations for various associations between plants and human beings,
with the help of etymology and pragmatic inference. English botanical and
vernacular plant names, as well as their Romanian counterparts are
analysed in order to reveal symbolic connotations of names scientists or
simple people have attributed to plants. The contrastive analysis aims at a
comparative study of equivalencies between Romanian and English, as
well as of their etymological source and of the connection between their
origin and meaning. Latin scientific plant names are dissected where
scientific etymologies are significant and the metaphorical function of the
popular plant name concurs with the Latin scientific name. Therefore, the
applied linguistics approach of the analysis makes use of etymological and
contrastive analysis tools.
Results
We have analysed English common plant names and their Romanian
and scientific correspondents, grouped them into three categories – parts
of the human body, beings and proper names, human moral traits and other
abstractions – based on the same anthropomorphic metaphor which has
been the working hypothesis of the paper.
Discussion
1. Parts of the Human Body
By analysing a large variety of plant names, it may easily be noticed
that a particular feature is often associated with the encoded concept
metaphors activate. For example, the feature ‘bearded’ appears in
numerous plant names, whose Latin epithet is barbata or barbatus,
meaning ‘bearded’, on account of the plant’s hairy aspect. The English
vernacular name beard-tongue and the Romanian barba limbii ‘the
Alina-Andreea Dragoescu 307
tongue’s beard’ are almost perfect equivalents, both possibly calqued after
the botanical name Penstemon barbatus. The Latin genus name comes
from the Greek words penta ‘five’ and stemon ‘stamen’, while the species
name alludes to the flower, which resembles a bearded mouth or a hairy
tongue pulled out. Likewise, the Romanian name of Sinningia barbata is
Sinningia cu barbă ‘bearded Sinnigia’, due to its covering of hairs, which
is why it is closely associated with, hence activated by, the encoded
concept beard. By a similar mechanism, two species of willow (Salix
babylonica) are anthropomorphized in Romanian: salcia plângătoare (E
weeping willow), which has typical drooping branches and salcia pletoasă
‘hairy willow’, whose branches are strongly pendulous, such as hair
tresses. The scientific name babylonica derives from Linnaeus’
misunderstanding that it was the tree described in Psalm 137, whereas the
popular name is originally and directly activated by the weeping-like
aspect of its leaves and branches. Several plant names contain the epithet
capitata (< L capitatus ‘having a head’), given the shape correspondence:
for instance, Primula capitata, whose common name capitata primrose is
a linguistic calque of the scientific name. The scientific genus name is
also maintained in Romanian and it is shortened from L Primula veris
‘firstling of spring’, feminine of L primulus, diminutive of primus,
because it is one of the first flowers to bloom (OED). Butia capitata is a
palm whose vernacular names in English (palm) and Romanian (palmier)
have switched to the large group of hand-related etymologies. Interestingly,
both these names derive from the Latin palma ‘palm tree’, originally
meaning ‘palm of the hand’. The tree was so called due to the shape of its
leaves, like the fingers of a hand. Despite building upon a queer
zoomorphic metaphor, foxgloves have equivalent anthropomorphized
names in both Romanian (degeĠelul roúu ‘little red finger’) and Latin
(Digitalis purpurea), the former being the exact translation of the latter.
However, the English zoomorphic name might also be a corruption of an
anthropomorphic metaphor, originally folksgloves. This possibility is also
confirmed by its other vernacular names – fairy-folks-fingers in Wales
and bloody fingers in Scotland – alluding to the same metaphor as the
scientific name. The generic part of the scientific name means ‘finger-
like’, in reference to the tubular-shaped bell flowers of Digitalis purpurea,
which could easily fit a human fingertip (WE). There is also an English
variant of the popular plant name – lady’s glove – which is closely related
semantically to the Romanian and Latin names, as ‘glove’ and ‘finger’
both activate the common referent ‘hand’, which sets them in close
propinquity. Closely connected from a semantic standpoint, Boesenbergia
pandurata has been rendered analogously in both English (fingerroot) and
Romanian (degetariĠa – a feminized form derived from degetar ‘thimble’,

from deget ‘thumb’). This name was inspired by the rhizome of the plant
which resembles a handful of fingers, as it belongs to the ginger family.
The genus-name panduratus derives from Gk pandoura ‘fiddle’, after the
god Pan, who used to play that instrument. The comparison obviously
hints at the fiddle-shaped stamina. Moreover, five-finger fern, also called
maidenhair fem, and its Romanian counterpart ferigă possibly refer to
‘threadlike or hair-like fern’, from L fili- ‘thread’, which also gave R fir
‘thread’, according to the etymologist’s speculation. A more bizarre
Romanian fern name for Adianthum capillus-Veneris is buricul-Vinerei
‘Friday’s bellybutton’, which has deformed capillus ‘hair’ to buric
‘bellybutton’ and the name of goddess Venera into Vineri ‘Friday’, a
mythological feminine being in Romanian fairytales. Other synonymic
names for the same fern are the more common părul-fetei ‘girl’s hair’, but
also părul Maicii-Domnului, which corresponds to the English black
maidenhair fern in reference to Virgin Mary. All this collection of names
related to hair has so been called by reference to the gracefully arching
leaves like maidens’ hair tresses. Several other plants have been named in
analogy with human hair (e.g. hairy bitter cress, hairy stereum, tufted
hair grass, wavy hair grass) by translating the Latin epithets hirsute,
hirsutum ‘hairy’, also due to the aspect of the plant. Numerous other plants
are named after organs belonging to the human body, the majority of
which can be explained by analogy to either their shape or, more rarely,
their properties. For example, liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha) is
similarly rendered in Romanian as fierea pământului ‘gall of the earth’,
suggesting bitterness, gall or liver conditions. However, this erroneous
association originated in the 9th century, when the pre-scientific medieval
concept of the Doctrine of Signatures held that the outward appearance of
plants and their similarity to other bodies indicated its uses. The concept
was maintained by the herbalists of the Renaissance who concluded that
the red sap of the bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) would cure blood
diseases or the fused leaves of boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) could
heal broken bones. By the same token, the lobed liver-like appearance of
liverworts led to the belief that it might function as a remedy for liver
diseases. However, they do not appear to be of any use in the treatment of
liver problems, as morphological plant signatures have not actually led to
the discovery of any therapeutic value. The etymology of spleenwort (L
Asplenium adiantum < Gk a- ‘not’ + splen ‘spleen’) presents us with an
akin mystification. The confusing reference to spleenwort as a cure for
spleen and liver problems originates in antique medicine. The ending -
wort comes from OE wyrt meaning ‘herb’. Likewise, Hepatica acutiloba
is a type of liverwort whose leaves have acute tips. The genus name is
derived from the Greek hepar ‘liver’ and the epithet means ‘sharply
pointed lobes’. This plant was believed, according to the Doctrine of
Signatures, to treat liver diseases because the colour and shape of leaves
resembles that of the organ (Armitage 2006). Another wort species,
toothwort (Lathraea squamaria), has a very similar Romanian
counterpart, colĠiúor ‘little fang’ (Dentaria bulbifera). Both the English
and Romanian names relate to the foliage of the plant whose deeply cut
lobes resemble human teeth. Other vernacular names include muma
pădurii or mama pădurilor ‘the mother of forests’, which designate a
hideous mythological being, and also buricul pământului ‘bellybutton of
the Earth’. In addition, the toothed wrack, also called serrated wrack, are
adaptations of the Latin name Fucus serratus, the species name meaning
‘notched like a saw’ (< L serra ‘saw’), displaying the resemblance with
either teeth or saw teeth. The word wrack carries the sense of ‘seaweed or
cast up on shore’, as in shipwreck: calqued after the Latin focus, it means
‘seaweed, sea wrack, tangle’. Another anthropomorphised fern name,
hart’s tongue (fern) (Phyllitis scolopendrium), is adapted to Romanian as
limba vecinei ‘neighbour’s tongue’, perhaps alluding to the gossipy
‘tongues’ inspired by the long leaves. It is the narrow leaves that also
suggested the English vernacular name tongue, as if the earth were
sticking its tongue out. The word hart should not be mistaken for heart, as
the OED cites its origin in the OE heorot ‘male deer’. The zoomorphic
image of a deer’s rounded horns is much more suitable, despite the
abandonment of one more anthropomorphic example from our study.
Other similar names are often self-explanatory: dead (man’s) tongue has a
paralysing effect on the organs of speech (Grieve 1995), devil’s tongue (L
amorphophallus < Gk amorphos ‘without form’ and phallus ‘phallus’),
mother-in-law’s tongue has very long leaves, painted tongue (< L
salpiglossis) has very colourful, tongue-like petals – they allude to the
shape of the prominent spadix which unwraps from the stem like a pulled
out tongue or phallus. Romanian counterparts of these names are
sometimes perfect translations: limba soacrei for mother-in-law’s tongue.
Some of them combine parts of the body with names of human beings.
2. Beings and Proper Names

A large number of flowers are associated with Christian figures in
English, Romanian, French, as well as in other European languages
spoken in Christian countries. Botanists, folklorists and lexicographers
have documented numerous plants named in symbolic association with
Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, and the saints. Before the age of Christianity,
many flowers had been associated with pagan deities, nymphs and other
fabulous creatures. However, with the advent of Christendom, religious
names amply replaced older names. This profuse flower symbolism
illustrates popular faith, while drawing on the metaphor of garden as
paradise, which was applied to actual plants in European rural traditions.
Due to the process of Christianization, a number of feminine names
changed from scientific names alluding to ancient or medieval mythology
into names with religious connotation. For instance, Daphne mezereum
becomes lady laurel and Andromeda polifolia, from the Latinized version
of the Greek mythological character Andromede, becomes bog rosemary
in folk imagination. Such is also the case of (Our) Lady’s-mantle or
Mary’s mantle, whose scientific name Alchemilla acutiloba builds on a
medieval alchemists’ metaphor. Such vernacular names incorporate an
additional connotation of Mother Mary’s ceaseless protection of the
faithful from evil, just as any mother protects her offspring. The botanical
genus name of Thelypteris quelpaertensis comes from Gk thelys ‘female’
and pteris ‘fern’, also maintaining a feminine metaphor in the English
names maiden fern or queen’s-veil, with an added pious undertone.
Moreover, the symbolical notion of Mary’s loving motherhood was
generically rendered by means of flower names such as sweet Mary,
Mary-love, Mary’s hand, suggesting her mercy and protection for devout
sons and daughters. The names Mary’s milkdrops and Our Lady’s milk
herb are the religious variants for the more familiar lungwort (Pulmonaria
officinalis), activating images of the Nursing Madonna. Some scientific
names already contained religious metaphors: Virgin’s bower (Clematis
virginiana). An orchid from the genera Cypripedium is called Our Lady’s
shoes / slipper and Lady-slipper based on the fable that it sprung up under
Mary’s feet as she visited Elizabeth. Another related species, showy /
Queen Lady’s-slipper (Cypripedium reginae) derives its scientific name
from Kypris, an early Greek name of Aphrodite, the goddesses of love,
born on the island of Cypress: pedilon ‘slipper’ and reginae ‘of the queen’
(Armitage 2006). In addition, the shape of its inflorescence is very
illustrative of an elegant lady’s shoe. The botanical name of Lady’s veil or
baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata) means ‘lover of chalk’, in
reference to the type of soil in which this plant thrives. Romanians have
associated the delicate white inflorescence with bridal purity, hence the
name floarea miresei, which may also be considered a religious metaphor
alluding to the Virgin bride. By the same marital metaphor, bachelor’s
buttons translates perfectly into Romanian as butonii burlacului, but it can
also be encountered as Mary’s crown in English. Its botanical name
Centaurea cyannis derives from L centaurus < Gk kentauros ‘centaur’, a

half man-half horse creature from Greek mythology, and probably the
centaur named Chiron, famous for his knowledge of the medicinal uses of
plants. Furthermore, Mary’s queenly attributes are activated by the plant
name Mary’s crown, just as the Virgin lily or Madonna lily (Lilium
candidum) call to mind the same imperial metaphor. Another common
medieval name for the Amaryllis belladonna lily was beautiful lady, the
literal translation of the Latin epithet, in reference to the Virgin’s features.
Mary’s mediation on behalf of humans is symbolized by flowers such as
Our Lady’s keys, ladder to heaven, or Mary’s candle. Her sorrow for the
human race is evoked by other names like Mary’s tears, Queen’s tears, or
Our Lady’s tears for the lily-of-the-valley. Their Romanian counterpart,
the neutral diminutive lăcrimioare ‘small tears’, also reflects the Christian
legend that the flowers have blossomed from Mary’s tears beside the
cross. On the other hand, the Romanian name lacrima Maicii Domnului
(‘Our Lady’s tear’) is a totally different plant, the waxplant or waxflower,
given this metaphoric name because the abundant nectar they produce
suggests tear shedding. Thus, some flowers preserve a religious
connotation only in Romanian. Another example would be the name mâna
Maicii-Domnului ‘Mother Mary’s hand’, a heath spotted orchid, partly
sharing the hand metaphor inspired by the L Dactylorhiza (< Gk daktylos
‘finger’ and rhiza ‘root’), so named due to its finger-like root nodules.
Moreover, palma-Maicii-Domnului ‘Mother Mary’s palm’ is another type
of orchid which only has an original religious connotation in Romanian.
The Latin name Orchis maculata, like all orchids, derives the genus name
from Gk orkhis (< orkheos) meaning ‘orchid’, literally ‘testicle’, so called
because of the shape of its root. Another explanation would be the fact that
the most beautiful part of the flower that we smell and admire represents,
in fact, the plant’s genitalia. The Romanian names for Asplenium
adianthum, părul-Maicii-Domnului ‘Virgin Mary’s hair’, părul-fetei
‘girl’s hair’, or părul-orfanei ‘orphan girl’s hair’ belong to a set of
semantic equivalents for the English maidenhair fem, discussed above.
The scientific name comes from the Gk adiantos ‘unwettable’, as its
fronds are particularly water-repellent, and nigrum ‘black’ describing the
scales colour. Even though field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) displays
an anthropomorphic metaphor only in the Romanian name poala Maicii-
Domnului ‘Virgin Mary’s Lap’, its medieval name was nonetheless Our
Lady’s little glass. Costmary (Tanacetum balsamita) has two comparable
Romanian forms – izma Maicii-Preciste ‘Virgin Mary’s mint’ or
busuiocul-sfintelor ‘Saints’ basil’.
The cases where Romanian plant names differ from both the English
and the Latin names display the originality of Romanian creators of
metaphors, which have not always been translated or calqued after foreign
or scientific names. In addition, the proliferation of miraculous legends of
the Madonna often involved plants. Thus, flowers such as Our Lady’s
bedstraw were said to have bloomed when Jesus was laid on them,
testifying to his divinity. The Romanian names of the plant are sânziene
and floarea lui Sfântul Ion ‘Saint John’s flower’, in association to
Christian fables. In Romanian folklore, noaptea de sânziene ‘lady’s
bedstraw night’ (June 23rd) is considered magical because the gates of
heaven open up and fairies called ‘sânziene’, such as the flowers, descend
upon earth. The scientific name of the genus, Gallium (< Gk gala ‘milk’),
was given to the property of the plant, which was used to curdle milk.
Several ‘milk’ plants were said to have received white spots from the
drops of the nursing Madonna’s milk. In a reverse direction, botanists gave
the milk thistle its scientific name, Silybum Marianum, based on the
religious legend. While the common name merely refers to the white veins
on the leaves resembling spilled milk, the species name Marianum clearly
honours Virgin Mary. Other metaphors pointing to the glorification of
Mary are related to an array of ornaments. For example, jewelweeds
(Impatiens wallerana) is also known by the name Our Lady’s earrings,
metaphoric jewellery fancied by the faithful for the adornment of Mary.
The common name is determined by the shape of flowers, which hang like
precious earrings, whereas the scientific genus name is probably a
semantic metaphor of the violent seed dispersal (Armitage 2006). Thus,
‘Mary’-flowers came to metaphorically connote a diversity of abstract
symbols of Mary’s virtues, evoking her immaculate maidenly spirituality.
They have often received their names by association with features like
purity, whiteness, delicacy, and their general characteristics as flowers.
Additionally, healing plants especially esteemed were honoured with the
name of Mary, whose role was to heal the wounds of the world. For
example, the common name of Calendula officinalis, marigold, is derived
from ‘Mary’s gold’ connoting the shining glory of Virgin Mary in
Christian tales. Although legendary stories often provide the explanation
for these and other names, the key is sometimes missing (Stokes 1984).
Despite the vast set of religious names, many plants have preserved names
referring to beings from ancient Greek and Roman mythology. For
instance, Atropa belladonna, commonly known as belladonna or deadly
nightshade in English, is similarly calqued in Romanian as beladonă,
while also occurring profusely in anthropomorphic imagery, such as
doamna-codrului ‘forest lady’ and doamnă-mare ‘big lady’. The scientific
name of this poisonous plant is a blend based on the name of Atropos, one
of the three Fates in Greek mythology – significantly the one who cuts the
thread of life, as the plant is highly poisonous – and the Italian phrase
meaning ‘beautiful lady’. It acquired this name due to the purpose it was
used for, as its juice dilates pupils, therefore being employed as a cosmetic
enhancer in the past. A final example, the English (Venus flytrap) and the
Romanian (Capcana lui Venus) names of the plant Dionaea muscipula are
metaphors connoting more than the carnivorous plant’s capturing
capabilities, as it entraps insects. In turn, Venus is part of the name not
because of its beauty, but because she is the Goddess of love and beauty,
but because the two red lobes surrounded by hairs and sensitive to touch
reminded those who coined the name of female genitalia. While the genus
name originate in the Gk Dione, a metronymic name for Aphrodite, the
specific name muscipula does not mean ‘flytrap’ in Latin, but ‘mousetrap’
(< L mus ‘mouse’ + L capere ‘to seize, grasp’). Thus, it seems that the
venereal metaphor of the Latin name was intended as a metaphor for the
love-goddess’ gripping device that captures incautious mammals. Finally,
a wide range of plants have been given nasty names, by association with
human genitalia. For want of space and discomfiture, the plentiful
inventory could not be listed here, as this area is infinitely resourceful.
3. Human Moral Traits or Other Anthropomorphic

