Re: Limusaurus Inextricabilis

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting Yasmani Ceballos Izquierdo <yceballos@uci.cu>:


> Limusaurus inextricabilis (meaning "mire lizard who could not  
> escape") was......

Argh.  David, I'll take this <headdesk> for the team.  Paleontological  
community, please join me at the blackboard.  Now please write out the  
following 100 times:

"You cannot tell what the stem of a Latin or Greek noun is just by  
looking at the form you pull out of the dictionary."

Latin *limus* 'muck, mud' (cognate to English "slime") is not  
*limu-s*, it's *limo-s*.

*Limosaurus* or, if you want to take the extra step of weakening the  
*o* of the middle syllable to *i* (as would happen in an actual Latin  
compound), *limisaurus*.

--
****************************************************************
Nicholas J. Pharris