Re: A bit of etymology (late)

[NJPharris@aol.com]

Let's see if I can help clear this up.

In a message dated 4/27/02 8:49:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
david.marjanovic@gmx.at writes:

> >   Presently, I'd say this character supports *Sinornithosaurus* as a
>  > stem-dromaeosaurid (needs a name, and under current convention, the name
>  > Dromaeosauroidea would seem applicable [*Dromaeosaurus* + oides {grk.,
>  > form}, lit., the form of *Dromaeosaurus*
>  
>  Not knowing Greek, I thought -oides meant "similar to"? "Those that are
>  similar to *D.*"?

-oidea is the neuter plural of some adjective form derived from the Greek 
root eid-~oid-~id- 'to see'.  "Dromaeosauroidea" are 'things that look like 
_Dromaeosaurus_'.  I'm pretty sure this is also the source of the suffix 
-ides, which when added to the father's name means 'son of':

_Neleus_ 'Neleus (father of Nestor)' -> _Neleides_ 'son of Neleus'.

Since nouns ending in -ides are first-declension (a-stem) masculine, the 
plural of -ides is -idai, which in Latin would be spelled -idae.  I'm 
guessing, then, that "Dromaeosauridae" is literally 'sons of _Dromaeosaurus_'.


>  >   -inae > diminutive of idem (Lat.) ... see above.
>  
>  A diminutive in Latin formed by exchanging d for n? Huh? Normal in Latin is
>  the diminutive suffix -ulus/a/um. (Navis = ship, navicula = boat)

I assume -inae is just the Latin adjective formant -i^n-, the one that forms 
_vulpi^nus_ 'of a fox' from _vulpe^s_ 'fox', so "Dromaeosaurinae" is 
something like 'pertaining to _Dromaeosaurus_'.  My guess is that the 
normally feminine plural form -inae is on analogy to -idae.  -ini and -ina, 
the tribe and subtribe versions, are just the masculine plural and neuter 
plural forms of the same ending.

--Nick P.