Abstractions
Plant names are sometimes metaphorically christened as if they were
endowed with human feelings or even abilities. For instance, walking
ferns (Camptosorus rhizophyllus) have pointed fronds that root at the tip,
which suggest the fact that they are in motion. The Latin etymology is
derived from the Greek kamptos ‘bent’, given the curving appearance and
the flexion of the fern. The epithet rhizophyllus ‘root-leaved’ also alludes
to the fact that the leaves soon become roots in their turn. Sneezewort
(Achillea ptarmica), also called bastard pellitory, fair-maid-of-France, or
sneezeweed, is closely related to the Romanian strănutătoare ‘sneezing
plant’, which implies the ability to sneeze, as if possessed by the plants
themselves. Nonetheless, the plant does provoke sneezing, as verified by
the species name ptarmica (< Gk ptairo ‘sneeze’), meaning ‘causing
sneezing’. The genus name Achillea originates from Linnaeus (< L
achillea < Gk Akhilleus ‘Achilles’, because, as a curative plant, it was
associated with his healing of Telephus in the legends of Olympus.
Flowers seemed to also have feelings, as people have often connected to
nature at times of grief or distress. The melancholy thistle (Cirsium
helenioides) probably got its name from the way the solitary flower-head
positioned at the top of a branchless stem hangs downwards. Cirsium
comes from both the Greek words kirsion ‘thistle’ and cirsos ‘swollen
vein, varices’, which thistles were faultily thought a remedy for. Floarea-
jelei ‘the flower of sorrow’ and iarba urâciunii ‘the grass of ugliness’
(Linaria acutiloba) have a zoomorphic English correspondent – toadflax.
For odd reasons, it has acquired some more vernacular names containing
anthropomorphic metaphors among which some are at odds: brideweed,
bridewort, and dead men’s bones. The first two connote the start of a new
life, while the latter implies the opposite. The closely connected floarea-
suferinĠei ‘flower of sufferance’ or floarea pasiunii (Passiflora incarnata)
has a perfect English equivalent, passion flower, and they are both related
semantically to human sufferance rather than carnal passion. However,
passion flowers are often given a mystifying sense of romantic or even
sexual innuendo. As early as the 15th century, Christian missionaries
noticed the distinctive structure of this plant, which they associated
symbolically to the sufferings of Christ on the Cross. For instance, the
radial filaments of the flower mimic the round crown of thorns, the ten
petals and sepals represent the apostles (St. Peter the denier and Judas the
betrayer being excluded for lack of more petals), the stigmata represent the
nails, and the anthers stand for Jesus’ wounds, etc. This symbolism is also
authenticated by the etymology of the word passion (< L passionem
‘suffering, enduring’ < pati ‘to suffer, endure’. By analysing English and
Romanian counterparts of scientific plant names, we have found that an
impressive number play upon anthropomorphic metaphors. Furthermore,
the samples discussed above are semantically connected more often than
not. This can be explained by the fact that their shape or properties
inspired people to give them similar names. In some cases, as illustrated
above, the vernacular choice name was also informed by the awareness of
the scientific Latin name of the plant. This reveals the fact that we deal
with learned and knowledgeable people who possessed accurate botanical
information rather than making simple analogies, as in the case of most
vernacular metaphors. Thus, numerous Romanian names have been found
to be adaptations of the Latin name and (partial) correspondents of the
English name. In extremely rare cases, the English plant names have no
connection whatsoever with the Romanian ones, being original
innovations in both languages. While some names are anthropomorphic in
one language, their equivalents are zoomorphic in the other. To illustrate
both cases, we may note hart’s tongue (< OE heorot ‘deer’) which is, in
Romanian, limba vecinei ‘neighbour’s tongue’. Few names are downright
contradictory (e.g. floarea-jelei ‘flower of sorrow’ or iarba urâciunii ‘the
grass of ugliness’ are in English brideweed, bridewort, but strangely also

dead men’s bones at the same time). Some plants have undergone
alteration, losing their anthropomorphic reference in either English or
Romanian, though they had originally been akin. For instance, the field
bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) has preserved an anthropomorphic
metaphor only in Romanian (poala Maicii-Domnului), while its medieval
English name was initially Our Lady’s little glass. However, few plant
names differ significantly, while most resemble and call to mind
analogous metaphors, as we have seen above.
Conclusions
Although too few plant names have been analysed for want of space, it
may still be noticed that most of them display the pervasiveness of the
mimesis metaphor. In addition, they often take their English and
Romanian names after the Latin (scientific) name, upholding Latin as the
language of universal understanding, which opens up doors for taxonomic
information. The analysis of plant name metaphors has revealed that most
plant names are the ingenious result of well-informed naturalists or, in
some cases, the work of most inspired simple people, displaying an
infinite grasp of the natural world. Plant names disclose essential
information about plants, especially if they are curative or toxic and they
may enlighten us on a series of properties which could be of use. For that
reason, understanding denominational practices and their etymologies is
essential, as certain metaphors activate specific aspects or features of the
plant. Most significantly, few words fail to live up to their names, whereas
most names have at least one convincing reason to bear certain words. We
have yet to discover the genuine importance of names and their full
connotations, for truth and destiny lie within them. Vernacular metaphors
have undeniably enriched botanical nomenclature, thus being collected by
specialists and maintained alongside scientific names. Moreover, local
names play a very important role in the ethno-botanical study of other
aspects of life, pointing to the vast knowledge people had about their
surrounding universe. Ultimately, anthropomorphised metaphors indicate
the connection between nature and human nature, which points to a
harmonized view of life as interconnectedness.
References
Armitage, M. A. (2006). Armitage’s Native Plants for North American
Gardens. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press.
Dragoescu, Alina-Andreea. (2010). A Study of Metaphors in Compound
Plant Names. In Georgeta RaĠă (Ed.), Teaching Foreign Languages:
Languages for Special Purposes, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing. 42-54.
Grieve, M. (1995). A Modern Herbal. Online: http://botanical.com/.
British Flora. Names of Plants in Latin, English, and Romanian.
Timiúoara: Mirton.
Stokes, John. S. Jr. (1984). Flowers of the Virgin Mary. The Marian
Library/International Marian Research Institute. Dayton, Ohio. Online:
http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/resources/m_garden/JS-FOT VM-
AVE.html.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopaedia. (2004). Online:
http://www.reference.com/browse/Doctrine+of+Signatures.
NAMES OF PESTS IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN
OANA BOLDEA
Introduction
The present paper deals with the problem of crop pests in a different
manner than it has been discussed before. This time it is not a specialist in
plant protection that approaches the matter, but a linguist. Teaching
English to future agriculturists, we could not help but notice that English
and Romanian terms referring to the same pest are not always perfect
equivalents. This made us want to search more into the matter in an
attempt to identify the differences among the terms in the two languages
and, perhaps, even point out to the reason why they occur.
In this way, we hoped to clarify the subject for our students, willing to
help them learn agricultural English more successfully. Also, the subject
is of interest for the people that find themselves in the situation of having
to translate from one language to another, whether they are professional
translators or not.
Methods
The approach used in the paper is that of the comparative analysis.
What we did was to compare English and Romanian terms and underline
the differences in translation. Moreover, where it was possible to get at the
root of the differences, we did, and we tried to explain why they occur.
The material we have used consists of a number of books from various
fields. Naturally, books on entomology proved to be extremely useful,
such as Pălăgeúiu’s Curs de entomologie agricolă, or Quarantine Pests for
Europe, edited by Smith et al. (1995). Still, dictionaries were of utmost
importance for the paper, whether they were “general” ones, such as
DicĠionarul explicativ al limbii române (1998) and Webster’s
Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language (1996), or
specialized ones, like The Wordsworth Dictionary of Botany (1996) and
DicĠionar botanic polyglot (1980). The corpus we worked on is based on
the terms that appear in Plant Protection written by our colleagues (2002).
318 Names of Pests in English and Romanian
Results
What we found was that most terms are perfect equivalents. This
means that they can be translated from one language into the other without
any problem. Such terms are, for instance, Ditylenchus dipsaci Kuhn.
whose equivalent is bulb and stem nematode in English and nematodul
tulpinilor úi bulbilor, in Romanian, or Taeniothrips inconsequens Uzel.
with the English pear thrips and the Romanian tripsul părului. Much in
the same way, Taeniothrips gladioli Hall. is translated into English as
gladiolus thrips and into Romanian as tripsul gladiolelor, while
Acyrtosiphon onobrychidis B.F. becomes green pea louse in English and
păduchele verde al măzării in Romanian.
Another aspect we came across was that some of the Latin terms do
not have equivalents in Romanian, as they have in English. This is what
happens with Aulacaspis pentagona, for instance, for which the English
term is papaya scale, but which lacks the Romanian translation. The same
holds true for Parlatoria blanchardi, with the English date palm scale.
The lack of Romanian equivalents in these cases is easy to account for: the
reason is that the plants these pests attack are not grown in Romania. Since
we do not have the plants, we do not have the pests in question. What the
translator must do in such a circumstance is simply use the Latin name of
the pest.
Discussion and Conclusions

What seemed very inciting when researching the names of pests was
that when differences do occur, Romanian terms seem to be more concrete
than English ones: they seem to give more information about the organism
they name. For instance, Anguina tritici Steinb. has the English equivalent
wheat nematode, which indicates that it is a pest attacking wheat. The
Romanian equivalent comes with new information. Thus, nematodul
boabelor de grâu, in addition to the plant the pest attacks, also indicates
the part of the plant they feed on, namely the grains. The same happens
with Pratylenchus pratensis De Man. While the English term meadow
nematode lets us know that the pest appears on plants growing on
meadows, the Romanian term, nematodul rădăcinilor de graminee,
clarifies the part of the plant attacked (i.e., the roots). For Phylloxera
vastatrix Planch., the English grape phylloxera establishes that it is a pest
attacking grapes, while the Romanian filoxera rădăcinilor de vie is much
more exact, informing that actually it is not the grapes but the vine which
is attacked, and not just any part of the plant, but the roots.
Oana Boldea 319
But it would be wrong to conclude that the new information brought

about by the Romanian term has always to do with the part of the plant
attacked, as discussed above. A good example is Cryptomyzus ribis L., for
which the English term is red currant aphid, establishing which plant is
attacked. The Romanian păduchele galben al coacăzului roúu also gives
the colour of the pest, thus differentiating it from any other aphid that
might attack the same plant.
If the Romanian terms seem to be more exact, in English the same pest
has often two or more names, which does not happen in Romanian.
Synonymy, in this respect, seems to be a characteristic of the English
language. Thus, Heterodera rostochiensis Woll. is nematodul auriu al
cartofului in Romanian, and both golden nematode of potato and potato
root eelworm, in English. This is possible also because in English there
are two terms for nematode, while in Romanian there is but one. Another
such pest is Heterodera schachtii Schmidt., which has one name in
Romanian, nematodul sfeclei, but no less than three in English: sugar beet
nematode, beet eelworm, and beet cyst nematode. Also, for Abraxas
grossulariata L., there are three English terms (currant moth, currant
worm, magpie moth), but only one Romanian term (cotarul agriúului).
Another interesting finding is that the same pests have often different
names in English and Romanian because of the different aspects taken into
consideration when naming them. Thus, for Helix pomatia L., the English
term refers to the place where it can be found, grapevine snail, while the
Romanian term points to physical characteristics of the pest, melcul cu
cochilie. Much in the same way, the English term for Piesma quadrata
Fieb. points to the part of the plant attacked, beet leaf bug, while the
Romanian one refers to the physical appearance of the bug, namely to the
fact that it is small: ploúniĠa mică a sfeclei. This is exactly what happens
with Brachychaudus helichrisi Kalt., for which the English term describes
the effect the bug has on the plant, leaf-curling plum aphid, while the
Romanian name describes the physical appearance of the bug: păduchele
mic al prunului.
What seemed striking to us was that sometimes the names of pests
differ so much from one language to the other that they indicate different
plants as being attacked by the same pest. For instance, Doralis fabae
Scop. has the English black bean aphid, while the Romanian term is
păduchele negru al sfeclei. While the same physical characteristic is kept
in both names (the black colour), the English term points out that it attacks
bean plants, while the Romanian name points to the beet as the damaged
plant. The same holds true for Eulecanium corni Bche., for which the
English term is European peach scale and the Romanian păduchele Ġestos
320 Names of Pests in English and Romanian
al prunului points to a different plant attacked, namely the plum tree. A

third example is Eriosoma lanuginosum Hartig: while the English term,
woolly elm aphid, establishes that it attacks elms, the Romanian one tells
us that it is currants it damages: păduchele lânos al agriúului úi
coacăzului. A reason for this might be that the name was chosen in each
language depending on the plant most often attacked by the pest.
References
Boldea, Oana. (2008). Plant Names in Romanian and English: A
Contrastive Approach. Scientific Papers. Faculty of Agriculture XL:
157-162.
—. (2005). Names of Pests: A Contrastive Approach. The 2nd
International Scientific Conference “Rural Development”.
Proceedings II, 17-19 November, 2005, Lithuanian University of
Agriculture, Kaunas, Lithuania: 54-56.
Pălăgeúiu I. (2002). Curs de entomologie agricolă. Partea generală. [A
Course in Agricultural Entomology. General Part]. Timiúoara: Ed.
Eurobit.
—. (2002). Curs de entomologie agricolă. Partea specială. [A Course in
Agricultural Entomology. Special Part]. Timiúoara: Ed. Eurobit.
RaĠă Georgeta, Manea, D., Giuchici, Camelia & Grozea, Ioana. (2002).
Plant Protection. A Compendium of Technical Terms in Latin, English,
French and Romanian. Timiúoara: Editura Mirton.
Mirton.
Smith, I. M., McNamara, D. G., Scott, P. R. & Holderness, M. (Eds.).
(1995). Quarantine Pests for Europe. Wallingford: CAB International.
Usher, G. (1996). The Wordsworth Dictionary of Botany. Reston, VA:
Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
COMMON NAMES OF PLANT DISEASES
IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH

ND CAMELIA GIUCHICI
Introduction
A good knowledge of the plant disease denomination system can help
both students and academics acquire languages for special purposes more
efficiently. This paper attempts to provide both categories with a practical
method of learning English for Special Purposes or French for Special
Purposes based on the knowledge of the mechanisms that rule this type of
denomination.
Material and Method

The comparative study of common names for plant diseases has been
carried out on a corpus of 513 common names of plant diseases (of which
273 English and 240 French) selected among the data supplied by the
HYPP Project, an encyclopaedic database on plant protection stored on
CD-ROM whose main subject areas are dealt: Study of weeds, Plant
pathology, and Agricultural zoology. HYPP exists in six languages:
German, English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. The data are
not simply translated but, in general, adapted to the biological situation of
each country. HYPP has two aims: to give more information to a user who
already has one or several hypotheses on the problems of a crop, using the
index and the database; and to help in identifying a crop problem. HYPP is
a tool designed for teaching, training and also for farmers and their
development advisers. Teachers and their pupils find a source of important
information for courses of phyto-technology or plant biology. HYPP is
also of interest for farmers, development advisers, technicians of
cooperatives and phyto-sanitary industries because it forms a unique work
summarising plant protection in the whole of western and Mediterranean
Europe. As it is multilingual, HYPP can also be used as a dictionary for
322 Common Names of Plant Diseases in English and French
anyone having translation difficulties. We understand by diseased ‘the

state of a plant which has been infected by a pathogen’.

The comparative analysis shows that there are four ways of naming
plant diseases in both English and French: using plant disease names
indicated as such by the dictionaries; using plant disease names explicitly
indicated as belonging to the field of pathology in general or implicitly
indicated as such by their endings; using generic names of diseases; and
using descriptive and/or explanatory names emphasising the aspect of the
plant and/or effect of the disease on the plant. The figures between
brackets below show the number of occurrences.
1. Names of plant diseases indicated as Plant Pathol.:
- E (170): anthracnose (< F) (11): anthracnose, anthracnose of almond

/ soybean, lucerne anthracnose; blackleg (3); black rot (2): black rot,
false black rot of grapevine; blight (27): blight, Ascochyta / Coryneum
/ Mycospharella / Pinodella blight, chestnut / peach / pepper / pisi /
spinach blight, leaf / pear blossom / pod /spur / stem blight (of maize),
bacterial / early / fire / late blight; blotch (4): blotch, Septoria
nodorum blotch, net blotch of barley; canker (6): canker, Eutypa /
Nectria canker; curl (1): peach leaf curl; die(-back) (6): die-back, die-
back of asparagus / hazel / hazelnut, shoot die-back; leaf rust (1); leaf
spot (4); mildew (23): mildew, American gooseberry / gooseberry /
cucurbit mildew, downy / powdery mildew; mosaic (5): cauliflower /
cucumber / potato / tobacco mildew, rugose mildew ; pox (2): plum
pox; rot (36): rot, Ascochyta / Botrytis / Didymella rot, lettuce rot, rot
on fruits, bunch / collar / crown / foot / root / stem / tuber rot, bacterial
/ bird’s eye / brown / charcoal / firm / grey / soft / violet / white rot;
rust (13): rust, rust of asparagus / wheat, beet / raspberry rust, white
pine rust, crown / stem rust, black / blister / brown / stripe / yellow
rust; scab (4): scab, apple / pear scab, scab of cucurbits; scald (1):
scald of barley; scorch (1): leaf- scorch of strawberry; smut (4): smut,
smut of leek / onion, head smut; wilt (16): wilt, Fusarium / Verticillium
wilt, wilt of cucumber / melon / watermelon, melon wilt, bacterial wilt;
- F (102): anthracnose (15): anthracnose, anthracnose de l’amandier /
du groseiller / de la luzerne / du noyer / de l’olivier, anthracnose
maculée; black rot (< E) (1); blanc (4): blanc, blanc des
Curcubitacées / du lin / du pommier; charbon (3): charbon à
Sphacelotheca / Ustilago, charbon de l’oignon; cloque (1): cloque du
Georgeta RaĠă, Ionel Samfira and Camelia Giuchici 323
pêcher; échaudage (1); enroulement (1): enroulement de la pomme

de terre; flétrissement (3): flétrissement du lin, flétrissement des
bouquets floraux, flétrissement bactérien; fonte (2): fonte du collet,
fonte blanche; frisolée (1): frisolée de la pomme de terre; gale (1):
gale rugueuse; mildiou (< E) (14): mildiou, mildiou de la laitue / de
l’oignon / de la pomme de terre / de la tomate / de la vigne; mosaïque
(9): mosaïque, mosaïque du choufleur / du concombre / de la laitue /
de la pomme de terre, mosaïque du virus du tabac, mosaïque
commune; piétin (4): piétin, piétin-verse; pourridié (3): pourridié,
pourridié laineux de la vigne, pourridié des racines; pourriture (20):
pourriture des capitules / du collet / des racines (de l’artichaut),
pourriture bactérienne / blanche / charbonneuse / grise / noble /
phoméenne; rot (< E) (2): rot blanc / livide; rouille (12): rouille de
l’ail / de l’asperge / du blé / de la betterave / du framboisier / des
graminées / de l’orge / des Ribes, rouille des glumes, rouille brune /
couronnée / jaune / naine / noire, rouille à colonnettes; tavelure (2):
tavelure du poirier / du pommier; verse (3): verse des tiges, piétin-
verse.
2. Names of diseases (indicated as Pathol. and/or by their specific ending:

-mania, -ose, -osis, in English, and -ine and -ose, in French):
- E (12): apoplexy (1); black measles (1); Botrytis (1): Botrytis; cancer
(1): bark cancer of fig; cercosporiose (1): cercosporiose of olive; ergot
(< F) (1); excoriosis (2); gangren(e) (1); Pestalotiopsis (1);
rhizomania (1); tuberculosis (1): tuberculosis of olive-tree;
- F (86): alternariose (4); ascochytose (1); bactériose (6): bactériose,
bactériose du fraisier / du noisetier / du noyer; cercospor(i)ose (2);
chancre (10): chancre à Cytospora / Didymella / Fusicoccum /
Nectria, chancre du figuier / du pêcher / du poirier / du pommier,
chancre de l’écorce / du tronc, chancre bactérien / commun /
européen; cladosporine (1); cladosporiose (1); cylindrosporiose (1);
dégénérescence (1): dégénérescence infectieuse; dépérissement (1):
dépérissement bactérien à Pseudomonas; eutypose (1); excoriose (1);
fusariose (6); Fusarium (1); gangrène (1); graisse (2): graisse de
l’artichaut / du pois; helminthosporiose (4): helminthosporiose,
helminthosporiose de l’orge; kabatiellose (2); mastigosporiose (1);
meunier (1): meunier de la laitue; moniliose (2); nécrose (1): nécrose
du collet; oïdium (9): oïdium, oïdium du groseiller / du lin, oïdium
brun; Pestalotiopsis (1); phomopsis (3): phomopsis, phomopsis du
tournesol; plomb (1): plomb parasitaire; Pseudopeziza (1);
ramulariose (1); rhizocton(i)e (3); rhizomanie (1): rhizomanie de la

betterave; sclérotiniose (4); septoriose (1); suie (1): suie du maïs;
variole (2); verticilliose (6); virose (1): virose à énations de la luzerne.
3. Generic names of diseases:
- E (39): disease (21): Cercospora / Cylindrosporium / Fusarium /

phomopsis / Ramularia / Verticillium / Xanthomonas disease,
anthracnose / smut disease, chocolate spot / dead-arm / ink / mild /
peacock / shot-hole / silver-leaf disease, disease of onion / potato, St.
John’s disease; virus (18): artichoke / barley / beet / cucumber /
lactuca / lettuce / lucerne / pea / potato / Prunus virus, enation /
fizzletop / latent / leafroll / leaf-rolling / mild yellowing / mosaic /
mottled crinkle / necrotic ringspot / severe yellowing / yellow / yellow
dwarf virus, virus yellows, virus A;
- F (21): maladie (17): maladie de l’encre / de la pourriture des racines
/ du plomb parasitaire, maladie de la tache annulaire nécrotique du
pommier / des taches brunes / chocolat / noires, maladie des racines
ligneuses / des stries foliaires de l’orge / des taches brunes de l’orge /
des taches communes de la luzerne / des taches pourpres du fraisier /
des tiges noires de la luzerne / des tumeurs de l’olivier, maladie en œil
de paon des feuilles d’olivier, maladie criblée; virus (4): artichoke
mottled crinkle virus, mosaïque du virus du tabac, pea seed-borne
mosaic virus, virus latent de l’artichaut.
4. Descriptive and/or explanatory names of diseases:
- E (46): banding (1): strawberry vein banding; black stem (1): black
stem of lucerne; corky root (1); drop (1): lettuce drop; flavescence
dorée (1); fleck (2): leaf fleck (of pasture grasses); leaf roll (1): potato
leaf roll; marmor lactucae (1); mould (14): mould of hazelnut /
soybean, fruit / leaf / silique mould, grey / snow / white mould; red
core (1): red core of strawberry root; shot-hole (1); spot (18): spot of
cereals / lucerne / maize, leaf / pod / ring spot, angular / bird’s eye /
black / brown / chocolate / common / eye spot; streak (2): potato leaf-
drop / stipple streak; stripe (1): barley leaf stripe;
- F (20): banding (< E) (1): strawberry vein banding; bigarrure (1):
bigarrure de la pomme de terre; brûlure (2): brûlure, brûlure des
dards; corky root (1); court-noué (1); criblure (1): criblure à
Coryneum; feu (1): feu bactérien; flavescence dorée (1); jaunisse (3):
jaunisse de la betterave / de l’orge, jaunisse grave / modérée /
Georgeta RaĠă, Ionel Samfira and Camelia Giuchici 325
nanisante; moisissure (1): moisissure grise; moucheture (1):

moucheture brune du Dactyle; nervation (1): nervation noire des
Crucifères; panachure (1); pied noir (1); rayure (1): rayure réticulée
de l’orge; rougeot (1): rougeot parasitaire; tacheture (1): tacheture
foliaire. (Figure 7-2)
180 170
160
140
120
102
100 86
80
60 46
39
40
21 20
20
2
0
1 2 3 4
Figure 7-2. Common names of plant diseases in English and French: 1 - plant
pathology; 2 - pathology; 3 - generic; 4 - descriptive/explanatory
Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn:
- the names of plant diseases of the Plant Pathology-type are much

numerous in English than in French (170 vs. 102);
- the names of plant diseases of the Pathology-type (including names
derived with specific suffixes) are seven times less numerous in
English than in French (12 vs. 86);
- the names of plant diseases of the Generic Name-type is almost two
times bigger in English than in French (39 vs. 21);
- the names of plant diseases of the Descriptive Name-type are more
than two times bigger in English than in French (46 vs. 20).
This seems to indicate:
- a great concern for precision on behalf of both English (170) and

French (102) languages (with the only difference that English is far
richer than French in synonyms of this type);
- a more productive derivative system in French (86) than in English

(12);
- a greater tendency towards descriptive (46) and explanatory (39)
names of plant diseases in English in comparison to French ones (20
and 21, respectively).
Borrowings from one language to the other are exceptional, French

translating English names for plant diseases in most cases.
References
HYPP. Version 1.0 copyright © 1994
française. [An Alphabetical and Analogical Dictionary of the French
RaĠă, Georgeta & Giuchici, Camelia. (2002). Common Names of Plant
Diseases: A Comparative Approach (English and French). Proceedings
of the 6th International Symposium “Interdisciplinary Regional
Research Hungary – Romania – Yugoslavia”, University of Novi Sad
(Yugoslavia), 3-4 October, 2002.
York: Random House.
COMMON NAMES OF PLANT DISEASES
IN ROMANIAN AND ENGLISH
GEORGETA RAğĂ, MARIA-ADRIANA PROCA

AND CAMELIA GIUCHICI
Introduction
Approaching a specialized text in any field of knowledge is a true
challenge for anybody, be it a researcher, a professor, a translator, a
student, or a teacher of foreign languages in a technical university, for
instance. Despite its international character, using a specialised vocabulary
can sometimes be troublesome. This is also the case of common names of
plant diseases in languages such as English and French, on the one hand,
and Romanian, on the other hand.
Material and Method

We inventoried a number of 82 Romanian common names of plant
diseases in our Plant Protection. A Compendium of Technical Terms in
Latin, English, French and Romanian (2002). We then picked up their
English equivalents and counted their occurrences in the same source. The
method we used in doing so is the comparative one.

The 82 Romanian common names of plant diseases are as follows:
alternarioză, with 6 English equivalents (black rot, black spot, blight,
early blight, mould, and spot) and 12 occurrences; antracnoză, with 7
equivalents (anthracnose, anthracnose disease, bird’s eye rot, blight,
blotch, ring spot, and spot) and 18 occurrences; arsură, with 3 equivalents
(blight, blotch, and scald) and 3 occurrences; arsura bacteriană, with 6
equivalents (bacterial blight, blight, die-back, spot, tuberculosis, and
Xanthomonas disease) and 9 occurrences; ascochitoză, with 4 equivalents
(anthracnose, Ascochyta rot, black stem, and blight) and 4 occurrences;
băúicare, with 1 equivalent (curl) and 1 occurrence; boala petelor roúii,
328 Common Names of Plant Diseases in Romanian and English
with 1 equivalent (rot brenner) and 1 occurrence; boala plumbului, with 4

equivalents (apoplexy, black measles, esca, and silver-leaf disease) and 5
occurrences; brunificarea úi frângerea, with 1 equivalent (Phomopsis
disease) and 1 occurrence; cancerul, cu 2 equivalents (blight and cancer)
and 2 occurrences; cancerul bacterian, with 1 equivalent (bacterial
canker) and 1 occurrence; cancerul deschis, with 1 equivalent (canker)
and 1 occurrence; cărbunele, with 2 equivalents (anthracnose and bird’s
eye rot) and 2 occurrences; cercosporioza, with 2 equivalents (Cercospora
disease and cercosporiose) and 2 occurrences; ciuruirea, with 5
equivalents (blight, Coryneum blight, shot-hole, shot-hole disease, and
spot) and 5 occurrences; cornul, with 1 equivalent (ergot) and 1
occurrence; eutipoza, with 2 equivalents (die-back and Eutypa canker) and
2 occurrences; excorioza, with 3 equivalents (disease, excoriosis, and false
black rot) and 4 occurrences; făinarea, with 2 equivalents (Oidium and
powdery mildew) and 9 occurrences; făinarea americană, with 2
equivalents (American mildew and mildew) and 2 occurrences; focul
bacterian, with 1 equivalent (fire blight) and 1 occurrence; fuzarioza, with
7 equivalents (die-back, disease, Fusarium, Fusarium disease, Fusarium
wilt, rot, and wilt) and 14 occurrences; îngălbenirea aurie, with 1
equivalent (Flavescence dorée) and 1 occurrence; îngălbenirea moderată,
with 1 equivalent (mild yellowing virus) and 1 occurrence; înnegrirea
bacteriană, with 1 equivalent (bacterial wilt) and 1 occurrence; înnegrirea
úi putregaiul umed, with 1 equivalent (blackleg) and 1 occurrence; mana,
with 5 equivalents (blight, downy mildew, mildew, red core, and rot) and
18 occurrences; monilioza, with 1 equivalent (brown rot) and 2
occurrences; mozaicul, with 6 equivalents (blight, enation virus, marmor,
mosaic, mosaic virus, and virus) and 9 occurrences; mozaicul comun, with
1 equivalent (mild disease) and 1 occurrence; mozaicul „Y”, with 1
equivalent (rugose mosaic) and 1 occurrence; mucegaiul de zăpadă, with
2 equivalents (rot and snow mould) and 2 occurrences; mucegaiul violet,
with 1 equivalent (violet rot) and 2 occurrences; nervaĠiunea neagră, with
3 equivalents (black rot, die, and die-back) and 3 occurrences; pătarea,
with 3 equivalents (brown rot, fleck, and spot disease) and 3 occurrences;
pătarea brună, with 7 equivalents (black spot, blight, brown spot,
common spot, mould, scab, and spot) and 8 occurrences; pătarea brună-
violacee, with 1 equivalent (blight) and 1 occurrence; pătarea cafenie,
with 1 equivalent (mould) and 1 occurrence; pătarea inelară, with 1
equivalent (ringspot virus) and 1 occurrence; pătarea în ochi, with 1
equivalent (eyespot) and 2 occurrences; pătarea neagră, with 2
equivalents (black leg and rot) and 3 occurrences; pătarea reticulată, with
1 equivalent (net blotch) and 1 occurrence; pătarea roúie, with 1
Georgeta RaĠă, Maria-Adriana Proca and Camelia Giuchici 329
equivalent (leaf-scorch) and 1 occurrence; piticirea úi îngălbenirea, with 1

equivalent (yellow dwarf virus) and 1 occurrence; plum-pox, with 1
equivalent (plum-pox) and 2 occurrences; putregaiul, with 6 equivalents
(brown rot, crown rot, die-back, ink disease, rot and white rot) and 9
occurrences; putregaiul alb, with 2 equivalents (rot and white rot) and 5
occurrences; putregaiul alb cu scleroĠi, with 6 equivalents (drop, soft rot,
white mould, and white rot) and 9 occurrences; putregaiul amar, with 2
equivalents (anthracnose and anthracnsoe disease) and 3 occurrences;
putregaiul bacterian, with 1 equivalent (bacterial rot) and 1 occurrence;
putregaiul brun, with 1 equivalent (brown rot) and 1 occurrence;
putregaiul cenuúiu, with 3 equivalents (grey mould, grey rot, and rot) and
8 occurrences; putregaiul uscat, with 2 equivalents (gangren and rot) and
2 occurrences; putrezirea, with 1 equivalent (charcoal rot) and 1
occurrence; rapănul, with 1 equivalent (scab) and 2 occurrences;
rincosporioza, with 2 equivalents (blotch and scald) and 2 occurrences;
rizoctonioza, with 1 equivalent (eyespot) and 2 occurrences; rizomania,
with 1 equivalent (rhizomania) and 1 occurrence; rugina, with 1
equivalent (rust) and 4 occurrences; rugina brună, with 2 equivalents
(brown rust and rust) and 2 occurrences; rugina coronată, with 1
equivalent (crown-rust) and 1 occurrence; rugina cu coloane, with 1
equivalent (blister rust) and 1 occurrence; rugina galbenă, with 2
equivalents (stripe rust and yellow rust) and 2 occurrences; rugina naegră,
with 1 equivalent (black rust) and 1 occurrence; scurt-nodarea, with 1
equivalent (fanleaf) and 1 occurrence; septorioza, with 2 equivalents (late
blight and Septoria nodorum blotch) and 2 occurrences; sfâúierea, with 1
equivalent (stripe) and 1 occurrence; suberificarea, with 1 equivalent
(corky-root) and1 occurrence; útricul, with 1 equivalent (streak) and 1
occurrence; tăciunele, with 1 equivalent (smut disease) and 1 occurrence;
tăciunele comun, with 1 equivalent (smut) and 1 occurrence; tăciunele
prăfos, with 1 equivalent (head smut) and 1 occurrence; uscarea cenuúie,
with 1 equivalent (canker) and 1 occurrence; verticilioza, with 1
equivalent (wilt) and 1 occurrence; veútejirea, with 1 equivalent (wilt) and
4 occurrences; virescenĠa, with 1 equivalent (vein banding) and 1
occurrence; virusul „A”, with 1 equivalent (virus A) and 1 occurrence;
virusul încreĠirii, with 1 equivalent (crikle virus) and 1 occurrence;
virusul îngălbenirii, with 2 equivalents (yellow virus and yellowing virus)
and 2 occurrences; virusul latent, with 1 equivalent (latent virus) and 1
occurrence; virusul mozaicului, with 1 equivalent (mosaic) and 1
occurrence; virusul răsucirii, with 4 equivalents (fizzletop virus, mosaic
virus, roll, and virus) and 4 occurrences.
To these 82 Romanian common names of plant diseases correspond
330 Common Names of Plant Diseases in Romanian and English
166 English common names of plant diseases, which indicates a solid

settlement of such names in English due to the long-lasting tradition in
growing plants in English-speaking countries. The 166 English names
have an impressive number of occurrences (645) compared to the 185
Romanian ones, i.e. 3.52 times more names in English than in Romanian.
Conclusions
Taking all this into account, we are inclined to believe that both
English and Romanian common names of plant diseases are polysemantic
as the multiple meanings of a word are all uses of the same word that have
grown apart over time. The difference is that English has developed a
greater number of nouns to denote plant diseases as it settled long before
Romanian even became a language. The fact that a lot of Romanian names
of plant diseases have English equivalents that do not always have the
same Romanian equivalents is, however, an issue.
References
RaĠă, Georgeta, Proca, Maria-Adriana & Giuchici, Camelia. (2004). On
Common Names of Plant Diseases in English and Romanian. Lucrări
útiinĠifice. Facultatea de Agricultură XXXVI: 614-617.
RaĠă Georgeta, Manea, D., Giuchici, Camelia & Grozea, Ioana. (2002).
Plant Protection. A Compendium of Technical Terms in Latin, English,
French and Romanian. Timiúoara: Editura Mirton.
DOG BREEDS IN CROATIAN AND ROMANIAN
ANICA PERKOVIû, GEORGETA RAğĂ

AND MARTINA PERKOVIû
Introduction
The purpose of this research is to see if there are great similarities or
differences between the lexicographical fields of two different languages
such as Croatian (a Slavic language) and Romanian (a Romance
language).
The hypothesis of the research was that in certain lexicographic fields
(e.g. dog breeds, horse breeds, swine breeds, etc.) dealing with animal
breeds developed within the Anglo-Saxon area, names are in most cases
either borrowed as such or adapted at different levels (phonological,
morphological, semantically, etc.).
Our background information consisted in systematic information from
different similar lexicographical fields, which we corroborated with the
information supplied by a recent Dictionary of European Anglicisms
(Gorlach 2005), on the one hand, and with other lexicographical works, on
the other hand.

In our comparative approach of dog breeds in Croatian and Romanian,
we have analysed dog breed names that have become Anglicisms in a
number of European languages including Croatian and Romanian, such as
supplied by Manfred Gorlach’s Dictionary of European Anglicisms. A
Usage Dictionary of Anglicisms in Sixteen European Languages (2005).
The names of dog breeds inventoried by Gorlach (2005) were compared
with dog breed names of English origin in Croatian and Romanian
comprehensive and language dictionaries.
The method we have used in our analysis is a comparative one: it
consists in studying and comparing two modern languages - in our case,
Croatian and Romanian - from a specific point of view - in our case,
names of dog breeds - in search of similarities and differences between the
332 Dog Breeds in Croatian and Romanian
two languages.

We have inventoried in Gorlach’s Dictionary of European Anglicisms
(2005) a number of 31 dog-related Anglicisms (29 nouns and 1 verb)
(words designating dog-related fields such as: dog breeds, dog types, dog
shows, etc.): Airedale (terrier), basset, beagle, best in show, bobtail,
boxer, bull terrier, bulldog, chow-chow, cocker (spaniel), dingo, dog, dog
cart, fox terrier, golden retriever, greyhound, harrier, husky, mastiff,
Newfoundland, pincher, pit bull terrier, pointer, pup, puppy, setter, sled
dog, spaniel, terrier, trim, and trimming.
Of these 31 dog-related Anglicisms, only 17 (55%) designate dog
breeds: Airedale (terrier) ‘a breed of dog’, basset ‘a breed of short-legged
dog’, beagle ‘a breed of hound’, bobtail ‘a breed of dog’, boxer ‘a dog
with a smooth brown coat and pug like face’, bull terrier ‘a breed of short-
haired dog’, bulldog ‘a dog of a sturdy powerful breed with large head and
smooth hair’, chow-chow ‘a dog of a Chinese breed with long hair and
bluish-black tongue’, cocker (spaniel) ‘a small breed of dog with a silky
coat’, dog ‘a special breed of dog’, fox terrier ‘a short-haired terrier’,
golden retriever ‘a breed of dog with a thick golden-coloured coat’,
greyhound ‘a breed of dog often used for racing’, mastiff ‘a dog of a large
strong breed’, Newfoundland ‘a dog of a very large breed with a thick
coarse coat’, pincher ‘a dog with a cropped tail’, and pit bull terrier ‘a dog
of an American variety of bull terrier, noted or its ferocity’.
All these dog-breed related names can be grouped into 3 categories:
names borrowed by both languages (Croatian and Romanian), names
borrowed only by Romanian, and names not borrowed by either language.
1. Of the 17 Anglicisms designating dog breeds, only 13 (76%) have
been borrowed by both Croatian and Romanian, as shown in Table 7-4
(dog breed names in both italic and bold fonts are names that have
preserved the English spelling intact in both Croatian and Romanian).
None of the Romanian language dictionaries we have consulted
mentions Airedale (terrier) or Newfoundland, which leads to the
conclusion that the author was either misinformed or there has been some
misinterpretation in the process.
As for the rest of dog breed names: baset (pl. baseĠi) is mentioned by
DOOM 2 for the spelling and by DEX ‘98, NODEX, DN, and MDN as an
indirect borrowing through French; beagle is mentioned by MDN as a
direct borrowing from English; boxer is mentioned by DN as an indirect
borrowing through French and by MDN as an indirect borrowing through
Anica Perkoviü, Georgeta RaĠă and Martina Perkoviü 333
French (Fr) or German (G); bull terrier (spelled bull-terrier) is mentioned

by DN as an indirect borrowing through French; buldog (pl. buldogi) is
mentioned by DOOM 2 for the spelling, by DN and MDN as a direct
borrowing from English, and by DEX ‘98, Sinonime, DN, and NODEX as
an indirect borrowing through French (< bouledogue); cocker (spaniel)
and cócher (pl. cocheri) are mentioned by DOOM 2 for the spelling, by
DN, DEX ‘98, and NODEX as direct borrowings from English, and by
DEX ‘98 and NODEX as an indirect borrowing through French; dog (pl.
dogi) is mentioned by DOOM 2 for the spelling, and by DEX ‘98,
NODEX, DN, and MDN as a both direct borrowing from English and an
indirect borrowing through French (< dogue); foxterier (pl. foxterieri) is
mentioned by Sinonime and DOOM 2 for the spelling, and by DEX ‘98,
DN, MDN, and NODEX as indirect borrowing through French; greyhound
is mentioned by MDN as a direct borrowing from English; pincher,
spelled as pinscher, is mentioned by MDN as a direct borrowing from
German (< Pinscher).
Table 7-4. Dog breed names borrowed by both Croatian and

Romanian
Dog breed name

in English in Croatian in Romanian
airedale (terrier) erdel terijer airedale (terrier)
basset basset baset (pl. baseĠi)
beagle beagle beagle
boxer bokser boxer
bull terrier bull terrier bull terrier,
bull-terrier
bulldog bulldog buldog (pl. buldogi)
cocker (spaniel) koker spanijel cocker (spaniel),
cócher (pl. cocheri)
dog doga dog (pl. dogi)
fox terrier foksterijer foxterier
(pl. foxterieri)
greyhound greyhound greyhound
newfoundland njufaundlend (câine) terra-nova
pincher pinü pincher, pinscher
pitbull terrier pitbul pitbul terier
Are considered direct borrowings from English: beagle, buldog, cocker /

cocher, dog, and greyhound (38% of the total dog breed names); are
considered indirect borrowings: baset, boxer, bull-terrier, buldog, cocker /
cocher, dog, and foxterier (< Fr) (54% of the total dog breed names),
boxer (< Fr or G) (8% of the total dog breed names), and pinscher (< G)
(8% of the total dog breed names).
Together with forms identical to the English ones - beagle, boxer, bull
terrier, cocker (spaniel), and dog greyhound (representing 46% of the total
dog breed names) - there are also forms adapted to the Romanian spelling
- baset, bull-terrier, bulldog, cócher, foxterier, and pitbul terrier
(representing 46% of the total dog breed names).
The plural forms of 5 of these dog breed names - baset (pl. baseĠi),
buldog (pl. buldogi), cócher (pl. cocheri), dog (pl. dogi), and foxterier (pl.
foxterieri) - shows that these names have been integrated to the phonetic
and orthographic system of the Romanian language and that they are no
longer felt as foreignisms.
As for Newfoundland, it is rendered in Romanian not by the same
noun, but by some kind of paraphrase - (câine) terra-nova (terra-nova is
an approximate translation of Newfoundland) - while pincher proves to be
a misspelled form of pinscher.
2. A single dog breed name was borrowed by Romanian alone, as
shown in Table 7-5 (names in both italic and bold have preserved the
English spelling intact).
Table 7-5. Dog breed names borrowed only by Romanian
Dog breed name

chow-chow - chow-chow
Chow-chow is mentioned by DN and MDN as an indirect borrowing

through French.
3. According to Gorlach (2005), other 3 dog breed names have been
borrowed by other European languages, but not by Croatian or Romanian:
bobtail (by German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Bulgarian,
Finnish, and Hungarian), golden retriever (by German, Dutch, Norwegian,
Icelandic, French, Spanish, Russian, Bulgarian, and Finnish), and mastiff
(by Dutch, Norwegian, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Polish,
Bulgarian, Finnish, Hungarian, and Greek), as shown in Table 7-6.
Mastif(f) (pl. mastifi) is mentioned by DOOM 2 for its spelling and by
MDN as a direct borrowing from English.
Anica Perkoviü, Georgeta RaĠă and Martina Perkoviü 335
Table 7-6. Dog breed names borrowed by neither Croatian nor

Romanian
Dog breed name

bobtail - -
golden retriever - -
mastiff - -
Conclusions
Dog breeds names borrowed by both Croatian and Romanian show
different tendencies in the two studied languages. Thus, Croatian has
borrowed only 4 dog breed names as such (basset, beagle, bull terrier, and
greyhound) compared to the 8 dog breed names borrowed by Romanian
(Airedale (terrier), beagle, boxer, bull terrier, cocker (spaniel), dog,
greyhound, pincher), preferring to adapt the rest of the names to the
linguistic norms of the language, mainly in spelling (erdel terijer, bokser,
buldog, koker spanijel, doga, foksterijer, njufaundlend, pinþ, and pitbul).
On the other hand, Romanian has both intact English forms and
adaptations for the same dog breed name (bull terrier / bull-terrier, cocker
(spaniel) / cócher (pl. cocheri), and pincher / pinscher), with Romanian
plurals for the forms it adapted (baset (pl. baseĠi), buldog (pl. buldogi),
cócher (pl. cocheri), dog (pl. dogi), foxterier (pl. foxterieri)), which shows
a wider appetite for Anglicisms in Romanian. These plural forms show
that these names have been integrated to the phonetic and orthographic
system of the Romanian language and are no longer felt as foreignisms, be
they direct or indirect borrowings. There is a single dog breed name
borrowed only by Romanian - chow-chow - but this name alone is not
enough to draw a conclusion about the borrowing trends in the two studied
languages. As for the dog breeds names borrowed by neither Croatian nor
Romanian according to Gorlach (2005) - bobtail, golden retriever, and
mastiff - the German author seems misinformed, since the last name is
mentioned by a Romanian language dictionary.
The hypothesis of the research that in certain lexicographic fields (e.g.
dog breeds, horse breeds, swine breeds, etc.) dealing with animal breeds
developed within the Anglo-Saxon sphere, names are in most cases either
borrowed as such or adapted at different levels (phonological,
morphological, semantically , etc.) proved to be correct, with this mention
that Romanian is more inclined to do so than Croatian, maybe because in
most cases dog breed names have come into Romanian through French,
which facilitated their absorption under the cover of French borrowings.

As additional research, we have in mind the study of other similar
lexicographic fields such as the field of horse breed names, poultry breed
names, etc.
References
Aniš, V. (2006). Veliki rjeĠnik hrvatskog jezika. [Great Dictionary of
Croatian Language]. Zagreb: Novi Liber.
DicĠionar ortografic, ortoepic úi morfologic al limbii române. [An
Orthographic, Orthoepic, and Morphological Dictionary of Romanian
Language]. (2005). Bucureúti: Editura Univers Enciclopedic. (DOOM
2)
(DEX ‘98)
Gorlach, M. (2005). A Dictionary of European Anglicisms. A Usage
Dictionary of Anglicisms in Sixteen European Languages. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Marcu, F. & Constant, M. (1986). DicĠionar de neologisme. [A Dictionary
of Neologisms]. Bucureúti: Editura Academiei. (DN)
Marcu, F. (2000). Marele dicĠionar de neologisme. [The Great Dictionary
of Neologisms]. Bucureúti: Editura Saeculum. (MDN)
Noul dicĠionar explicativ al limbii române. [The New Explanatory
Dictionary of the Romanian Language]. (2002). Bucureúti: Editura
Litera InternaĠional. (NODEX)
RaĠă, Georgeta. (2010). Nume de rase canine în limba română: o abordare
etimologică. [Names of Dog Breeds in Romanian: An Etymological
Approach]. Agrobuletin AGIR 4: 129-133.
Perkoviü, Anica, Rata, Georgeta & Perkoviü, Martina. (2009). Dog Breeds
in Croatian and Romanian: A Comparative Approach. Proceedings of
the 44th Croatian and 4th International Symposium on Agriculture:
747-751.
Seche, M. & Seche, L. (2002). DicĠionar de sinonime. [A Dictionary of
Synonyms]. Bucureúti: Editura Litera InternaĠional. (Sinonime).
VERBS OF ANIMAL COMMUNICATION
IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND ROMANIAN
GEORGETA RAğĂ AND IASMINA IOSIM
Introduction
The verbs of animal communication are verbs denoting the way in which
people perceive sound communication in animals. The analysis of their
origin and language use levels in different languages shows a very
dynamic evolution in this category of verbs.
Material and Method

We have used in the inventory of the verbs of animal communication
some of the best English, French, and Romanian language dictionaries.
The method we have used in the study of these verbs is the
comparative one – a method based on the resemblances and differences
between root words, affixes, basic forms and variants, explanations, etc.

1. English verbs of animal communication. A number of 57 English
verbs of animal communication have been inventoried: baa, bark, bawl,
bay, bell, bellow, bleat, boom, bray, burble, cackle, call, caw, chatter,
cheep, chirp, chuck, chuckle, cluck, coo, croak, crow, cry, gabble,
gaggle, growl, grunt, hiss, honk, hoot, howl, low, meow / mew / miaou /
miaow / miaul, moo, murmur, neigh, peep, pur / purr, quack, rattle,
roar, scream, sing, snort, squeal, thrill / trill, tinkle, twitter, utter, wail,
warble, whinny, whistle, yap yelp, and yodel / yodel. From an
etymological point of view, 37 of these verbs have an attested English
origin (Old English and Middle English: bark, bawl, bell, bellow, bleat,
boom, burble, call, chatter, chirp, chuck, cluck, croak, crow, cry, growl,
grunt, hiss, hoot, howl, low, murmur, neigh, peep, quack, rattle, roar,
scream, sing, snort, squeal, tinkle, twitter, utter, whistle, and yelp), 3
338 Verbs of Animal Communication in English, French, and Romanian
have an attested French origin (Old French and Old North French: bay,
bray, and warble), 2 have an attested German origin (Germanic and
German: gaggle and yodel / yodel), 1 is Italian (thrill / trill), and 1 is
Scandinavian (wail).
As the verbs of animal communication show the way humans perceive
sounds produced by animals, there are a considerable number of imitative
verbs (13) resulted from a process in which a word belonging to one word
class (in our case, mimetic words) gets to be used as part of another word
class without the addition of an affix – a process called conversion,
reclassification, or functional shift: baa, cackle, caw, cheep, chuckle,
coo, gabble, honk, meow / mew / miaou / miaow / miaul, moo, pur / purr,
whinny, and yap.
2. French verbs of animal communication. A number of 81 French
verbs of animal communication have been inventoried: aboyer ‘bark,
yowl, bay, cry, woof, howl, wail’, babiller ‘twitter, babble, prattle, chatter;
murmur’, barrir ‘trumpet’, bégueter ‘to utter the characteristic cry of a
goat’, béler ‘baa, beat out, bleat’, beugler ‘bawl, roar’, blatérer ‘to utter
the characteristic cry of a sheep’, bourdonner ‘buzz, hum; ring; drone’,
braire ‘bray, heehaw’, bramer ‘bell’, cacaber ‘to utter the characteristic
cry of a partridge’, cacarder ‘gaggle’, cajoler ‘to utter the characteristic
cry of a magpie’, cancaner ‘gosip, tattle’, caqueter ‘cackle’, carcailler ‘to
utter the characteristic cry of a quail’, chanter ‘sing, chant; chirp’,
chuinter ‘cry’, clabauder ‘yelp, bark, yap’, clapir ‘squeal, emit a sharp
shrill cry, squawk’, coasser ‘croak’, crailler ‘scream’, craqueter ‘to utter
the characteristic cry of a crane’, criailler ‘cry’, crier ‘cry, scream, shout,
yell; call, clamour; crow, shriek, sing out’, croasser ‘caw, croak’,
gazouiller ‘chirp, warble’, gémir ‘whine’, glapir ‘bark, squeak, yelp’,
glatir ‘to utter the characteristic cry of an eagle’, glouglouter ‘bubble,
gurgle’, glousser ‘chuckle, cluck, chortle, gobble, squawk’, grailler
‘croak’, grisoller ‘warble, sing with trilled and modulated voice’, grogner
‘grumble, grunt, rumble, murmur, plain, mump, snort’, grommeler
‘grumble, mutter; grunt, murmur’, gronder ‘rumble, growl, roar, grumble’,
hennir ‘neigh, whinny’, huer ‘hoot’, hululer / ululer ‘hoot, screech,
ululate’, hurler ‘shriek, screech, yell; howl, roar, bellow, squeal; wail,
bawl; shrill, squall’, jaboter ‘chatter, prattle; babble, gossip; tattle, prate’,
jacasser ‘chatter, prattle; jabber, twitter’, japer ‘yap, chatter, nag’,
jargonner ‘jabber, chatter, prattle; mumble, babble’, jaser ‘chatter, prattle;
babble, gossip; tattle, prate’, lamenter ‘lament, weep, wail; moan, mourn’,
margauder / margot(t)er ‘to utter the characteristic cry of a quail’,
meugler ‘moo, make a mooing sound (like a cow)’, miauler ‘mew, meow;
caterwaul’, mugir ‘bellow, roar, boom, blow’, nasiller ‘snuffle, speak with
Georgeta RaĠă and Iasmina Iosim 339
a nasal, speak with a twang’, pépier ‘chirp, tweet, twitter, chirrup, peep’,
piailler ‘squeak, squeal’, piauler ‘cheep, squeak’, raire ‘growl’, râler /
raller ‘moan, growl, grumble’, ramager ‘to utter the characteristic cry of a
dove’, rauquer ‘growl, make a low guttural sound (of an animal)’, réer
‘growl, make a low guttural sound (of an animal)’, renâcler ‘grumble;
balk’, ronronner ‘purr, whir, drone’, roucouler ‘coo’, rugir ‘roar’, siffler
‘whistle, blow, wheeze, hiss’, striduler ‘stridulate’, triller ‘trill’, trompeter
‘trumpet’, and vagir ‘cry, wail, lament’.
From an etymological point of view, 25 of these verbs have an attested
Latin origin (barrir, béler, beugler, blatérer, cacaber, chanter, coasser,
gémir, glapir, glatir, grogner, gronder, hennir, hululer / ululer, hurler,
lamenter, meugler, mugir, pépier, raire, réer, rugir, siffler, striduler, and
vagir), 20 have an old and new attested French and Provençal etymon
(bégueter, bourdonner, bramer, cajoler, cancaner, clabauder, craqueter,
criailler, glouglouter, grailler, jaboter, jacasser, margauder /
margot(t)er, râler, ramager, rauquer, renâcler, ronronner, triller, and
trompeter), and 1 has an attested Dutch etymon (grommeler). A
considerable number of these verbs (19) have formed on French “soil”,
with the most productive affixes being -(et)ter (bourdonner, cancaner,
clabauder, craqueter, glouglouter, grailler, jaboter, jargonner, nasiller,
râler / raller, ramager, rauquer, ronronner, triller, and trompeter), -
ailler, -asser, and -iller (criailler, jacasser, and nasiller) and a single
prefix, re- (renâcler).
Though, as a rule, the verbs of animal communication show the way
humans perceive sounds produced by animals, there are relatively few
imitative verbs (16): babiller, cacarder, caqueter, carcailler, chuinter,
crailler, croasser, gazouiller, grisoller, huer, japer, jaser, miauler,
piailler, piauler, and roucouler.
3. Romanian verbs of animal communication. A number of 47
Romanian verbs of animal communication have been inventoried: a bate
‘bark, yap’, a behăi ‘baa’, a boncăi / boncălui ‘low, bellow’, a cârâi
‘croak’, a cârcâi ‘cluck’, a ciripi ‘chirp’, a chelălăi ‘yap’, a chiĠăi /
chiĠcăi ‘squeak’, a cloncăi ‘cluck, chuck’, a cloncăni ‘croak’, a corcorozi
‘cluck’, a cotcodăci ‘cluck’, a croncăi / croncăni ‘croak’, a cucuriga /
cucurigi ‘to utter the characteristic cry of a cock or rooster’, a fluiera
‘whistle’, a gâgâi ‘gaggle’, a gânguri ‘coo’, a gunguni / gunguri ‘coo’, a
grohăi ‘grunt’, a hămăi / hâmâi ‘yap’, a lătra ‘bark, yap’, a măcăi ‘to
utter the characteristic cry of a duck’, a măcăni ‘to utter the characteristic
cry of a duck’, a mârâi ‘snarl’, a mehăi ‘baa’, a mierlăi / miorlăi / miorlâi
‘meow’, a mieuna / mioni / miuna ‘meow’, a mormăi ‘growl, grumble’, a
mormorosi ‘growl, grumble’, a mugi ‘moo’, a necheza ‘neigh, whinny’, a
orăcăi ‘croak’, a piscui ‘chirp’, a piui ‘chirp’, a rage / răgi ‘bray, roar’, a
râncheza ‘neigh, whinny’, a sâsâi ‘hiss’, a schelălăi ‘yap’, a scheuna
‘yelp, yap’, a striga ‘cry, call’, a úuiera ‘hiss’, a toarce ‘pur’, a Ġârâi
‘chirp’, a ĠâĠâi ‘chirp’, a Ġipa ‘cry’, a ugui ‘coo’, and a zbiera ‘cry,
bellow’.
From an etymological point of view, 6 of these verbs have an attested
Latin etymon (a bate, a lătra, a mugi, a rage / răgi, a úuiera, and a
toarce) and 1 verb has an attested Serbo-Croatian etymon (a boncăi).
Most of these verbs (27) have formed on Romanian “soil”, with the
most productive suffixes being -ăi (a behăi, a chiĠăi / chiĠcăi, a cloncăi, a
grohăi, a hămăi, a măcăi, a mehăi, a mierlăi / miorlăi, and a orăcăi), -âi
and -i (a cârâi, a hâmâi, a mârâi, a miorlâi, a Ġârâi, and a ciripi, a
cotcodăci, a cucurigi, a mioni, a piui, respectively), -a and -ăni (a
cucuriga, a fluiera, a mieuna, and a cloncăni, a croncăni, a măcăni,
respectively), and -ui (a piscui,), and a single prefix, s- (a schelălăi).
Though, as a rule, the verbs of animal communication show the way
humans perceive sound produced by animals, there are relatively few
imitative formations (7): a cârcâi, a chelălăi, a corcorozi, a gâgâi, a
gânguri, a gunguni, and a sâsâi.
Conclusions
As shown in Figure 7-3, the following conclusions can be drawn from
what we have presented above:
- as far as the verbs of animal communication with attested etymon are

concerned, the French language has 48 such verbs, English has 41, and
Romanian has only 7;
- as far as the verbs of animal communication produced through
derivation are concerned, the Romanian language has 27 such verbs,
French has 18, while English has none;
- as far as the imitative verbs of animal communication are concerned,
the French language ahs 16 such verbs, English has 13, and Romanian
has only 7.
From the point of view of a Romanian student in animal husbandry,

English verbs of animal communication seem to be easier to understand
and to learn than French ones, as most of them are (al)most identical with
the sound(s) uttered by the animals.
Georgeta RaĠă and Iasmina Iosim 341
50 46
44
45
40
35
30 27
25
19
20 16
15 13
10 7 7
5
0
0
1 2 3
Figure 7-3. Comparison between English, French, and Romanian verbs of animal
communication from the point of view of their attested etymon (1), derivational
character (2), and imitative character (3)
References
Alcock, J. (1989). Animal Behaviour: An Evolutionary Approach.
Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.
Enciclopedic.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Radanov, Iasmina. (2003). Verbs of Animal
Communication in English, French and Romanian: A Comparative
Approach. Scientific Papers, Faculty of Agriculture XXXV: 473-478.
RaĠă, Georgeta. (1997). Le verbe et le groupe verbal en français
contemporain. [The Verb and the Verbal Group in Contemporary
French]. Bucureúti : E.D.P. R.A.
—. (1997). Les verbes de communication non-conventionnels. Essai de
classification. [Unconventional Verbs of Communication. A Tentative
Classification]. Studia Universitatis Babeú-Bolyai. Philologia 4: 67-71.
—. (1998). Comunicarea animală: o abordare lingvistică. [Animal
Communication: A Linguistic Approach]. Lucrări útiinĠifice. Medicină
veterinară XXXI: 263-268.
—. (2001). ContribuĠii la teoria comunicării. [Contributions to the Theory
of Communication]. Timiúoara: Editura Mirton.
—. (2001). Verbele de comunicare animală în limba engleză. Încercare de
clasificare. [Verbs of Animal Communication in English: A Tentative
Classification]. Lucrări útiinĠifice. Zootehnie úi Biotehnologii XXXIV:

297-303.
—. (2001). Verbele de comunicare animală în limba franceză. Încercare de
clasificare. [Verbs of Animal Communication in French: A Tentative
Classification]. Economia de piaĠă la etapa actuală: realizări úi
perspective. Lucrări útiinĠifice II. Chiúinău: Universitatea Agrară de
Stat din Moldova. 138-141.
—. (2001). Verbele de comunicare animală în limba română. Încercare de
clasificare. [Verbs of Animal Communication in Romanian: A
Tentative Classification]. Lucrări útiinĠifice. Zootehnie úi Biotehnologii
XXXIV: 416-419.
française. [Alphabetical and Analogical Dictionary of the French
York: Random House.
Publishing Company.
ENGLISH ANIMAL IDIOMS
AND THEIR ROMANIAN EQUIVALENTS (I)
ANDREEA VARGA
AND ASTRID-SIMONE GROSZLER
The purpose of this research paper is to establish semantic and cultural

similarities and differences when translating animal idioms from English
into Romanian.
Idioms are terms or phrases whose meaning cannot be inferred simply
from the meaning of each of its words, but they comprise a figurative
significance which is known through common use. (Idioms. Online:
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/) The definition of idioms can be
narrowed down to words collocated together which become fossilized and
which, eventually, alter the meaning of the words that exist.
Collocations “consist of two or three lexical (sometimes called full,
descriptive, substantial) words, usually linked by grammatical (empty,
functional, relational) words. The collocates within a collocation define
and delimit each other by eliminating at least some of their other possible
meaning; the defining may be mutual and equally balanced, but more often
it is closer for one to collocate than for the other.” (Newmark 1980) A
collocation can be sundered into syntagmatic or horizontal, thus relaying
on a common structure, or paradigmatic or vertical, residing in words
pertaining to the same semantic field which may function as substitutes for
each other or be semantic opposites. These fall within their category and
become collocations only when arrayed syntagmatically.
In effect, idioms are colloquial metaphors requiring some foundational
cognizance, information or experience, employed within a culture where
the interlocutors must have a common reference point. Perforce, they
constitute more than just a semantic part of language, but rather a totem of
a particular culture. Nonetheless, metaphorical idioms can be construed
as more universal since animals occur in all cultures as embodiments of
particular features.
Another operating concept that bolsters up the thesis of this paper is
equivalence: defined under a larger scope, it constitutes the result of a
translation process revolving around the identity relation between two
344 English Animal Idioms and Their Romanian Equivalents (I)
terms pertaining to two different languages and possessing almost the

same connotation and denotation. Reduced to a more narrow meaning,
equivalence is a translation technique which presupposes rendering a term
or set phrase in the source language into a different term in the target
language, but preserving the correspondence with the same reality.
Equivalences are established between texts integrating in a certain culture,
in a particular communication context, and which are perceived as
consequences of the interaction between the translator and the text.
Several types of equivalence can be distinguished: cognitive (engendered
by the semantics of the text and the knowledge brought forth by the
translator, based on real or unreal experiences), emotional (intuitive),
denotative (conveying the information advanced by the source language
text), connotative (preserving the style, the language register, the sociolect,
the geographical outreaching of the expressions), standard or normative
(according to the genre of the text for translation, for example, a textbook,
an advertisement, etc.), pragmatic or dynamic (adapted to the knowledge
of the reader in order to be comprehended) (Lungu-Badea 2003).
The plethora of animal idioms can be subdued to manicheistic
segregation, embodying either the good or the bad. Herd animals, in
general, horses, cattle, are associated with fertility as inheritance from the
Celts and, thus, gain positive coordinates. However, they preserve specific
features of characteristic behaviour which are emphasized and employed
at a metaphorical level: a cash cow (a profitable business), a dark horse (a
candidate who is little known to the general public), a horse of a different
colour (something totally separate and different), a sacred cow (a belief or
system that is treated with much respect and is not usually criticized), as
gentle as a lamb (very gentle), as innocent as a lamb (having no guilt,
naïve), as meek as a lamb (quiet, docile, meek), as strong as a horse / ox
(very strong), by shank’s mare (surprise, excitement),holy cow (surprise,
excitement), horse sense (common sense, practical thinking), horse trade
(to bargain in a hard and skilful way), like lambs to the slaughter (quietly
and without complaining about the dangers that may lie ahead), on
horseback (on the back of a horse), straight from the horse’s mouth
(directly from the person who said something, directly from a dependable
source), the black sheep of the family ( the worst or the most unpopular
member of a family), to back the wrong horse (bet on the wrong horse), to
change horses in midstream (to make new plans or choose a new leader
in an activity), to eat like a horse (to eat a lot), to flog / beat a dead horse
(to continue fighting a battle that has been won), to get off one’s high
horse (to begin to be humble and agreeable), to get on one’s high horse
(to behave with arrogance), to hold one’s horses (to wait, to be patient), to
Andreea Varga and Astrid-Simone Groszler 345
hoof it (to walk or run), to horse around (to play around in a rough way),
to lock the barn door after the horse is gone (to try to deal with
something after it is too late), to look a gift horse in the mouth (to
complain if a gift is not perfect), to put (someone or something) out to
pasture (to retire someone or something, just as you would put a horse that
is too old to work out to pasture), to put the cart before the horse (to do
things in the wrong order), to ride herd on (someone) (to watch closely
and strictly supervise someone), to separate the sheep from the goats (to
divide people into two group), to work like a horse (to work very hard),
until the cows come home (for a very long time), wild horses could not
drag (someone away) (there is nothing that will force someone to go
somewhere or do something), you can lead a horse to water (but you
can’t make it drink) (you can give someone the opportunity to do
something but you cannot force him or her to do it if they do not want to).
On the other hand, bad animals are usually associated with the snake or
the wolf: a snake in the grass (a treacherous or underhand person), a
snake-pit (any arena where people are viciously fighting each other for
power). Serpents symbolize trouble corollary to strife and infertility,
whereas wolfs, though paragons of loyalty, success, perseverance,
stability, thought, intuition, learning, occur in idioms with negative
connotations: a lone wolf (someone who prefers to spend time alone and
has few friends), a wolf in sheep’s clothing (a person who pretends to be
good), to cry wolf (to give a false alarm, to warn of a danger that is not
there), to keep the wolf from the door (to maintain oneself at the most
basic level), to keep the wolves at bay (to fight against some kind of
trouble), to throw (someone) to the wolves (to send someone into danger
without protection, to sacrifice someone), to wolf down (something) (to
gulp down something, to eat something quickly).
Idioms and collocations can be posited as having a Romanian
equivalent and sharing the same common feature of the animate subject.
Such an eloquent example is to hold one’s horses (R a Ġine caii în frâu),
which elicits the power, strength, freedom, wildness of the horse.
However, if we are to consider the idiom to bet on the wrong horse, it is
most obvious why it has no Romanian equivalent. Horse racing is so
deeply inveterate in English tradition that it has almost become an iconic
sport. But not in Romanian culture. The idiom to look a gift horse in the
mouth has a perfect equivalent in calul de dar nu se caută la dinĠi, which
underscores that horses were an expensive, wealthy gift in both traditions.
The lamb is cogently perceived as meek and innocent in both of the
aforementioned languages, the idioms having literal translations in the
latter language: as gentle as a lamb preserves its structure based on a
346 English Animal Idioms and Their Romanian Equivalents (I)
simile in Romanian and is translated by blând ca un mieluúel, like lambs

to slaughter is rendered as ca mielul la tăiere, the black sheep of the
family becomes oaia neagră a familiei (maybe also due to the biblical
reference). Swine are universally tropes of filth, ordure, dung and
inferiority: E to cast pearl before swine – R a arunca perle la porci, E as
fat as a pig – R gras ca un porc. Nonetheless, they are associated in the
Chinese tradition with being highly intelligent, scholarly, easily angered,
easily swayed, and affected by emotions (which is fully true). To further
continue our analysis on equivalents, the bull is another universal paragon
of wealth, potency, beneficence, generative force, male procreative
strength, kingship, taming of the masculine and animal nature. These traits
are shed light upon in the following idioms: as strong as a bull (R
puternic ca un taur) and to take the bull by the horns (R a apuca taurul
de coarne). The mouse is subsumed under the same category of
universally acknowledged animals for a characteristic feature illustrated in
the idiom as poor as a mouse church, its Romanian counterpart being
sărac ca un úoarece de biserică, which explains the pervasiveness of the
church in all cultures.
On balance, animal idioms may revolve around the same trait of
characteristic behaviour which is inherent in the animal, they may be
attached features eloquent for a particular geographic space, or they may
inherit traits a posteriori as a consequence of their social, historical or
religious involvement and significance in these events. Idioms enucleate a
cornucopia of details in the history of a language explaining for alterations
and providing with depictions of certain cultures.
References
Idioms. Online: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/
Newmark, P. (1980). Approaches to Translation. Phoenix, AR: ELT.
Perkoviü, Anica, RaĠă, Georgeta, Perkoviü, Marina & Turalija, Alka.
(2009). Animal Idioms in Different Languages. Proceedings of the
Second International Conference “Research People and Actual Tasks
on Multidisciplinary Sciences” Lozenec, Bulgaria 3: 120-124.
Varga, Andreea & Groszler, Astrid-Simone. (2008). Animal Idioms and
Their Romanian Equivalents. Scientific Papers, Faculty of Agriculture
40 (3): 369-373.
ENGLISH ANIMAL IDIOMS
AND THEIR ROMANIAN EQUIVALENTS (II)
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the way in which English animal
idioms are put into Romanian. By that we mean to observe not just
whether or not English animal idioms have a Romanian equivalent, but
also how many of these equivalents stick to the choice of the animal name
instead of just giving a semantic equivalent.
We know that idioms are terms or phrases whose meaning cannot be
inferred simply from the meaning of each of its words, but they comprise a
figurative significance which is known through common use. We can say
that idioms are colloquial metaphors requiring some foundational
cognizance, information or experience, employed within a culture where
the interlocutors must have a common reference point. Idioms with a
metaphorical meaning can be construed as more universal since animals
occur in all cultures as embodiments of particular features.
We have shed some light upon the term idiom. Another term that must
be subdued to our attention is equivalency. In Baker (2001), there is a
definition of equivalency as ‘the relationship of a source text (ST) and a
target text (TT) that allows the TT to be a translation of the ST in the first
place. Equivalence relationships are also said to hold between parts of STs
and parts of TTs. […] equivalence is commonly established on the basis
of: the source language (SL) and target language (TL) words supposedly
referring to the same thing in the real world, i.e. on the basis of their
referential or denotative equivalence; the SL and TL words triggering the
same or similar associations in the minds of native speakers of the two
languages, i.e. their connotative equivalence; the SL and TL words being
used in the same or similar contexts in their respective languages, i.e. what
Koller (1989) calls text-normative equivalence; the SL and TL words
having the same effect on their respective readers, i.e. pragmatic (Koller
348 English Animal Idioms and Their Romanian Equivalents (II)
1989) or dynamic equivalence (Nida 1964); the SL and TL words having

similar orthographic or phonological features.’
Also the concept of textual equivalence comes up, defined as the
combination of similarities in ST and TT information flow and the
cohesive roles of ST and TT devices in their respective texts. We may
speak of functional equivalence when we deal with the translator’s
decision as to which consideration to be taken into account at any time.
Material and Method

We have inventoried 82 English animal idioms gathered from English
language and specialised dictionaries. Then, we have looked for the
Romanian counterparts of the English animal idioms analysing their
equivalency and frequency.
Results
The idioms we have analysed include bird and insect idioms. The
animals’ characteristic physical or behavioural features are put to display
in the following: like a bat out of hell (‘moving very quickly’), like a bear
with a sore head (‘very irritable and bad-tempered’), eager beaver
(‘hardworking and enthusiastic, overzealous’), have a bee in one’s bonnet
(‘have an obsessive idea’), the bee’s knees (‘exceptionally good’), birds of
a feather (‘very similar in many ways’), kill two birds with one stone
(‘succeed in doing two things at the same time’), like a red flag to a bull
(‘sure to make someone very angry’), take the bull by the horns (‘dealing
with a difficult situation or problem’), a social butterfly (‘a person who
has a lot of friends and acquaintances and likes to flit from one social
event to another’), a cat in gloves catches no mice (‘being too careful and
polite prevents you from obtaining what you want’), a cat can look at a
king (‘nobody is so important that an ordinary person cannot look at or be
curious about them’), a fat cat (‘rich and powerful person misusing his/her
money and power’), herding cats (‘difficulty of coordinating a situation
which involves people who all want to act independently’), let the cat out
of the bag (‘reveal a secret, often not intentionally’), like a cat on hot
bricks (‘very nervous or restless’), like something the cat dragged in
(‘dirty, untidy or generally unappealing’), play cat and mouse (‘treat
someone alternately cruelly and kindly, so that they do not know what to
expect’), raining cats and dogs (‘raining very heavily’), wait for the cat to
jump (‘delay taking action until you see how events will turn out’),
chicken out of something (‘not doing something because of fear’), like a
headless chicken (‘without thinking or analyzing the situation carefully’),

till the cows come home (‘long time’), crocodile tears (‘false tears
showing insincere grief’), eat crow (‘admit that you were wrong about
something and apologize’), as the crow flies (‘distance measured in a
straight line’), dog’s life (‘a situation or job which you find unpleasant or
unsatisfactory’), dog eat dog (‘intense competition and rivalry in pursuit of
one’s own interests, with no concern for morality’), a dog in the manger
(‘someone who stops others enjoying something he cannot use or doesn’t
want’), every dog has its day (‘everyone can be successful at something at
some time in their life’), give a dog a bad name (‘be blamed or suspected
after losing your reputation’), help a lame dog over stile (‘help someone
who is in difficulty or trouble’), like a dog with two tails (‘extremely
happy’), a dog’s breakfast (‘a complete mess’), go to the dogs (‘becoming
less successful or efficient than before’), let sleeping dogs lie (‘not
interfering with a situation because one could cause problems’), the tail
wagging the dog (‘reversal of roles, with a small or minor element of
something having a controlling influence on the most important element’),
why keep a dog and bark yourself? (‘if someone can do a task for you,
there’s no reason to do it yourself’), dog and pony show (‘marketing event
or presentation which has plenty of style but not much content’), donkey
work (‘unpleasant, boring parts of a job’), talk the hind leg off a donkey
(‘describing a very talkative person’), take to something like a duck to
water (‘doing something naturally and easily, without fear or hesitation’),
a sitting duck (‘an easy target, a person who is easy to deceive’), like
water off a duck’s back (‘having no effect at all’), fish in troubled waters
(‘trying to gain advantages for yourself from a disturbed state of affairs’),
fish out of water (‘feeling uncomfortable because of an unfamiliar
situation or unfamiliar surroundings’), a different kettle of fish
(‘something completely different from what was previously mentioned’),
drink like a fish (‘drink heavily’), have other fish to fry (‘having more
important things to do’), there are (plenty of) other fish in the sea (‘that
there are many other people just as good as the one somebody failed to
get’), neither fish nor fowl (‘describing people or things that are difficult
to classify, that are neither one thing nor another’), have a flea in one’s ear
(‘be angrily reprimanded or humiliated’), drop like flies (‘fall ill or die in
large numbers’), fly in the ointment (‘someone or something that prevents
a situation from being completely satisfactory’), fly on the wall (‘person
who watches a situation without being noticed’), have a frog in one’s
throat (‘have difficulty in speaking clearly, because of a cough or a sore
throat’), all his geese are swans (‘referring to someone who constantly
exaggerates the importance of somebody or something’), cook somebody’s
goose (‘spoil a person’s chance of success’), have goose pimples (‘have

the skin temporarily raised into little lumps because of cold or fear’), a
wild goose chase (‘wasting a lot of time looking for something you might
not find’), guinea pig (‘people on whom new methods, treatment or ideas
are tested’), back or bet on the wrong horse (‘support the wrong person’),
get on your high horse (‘start behaving in a haughty manner’), a dark
horse (‘a secretive person’), I could eat a horse (‘I am very hungry’), one-
horse town (‘a small, boring town’), walk into the lion’s den (‘get
involved in a difficult situation’), like a moth to a flame (‘irresistibly
attracted to someone or something’), mouse potato (‘someone spending a
lot of time in front of the computer’), as stubborn as a mule (‘very
obstinate and not willing to listen to anyone or anything’), the world is
your oyster (‘you are free and able to enjoy the pleasures and opportunities
that life has to offer’), proud as a peacock (‘very proud’), pigs might fly
(‘disbelief in something’), make a pig of yourself (‘eat and drink too
much’), Shank’s pony (‘walking, by foot’), smell a rat (‘suspect that
something is wrong’), packed like sardines (‘very crowded’), a snake in
the grass (‘someone who pretends to be your friend while actually
betraying you’), black sheep (‘someone very different from the others and
thus the least respected one’), like turkeys voting for Christmas (‘a
particular option is unlikely to be chosen because it would not be in the
interest of the people concerned’), have a whale of a time (‘have a great
time, enjoy oneself’), and worm’s-eye view (‘a narrow view from the
closest point’).
While trying to find Romanian equivalents for these animal idioms,
the research was carried into effect to the extent that most of them entail
an equivalent. However, there are some instances in which they do not
possess one. We refer hereby to the cultural differences between the
English and Romanian societies, instances where one cannot find
equivalents because of the lack of similarities: a cat can look at a king (in
Romanian there is an idiom that means precisely the opposite: la soare te
poĠi uita, dar la ea ba ‘one is too perfect or too beautiful to be looked at’),
a cat in gloves catches no mice, a dark horse, a dog in the manger, as the
crow flies, give a dog a bad name, have a frog in one’s throat, mouse
potato, one-horse town, Shank’s pony, etc.).
Further on we focus on those idioms which entail a Romanian
equivalent. We can infer that there are two categories of equivalents:
expressions which, while having a similar meaning, do not entail any
animal name (here we might speak of referential or denotative
equivalence) and expressions which include an animal name (may it refer
to the same animal as in the English idiom or to another) – when we imply

connotative or even dynamic equivalence.
In the first category of idiom equivalency we may include: a sitting
duck (R o Ġintă uúoară – literal meaning ‘easy target’), birds of a feather
(R pe aceeaúi lungime de undă – the term used here means ‘wave length’),
chicken out of something (R a da bir cu fugiĠii ‘joining the runaways’),
get on your high horse (R a fi cu nasul pe sus – the term used means
‘nose’), have a bee in one’s bonnet (R are un cui în cap – the term used
here is nail), like a bat out of hell (R ca fulgerul – reference to the speed
of lightning), like a bear with a sore throat (R cu capsa pusă), like a cat
on hot bricks (R a sta ca pe jar – here the idea of ‘hot’ is maintained
within the semantics of jar ‘embers’, but the animal name is dropped), like
a dog with two tails (R in al nouălea cer – the term used is sky / heaven),
like a headless chicken (R a se arunca cu capul înainte – the term head is
maintained), like turkeys voting for Christmas (R a-úi face iluzii deúarte –
keywords meaning ‘illusions’ and ‘vain’), pigs might fly (R la Sfântul
Aúteaptă – a literal translation would be ‘Saint Waiting’ – the idea of
waiting a long time or R când o face plopul pere úi răchita micúunele –
meaning never), raining cats and dogs (R plouă cu găleata – the term
used here means ‘bucket’), talk the hind leg off a donkey (R a-i merge
gura ca o moară stricată – the term mouth is specified), the bee’s knee (R
buricul pământului ‘the centre of the universe’), etc.
If we examine the Romanian animal idioms, there are idioms in which
the same animal as in the English one occurs, and idioms that contain the
names of different animals (instance based on the cultural differences
already mentioned). The following pertain to idioms exhibiting (almost)
the same animal: a different kettle of fish (R o altă mâncare de peúte),
black sheep (R oaia neagră), crocodile tears (R lacrimi de crocodil), dog
eat dog (R se mănâncă între ei ca úi câinii), dog’s life (R viaĠă de câine),
fish in troubled water (R a pescui în ape tulburi), fish out of water (R ca
peútele pe uscat), fly in the ointment (R ca musca-n lapte), packed like
sardines (R ca sardelele-n cutie), play cat and mouse (R a se juca cu
cineva ca pisica cu úoarecele), take the bull by the horns (R a lua taurul
de coarne), there are (plenty of) other fish in the water (R e plină balta
de peúte), etc.
As for the idioms containing names of different animals, there are: a
dog’s breakfast (R a o face de oaie – the term used here is oaie ‘sheep),
flea in one’s ear (R cu coada între picioare – if we were to give a literal
translation we would say with the tail between one’s legs, alluding to dog
behaviour), have goose pimples (R a avea piele de găină – just the name
is changed, goose being replaced by găină ‘hen’), kill two birds with one
stone (R a împuúca doi iepuri dintr-un foc – here bird is replaced by

iepure ‘rabbit’, both terms referring to game), let the cat out of the bag (R
a scăpa porumbelul din gură – instead of cat there is porumbel ‘pigeon’, a
bird – the exact opposite), like a red flag to a bull (R a întărâta câinii
printre garduri – bull is replaced by câine ‘dog’), proud as a peacock (R a
se umfla în pene ca curcanul – Romanian farmsteads included curcani
‘turkeys’, but rarely peacocks), take to something like duck to water (R a
se simĠi ca peútele în apă – the term duck is replaced by peúte ‘fish’, both
denominating aquatic animals), the tail wagging the dog (R lupul mâncat
de oaie – the reversed situation here is illustrated by oaie ‘sheep’ and lup
‘wolf’ in inversed roles), worm’s eye view (R vedere de cal – here the
difference is very acute, the English worm being replaced in the Romanian
idiom by cal ‘horse’), etc.
Discussion
The previous section brought forth an account of English animal
idioms and their Romanian counterparts. We have seen that most English
animal idioms entail an equivalent, but a number of animal idioms still
remain which bear no representation in Romanian, a fact induced by
cultural differences. These cultural differences also determine a shift in the
use of animal names within the two languages, resulting in dynamic
equivalents.
Of the 82 English animal idioms studied, only 16 have no Romanian
equivalents, i.e. 20%. Of the 66 Romanian counterparts, 28 (i.e. 34%) do
not contain animal names, though issuing the same meaning. Interesting
enough, of the 38 remaining Romanian animal idioms, 19 (i.e. 23%) share
the English choice of the animal, while the other 19 (23%) take a different
animal name (Figure 7-4).
Our research has clearly shown that, though most English animal
idioms entail a Romanian equivalent from the point of view of semantics,
these counterparts do not always take an animal name. Animal names may
be replaced by concrete or by abstract nouns, and though they infer the
same meaning as the English one, the mirroring of this meaning is specific
to the respective language.
Animal idioms are also characteristic to the country they pertain to.
Thus, although most English animal idioms built with the help of the
words “pig” and “fish” find an almost perfect literal translation in
Romanian, those sharing the words “dog” and “horse”, as well as insect
and bird idioms, mostly take another animal name in Romanian. This is
possible because the same animal can have different connotations in the
minds of the people pertaining to different cultures, people not sharing the
same mentality and life concepts.
23% 20%
23%
34%
Figure 7-4. English Animal Idioms in Romanian: 20% - no Romanian

counterparts; 34% - Romanian counterparts containing the same animal names;
23% - Romanian counterparts not containing animal names; 23% - Romanian
counterparts containing different animal names
We also found that while some of the collocations in Romanian take an

animal name, it is the exact opposite of the English one (eat like a horse
and “foame de lup” – wolf), there are also English idioms which do not
show a Romanian equivalent, but a Romanian opponent (a cat can look at
a king, the Romanian collocation inferring the exact opposite meaning: la
soare te puteai uita, dar la dânsa ba – perfection which one does not dare
to contemplate).
Conclusions
There is no perfect equivalency between English and Romanian
animal idioms. We have proven this above. We could infer this from the
analysis of the 82 English animal idioms presented, of which only 66
displayed Romanian counterparts. We could also see that only a small
percentage (i.e. 23%) of the animal idioms actually respects the choice of
the English animal name and preserves it within the Romanian language.
Another conclusion that can be drawn is that one of the determiners of

this “imperfect” equivalency is the cultural difference between the English
and the Romanian society, conferring different roles to the same animal.
What we could clearly see was that idioms with “pig” and “fish” had an
almost perfect word-for-word translation in Romanian.
We do believe that this kind of research is needed and can be very
helpful in order to be as accurate as possible when translating English
specialised or non-specialised texts into Romanian and vice versa. Our
intention is to continue our research enlarging our scope beyond the
animal world.
References
Baker, M. (Ed.). (2001). Routledge Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies.
Groszler, Astrid-Simone. (2008). On the Romanian Equivalency of
Animal Idioms in English. Journal of Linguistics Studies 1 (1): 65-70.
Idioms. Online: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com.
Perkoviü, Anica, RaĠă, Georgeta, Perkoviü, Marina & Turalija, Alka.
(2009). Animal Idioms in Different Languages. Proceedings of the
Second International Conference “Research People and Actual Tasks
on Multidisciplinary Sciences” Lozenec, Bulgaria 3: 120-124.
Varga, Andreea & Groszler, Astrid-Simone. (2008). Animal Idioms and
Their Romanian Equivalents. Lucrări útiinĠifice, Facultatea de
Agricultură 40 (3): 369-373.
ENGLISH LOANWORDS IN THE ROMANIAN
OF AGRI-TOURISM INTERNET SITES
GEORGETA RAğĂ, CORNELIA PETROMAN

AND IOAN PETROMAN
Introduction
Romanian Internet sites advertising agri-tourism should be quite different
from other tourism advertising sites, i.e. there should not be as many
English loanwords as in sites advertising travel agencies, tourist
destinations or accommodation, for instance. Though less numerous, these
loanwords seem to have had a life of their own, since they have either
preserved or changed their original form, or even developed inflected or
derivative forms in Romanian, thus showing that they have well adapted
to the Romanian linguistic pattern.

Lexical Borrowings
Analysing the www.agroturism.com site, we have come across the
following loanwords of English origin: agroturism (and its inflected form
agroturismul and its derivatives agroturistic and agroturistice), baruri,
bowling, camping, cicloturism, cluburi, duglas, fast-fooduri, folclor (and
its inflective form folclorul and its derivative form folclorică), meniul,
site-ului, mouse-ul, rafting, ski, ski extreme, snowboard, telecabină,
teleferice, teleski, turism (alone or in noun phrases such as turism
agroturistic (sic!), turism balnear, turism cultural, turism de litoral and
its inflective form turismul de litoral, turism extrem, turism local, turism
montan and its inflective form turismul montan, turism neorganizat,
turism pentru sănătate, turism rural, turism rural cultural, turism rural
ecologic, turism rural úi ecologic, vititurismul, and week-endul.
Some of these loanwords have been borrowed as such, with no change
whatsoever in spelling: bar (< E bar), bowling (< E bowling (alley)),
camping (< E camping (site)), club (< E club), fast-food (E < fast-food),
356 English Loanwords in the Romanian of Agri-Tourism Internet Sites
mouse (< E mouse), rafting (< E rafting), site (< E site), and snowboard
(< E snowboard), but with slight changes in pronunciation in almost all the
cases (except, perhaps, for mouse).
Other English loanwords have changed their form to better adapt to
the Romanian spelling: agrotourism (< E agritourism), cicloturism (< Gk
kuklo ‘circle’ + E tourism), duglas (< E Douglas (fir) (Pseudotsuga
menziesii), folclor (< E folklore), meniu (< E menu), telecabină (< Gk tele
‘far’ + E cabin ‘small room’), and teleferic (< E telpherage ‘distance
transport’).
The omnipresence of the English language and the fashion of English
loanwords have resulted in a strange case of over-correctness: the English
spelling ski, as in Rum ski and ski extrem, and teleski, though the
Romanian language dictionary recommends the spelling schi (this is also
the Romanian pronunciation for the English ski).
Some other English loanwords are mentioned by Romanian language
dictionaries, indicating a double origin: English and French – camping (<
E, F camping), or French and English – club (< F, E club) and folclor (<
F, E folklore).
Some of these loanwords have come into Romanian vocabulary
indirectly, through French, either entirely – bar (< F bar < E bar), folclor
(< F folklore < E folklore), and teleferic (< F téléférique / téléphérique < E
telpherage ‘distance transport’) – or partially – cicloturism (< F
cyclotourisme < Gk kuklo ‘circle’ + E tourism) and telecabină (< F
télécabine < Gk tele ‘far’ + E cabin ‘small room’).
It is interesting to note that most of these English loanwords are not
mentioned by Romanian language dictionaries, though they have had a
pretty long history with us: agroturism, fast-food, meniu, mouse, rafting,
site, ski, ski extrem, snowboard, and teleski.
The following English loanwords have definite articles in Romanian:
agrotourism – agroturismul, meniu – meniul, mouse – mouse-ul, site –
site-ul, turism – turismul, vititurism – vititurismul, and week-end – week-
endul, while the following English loanwords have plural forms in
Romanian: bar – baruri, club – cluburi, fast-food – fast-fooduri, and
teleferic – teleferice. These inflective forms show that the English
loanwords have been adopted and made to sound as any other Romanian
words of the kind, which was not very difficult since the definite article in
Romanian has a postposition. The use of the hyphen is some of these
loanwords proves that this is an ongoing process.
The following English loanwords have derivative forms in
Romanian: agrotourism – agroturistic (adjective in the masculine
singular) and agroturistice (adjective in the feminine plural), as in
distracĠii agroturistice specific sezoniere (‘seasonal specific agri-tourism

attractions’), pensiunile agroturistice (‘agri-tourism guesthouses’), puncte
de atracĠie agroturistice (‘agri-tourism attraction sites’) – and folclor –
folklorică (adjective in the feminine singular) as in zonă folclorică
(‘folklore area’). This must also have been a natural process since gender
and number marks are also post-positioned in Romanian.
Other loanwords are mentioned by Romanian language dictionaries
together with their pronunciation: bowling [báuling], camping
[chémping], and week-end [ǎíchend].
Syntactical Borrowings
If lexical borrowings are more or less part of our everyday life,
together with such names of aquatic parks as AquaMagic or AquaPark
Balada, syntactical patterns have even worse consequences as they may
end in serious distortions of the grammar structure of the Romanian
language. Thus, under the influence of English: though we say, in
Romanian, Băile BăiĠa (‘BăiĠa Spa’), Băile Someúeni (‘Someúeni Spa’),
etc., we have started to also say Turda Băi (‘Turda Spa’) instead of Băile
Turda, following the English pattern; we have also started to drop the
preposition in noun phrases such as pârtie ski (‘ski slope’) instead of
pârtie de ski, tip turism (‘tourism type’) instead of pârtie de ski, and tip
zonă (‘area type’) instead of tip de zonă; we shorten the cardinal points as
in N. jud. (‘in the northern part of the county’) or E de (‘east from’).
Conclusions
A few remarks on the impact of English loanwords on the Romanian
of agri-tourism such as it is on Romanian Internet sites advertising this
modern form of tourism:
- though not numerous, English loanwords appear on sites advertising
agri-tourism in Romania;
- there are English loanwords that have been borrowed as such, with no
changes whatsoever in spelling, except for some slight changes in
pronunciation in almost all the cases, which speaks of the Romanians’
receptiveness as far as foreign languages are concerned;
- there are English loanwords that have changed their form to better
adapt to the Romanian spelling, which speaks of the Romanians’
capacity of adapting almost anything to their language norms;
- there are few cases of over-correctness;
358 English Loanwords in the Romanian of Agri-Tourism Internet Sites
- some English loanwords are mentioned by Romanian language

dictionaries as having two possible origin (English and French);
- some of the English loanwords have come into the Romanian
vocabulary indirectly, through French, entirely or partially;
- most of the English loanwords are not mentioned by Romanian
language dictionaries, though they have produced both inflective and
derivatives forms in Romanian;
- some English loanwords are mentioned by Romanian language
dictionaries together with their pronunciation, which is a good start in
acknowledging this type of lexical items;
- borrowed syntactical patterns may end in serious distortions of the
grammar structure of the Romanian language;
- phrases such as turism rural (agrotourism) (‘rural tourism (agri-
tourism)’) can be misleading since agri-tourism is a form of rural
tourism, not its synonym.
References
Agroturism. Online: www.agroturism.com.
Enciclopedic.
Dictionary].Bucureúti: Ed. Univers Enciclopedic.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Petroman, I. (2006). On English Loanwords in the
Romanian of Tourism (Names of Romanian Travel Agencies). Lucrări
útiinĠifice. Facultatea de Agricultură XXXVIII: 507-510.
RaĠă, Georgeta & Petroman, I. (2006). On English Loanwords in the
Romanian of Tourism (Sites of Travel Agencies in the District of
Timiú). Lucrări útiinĠifice. Facultatea de Agricultură XXXVIII: 503-
506.
RaĠă, Georgeta, Petroman, Cornelia & Petroman, I. (2007). On the English
Loanwords in the Romanian of Agri-Tourism Internet Sites.
Proceedings of Lingua Summit 2007, Trencin, Slovakia: 4 p.
CONTRIBUTORS
Diana-Andreea BOC-SÎNMĂRGHIğAN has a PhD in Linguistics from

the University of the West in Timiúoara (Romania). She is a qualified FFL
teacher and has been teaching French for 9 years. Her experience includes
both French practical courses and several areas of FSP, and she has
already published in these areas. She is a researcher in the field of cross-
linguistics, having worked in French and Romanian, and understands the
practical issues involved in teaching and learning different languages and
transferring research ideas from one language to another.
Oana BOLDEA has been a qualified teacher of English and Romanian for
12 years. Her interest lies both in general English and in ESP, and her
research in these fields has materialized in several research papers,
published in Romania and abroad. She is an assistant lecturer at BUASVM
Timisoara and helps organize the annual international conference on
language education at this university. She has co-authored four university
textbooks and authored English for Vets.
Alina-Andreea DRAGOESCU has a PhD in Philology from the University

of the West in Timiúoara (Romania). She is a qualified EFL teacher and
has been teaching languages for 6 years. Her expertise includes general
English and several areas of ESP. The latter have also provided topics for
two university textbooks and a number of published papers. Her interests
are in the field of conceptual metaphor and other applied linguistics areas.
She contributes papers to the Journal of Linguistic Studies of her
Department and helps organise the annual international conference on
language education at the B.U.A.S.V.M. in Timiúoara.
Petru DRAGOESCU has a BA in agriculture from the Agronomical

Institute in Timiúoara (Romania) and an MA in Farm management
sustainable development from the BUASVM in Timiúoara. He attended
post-university studies in Forage production and conservation, as well as
several other courses and Phare-vet programmes. He has worked as a
qualified teacher at the Iulian Drăcea High School in Timiúoara for 31
years. His areas of interest include agriculture, horticulture, environmental
engineering, ecology, management, and marketing.
360 Contributors
Camelia GIUCHICI has a BSc in Agriculture and a PhD in Agriculture

from the Banat University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary
Medicine in Timiúoara (Romania). She has taught for over 18 years in the
field of plant protection. She is qualified in seed certification and in field
and seed evaluation. She has published widely in these areas. She also has
expertise in coordinating and managing people and budgets. She is
executive manager of the Territorial Inspectorate for Seed Certification
and Propagating Materials. She is a member of international projects in the
field of education and of EU regulation concerning food safety and
phytosanitary services. She has published textbooks in Romania.
Astrid-Simone GROSZLER has an MA in Linguistics, an MA in Political

Sciences, and an MA in Marketing Management granted by the University
of the West in Timiúoara (Romania). A PhD student in philology at the
moment, she is a qualified EFL teacher and has been teaching languages
for over 4 years. Her experience includes both English and German
practical courses and ESP courses, having already published in these areas.
She understands the practical issues involved in teaching and learning
different languages and transferring research ideas from one language to
another. She has also worked as an interpreter for German, English, and
Dutch.
Scott HOLLIFIELD, a doctoral candidate at the University of Nevada in

Las Vegas (U.S.A.), earned a BA in Film Studies and an MA in English
Literature from the Wayne State University in Detroit, MI (U.S.A.).
Recent UNLV teaching assignments have included Shakespeare’s
Comedies and Histories, British Literature c. 1000-1700, and World
Literature. An intense interest in the process of adapting Shakespeare to
film led to his doctoral dissertation-in-progress: ‘Myn auctour shal I
folwen, if I konne’: Shakespeare Adapting Chaucer, under the supervision
of Dr. Evelyn Gajowski. He has participated in recent linguistic inquiries
while producing solo essays on Kenneth Branagh’s As You Like It (2006)
and Ye yan (“The Banquet” 2006) for the Borrowers and Lenders: The
Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation. To keep these several interests
in order, he maintains active membership in the Shakespeare Association
of America, The New Chaucer Society, and The Modern Language
Association.
Iasmina IOSIM has a BA in Communication and Languages and an MA in

Applied Linguistics from the Tibiscus University in Timisoara, and a BSc
in Management, an MSc in Agronomy, and a PhD in Agronomy from the
Agricultural English 361
Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in

Timiúoara (Romania) with a thesis titled “Contributions to the
communication policy in agri-food product marketing”. She has been in
the Romanian educational system since 2000. Her experience includes
English, Organizational communication, Public relations, and Negotiation
techniques, domains in which she has published scientific papers and
books. She co-authored the books Communication and Marketing, How do
we communicate?, Communication and management, and English for
Environmental Engineers, and authored Communication Policy in Agri-
Food Product Marketing.
Biljana IVANOVSKA has a BA in German and English language and

literature from the University in Skopje (F.Y.R. of Macedonia) and got a
PhD in contrastive analysis of contemporary German and Macedonian.
She is currently working as Assistant Professor at the Goce Delcev
University in Stip (F.Y.R. of Macedonia). She has been teaching
contemporary German grammar (morphology and phonetics), and
contrastive analysis (German and Macedonian), and she shows interest in
teaching foreign languages for specific purposes. Her research and
teaching interest focus on corpus linguistics, contrastive linguistics and
translation studies, especially on theoretical, descriptive and applied
perspectives. She is a member of the English Language Teachers’
Association of the F.Y.R. of Macedonia, a member of the “Verein des
Instituts für Deutsche Sprache” [Union of Institutes of German Language],
and a member of the Editorial Board of the Annual Proceedings published
by the Faculty of Philology in Stip.
Laura-Constantina MICU has a BA, a MA and a PhD in Philology from

the University of the West, Timiúoara, Faculty of Letters, History and
Theology (Romania). She used to teach foreign languages (English and
German) at the Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary
Medicine in Timiúoara. She has presented at international conferences and
has published articles and scientific papers in the field of agricultural
languages.
Anica PERKOVIû, a PhD student in Linguistics, graduated from the

Teacher Training College in Osijek (Croatia) and was appointed senior
lecturer of English in 2004. As a qualified EFL teacher, she has been
lecturing both English and Croatian for 34 years. During this period, her
papers dealing with general English, ESP, and Croatian have been widely
published. She has also been an active participant in many national and
362 Contributors
international conferences as well as a CEEPUS project co-ordinator. At

the moment, she is Head of the Department of Informatics and Languages
at the Faculty of Agriculture in Osijek where she gives English language
courses.
Martina PERKOVIû has a BSc and an MA in Animal Husbandry from the

Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek (Croatia). Her special
interests are animals, ecology, languages and IT technologies. She used to
be a teacher at the Trade and Commercial School in Osijek. At the
moment she is in charge of an Eco-group.
Cornelia PETROMAN is a Professor at the Banat University of

Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Timiúoara (Romania).
She has a BSc in Animal Husbandry and a BSc in Hospitality. She has a
PhD from the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary
Medicine of Bucharest (Romania). She is specialised in food service, food
processing, and hospitality. She has published 6 books and over 100
papers in the fields of animal husbandry, food processing, hospitality, and
food service.
Ioan PETROMAN is a PhD Professor at the Banat University of

Agricultural and Veterinary Medicine of Timiúoara (Romania). He has a
BSc in Animal Husbandry from the BUASVM in Timisoara and a PhD in
Animal Husbandry from the UASVM in Bucharest (Romania). He also
has a BSc in Management and a PhD in Management from the University
of the West in Timiúoara. He has published widely in the field of animal
husbandry, food processing, and tourism.
Maria-Adriana PROCA has a BSc in Biology and a PhD in Agriculture

from the Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary
Medicine of Timiúoara (Romania). She has published in the fields of
botany and agriculture (cultivation practices).
Georgeta RAğĂ has a PhD in Linguistics from the University in

Bucharest (Romania). She is a qualified EFL teacher and has been
teaching languages for 35 years. Her extensive experience includes both
general English and several areas of ESP, and she has published widely in
these areas. She also has cross-linguistic expertise, having worked in
French and Romanian as well as English, and understands the practical
issues involved in teaching and learning different languages and
transferring research ideas from one language to another. She used to be
the Scientific Secretary of her Department, Editor-in-chief of the Journal

of Linguistic Studies, a contributor to the English Profile research project,
and regularly organises international events in the field of language
education. She participates in the project Languages and Cultures in Time
and Space carried out in Serbia. She has published textbooks and
dictionaries in Croatia, Romania, and Serbia. She has co-authored
Compendium of Forage Technical Terms in English, French and
Romanian (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012), she has edited
Language Education Today: Between Theory and Practice (CSP, 2010),
Teaching Foreign Languages: Languages for Special Purposes (CSP,
2010), and Academic Days of Timiúoara: Language Education Today
(CSP, 2011), and co-edited Social Sciences Today: Between Theory and
Practice (CSP, 2010) and Academic Days of Timiúoara: Social Sciences
Today (CSP, 2011).
Florin SALA has a PhD in Agronomy (Agro chemistry) from the Banat
University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine
(B.U.A.S.V.M.) in Timiúoara (Romania). He is a professor and he has
taught and researched for 21 years. His extensive experience includes Soil
Science, Agrochemistry and Plant Nutrition, mathematical models of
fertilization, nanomaterials and nanotechnology in plant nutrition and
environmental protection. He has been a director and member 25 national
and international research projects in human resource development and
training. He is the scientific secretary of the B.U.A.S.V.M. Since 2008, he
has been a PhD adviser. He has published 6 ISI-indexed papers, 37 IDB-
indexed papers, 25 papers in books of proceedings of international
conferences and 39 papers in national journals. He also published 12
books, including: Agro chemistry: methods of analysis (2011), Agro
chemistry: practical applications (2010), Agro chemistry (2007, 2008)
Systems of Agriculture (2002), Compendium Horticulture (2000),
Pesticides (1998), Fertilization and protection of horticultural plants
(1997). He is a member of the editorial board of Research Journal of
Agricultural Sciences of the B.U.A.S.V.M.. he it a scientific reviewer of the
African Journal of Biotechnology (AJB – ISI) and of the International
Research Journal of Agricultural Science (IRJAS). He is a member of the
Romanian Association for the Promotion of Magnetic Liquids, of the
Romanian National Society of Soil Science, of the Romanian Association
for Sustainable Agriculture, and of the International Society for
Horticultural Science (ISHS).
364 Contributors
Elena-Mirela SAMFIRA has a BA in Psychology from the Lucian Blaga

University in Sibiu (Romania) after working as a nurse at the County
Hospital in Timisoara (Romania). She currently teaches Educational
psychology at the Banat University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary
Medicine in Timiúoara. She attended courses in systemic family and
couple psycho-therapy in 2008, she got her licence as autonomous
psychotherapist in 2009, and she is a member of the Romanian
Psychologists College and of the CRIS-DU Areopagus. She is a PhD
Student in Consumer behaviour. She also works as a psychotherapist in
family and couple systemic psychotherapy. She co-authored a Student’s
book of educational psychology and she authored and co-authored 15
scientific papers.
Ionel SAMFIRA has a PhD in Agriculture from the Banat University of

Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Timiúoara (Romania).
He is a professor at the same university. His teaching and research
competences resulted in studies on natural pastures, on the interaction
between soil and vegetal sward, on the management and biodiversity of
permanent pastures, and on the breeding of forage plants. He has been a
member of several research teams financed by national and international
grants. In the last years he has been involved in some research and
academic development project such as the Postdoctoral School in
Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine POSDRU/89/1.5/S/62371, Romania
2010-2012; Academic online networks for the development of
competences and competitiveness on the job market POSDRU
86/1.2./S/6273 Romania, 2010-2012; Sustainable preservation of
indigenous South East European legumes and traditional feed and food
products, Regional Programme for Cooperation with South-East Europe,
ERA168/01, Germany, 2010-2012, Sub-project Leader; Monitoring and
control of the invasive biological pollutant Ambrosia artemisiifolia l.
Acronym Stop Ambrosia, Romania-Serbia, Trans-border programme nr.
39, COD 408/ 31.12.2010, 2010-2011. He has also been a reviewer for
the journal issued by his college, and a member of the scientific
board of the Agro Buletin AGIR. He organises the symposium for
young researchers in agriculture. He has been a vice-dean of his college
since 2004. He has authored and co-authored 10 textbooks and research
books, as well as over 100 research papers, among which Compendium of
Forage Technical Terms in English, French and Romanian (Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2012).
Snežana TOLIû has a PhD in economics from the Josip Juraj Strossmayer
University in Osijek (Croatia). As an assistant professor, she lectures and
coordinates modules at university undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate,
and lifelong interdisciplinary studies. Her interests are scientific work in
agro economics, rural and local development as well as in the
implementation of LEADER programmes. Since 2004, she has been the
manager of SLAGALICA production and service family cooperatives
dealing with products and services in agriculture, tourism and trade.

Agricultural English by Georgeta Rata, Florin Sala, Ionel Samfira

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Agricultural English

Georgeta RaĠă, Florin Sala and Ionel Samfira

This book first published 2012

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

ISBN (10): 1-4438-3890-X, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-3890-0

List of Illustrations ................................................................................... xiii

Chapter One: Morphology

Practices Associated with Sustainable Agricultural Systems

The Vocabulary of Ecology

Compounds with and Derivatives of Cereal Names

Derivatives with -cide in the Vocabulary of Pesticides

Combining Forms: Bi(o)-

Combining Forms: Eco-

Compounds with Culture

Compounds with Tree

English Verbs of Animal Communication: A Possible Classification

Chapter Two: Syntax

Agricultural Entomology: -ing Forms

‘Verbal N + N’ Compounds in Agricultural Entomology

‘N + V-ing + N’ Compounds in Agricultural Entomology

Chapter Three: Lexis

Precision Agriculture Terminology

The Vocabulary of Irrigation

Special Types of Tourism: Tourism in the Countryside

Chapter Four: Semantics

Language Traps: Vegetable or Fruit?

Homonymy and Synonymy

Defining Concepts and Practices Associated with Sustainable

Semantic Fields: Beef

Chapter Five: Pragmatics

English Idioms Containing Names of Plants

Universal vs. Culture-Specific in the Discourse of Academic

Creative Metaphors in Poisonous Plant Names

Chapter Six: Etymology

Words of Latin Origin in Botanical English

Seeds and Seedling

Common Names of Plant Diseases: The Latin Heritage

Land Measurement Units

Words of Latin Origin in the English of Zoology

Chapter Seven: A Comparative Approach

Agricultural Terminology in Multicultural Communication

Romanian Agricultural Terms and Their English Equivalents

English Loanwords in the Romanian Land Improvement Vocabulary

Agricultural Entomology in English and Romanian:

Names of Fodder Plants in English and Romanian

English and Romanian Names of Plants in Food Additives Guides

English Plants Names and Their German Counterparts

English Plant Names and Their Romanian Counterparts

Common Names of Yellow Wild Flowers in English and Romanian

True and False Berries in English and Romanian

Metaphors in Compound English and Romanian Plant Names

Names of Pests in English and Romanian

Common Names of Plant Diseases in English and French

Common Names of Plant Diseases in Romanian and English

Dog Breeds in Croatian and Romanian

Verbs of Animal Communication in English, French, and Romanian

English Animal Idioms and Their Romanian Equivalents (I)

English Animal Idioms and Their Romanian Equivalents (II)

English Loanwords in the Romanian of Agri-Tourism Internet Sites

Table 1-1. Compounds with cereal names .........................................................21

Agricultural English is a collection of essays on the English of

Noun’ compounds containing participial adjectives, verbal nouns, or