Talk:Pityrodia lepidota

The current etymology: "The specific epithet (lepidota) is derived from the Ancient Greek word lepis, lepidos meaning "a scale", and latinised to lepidotus, meaning "covered with scales"." is ambiguous. The phrasing seems to suggest that lepidotus is a latinization of lepis, while it is actually a latinization of λεπιδωτός. Is the source mistaken or is the source misinterpreted by the editor? Please provide the full quote in this discussion and additionally provide an explanation what Sharr might have intended.Wimpus (talk) 08:44, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

Sharr:

• "lepido/ G lepis -idos a scale"
• "lepidotus: G l. covered with scales: Hibbertia, Phebalium, Pityrodia."^[1]

(Sharr's book is available here.)

Also Stearn:

• "scaly: squamatus (adj. A), squamosus (adj. A), lepidotus (adj. A). 497"^[2]

Also Short:

• "scale squama (noun f. 1); scaly squamatus, squamosus, lepidotus (all adj. A); clothed in scales pleatus, scutellatus (both adj. A); scale-, scaly- (in Gk comp.) lepido-"^[3]

Short's book is available here

I am not in a position to suggest what Sharr might have intended. Gderrin (talk) 02:31, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

The information in the source is not consistent with "The specific epithet (lepidota) is derived from the Ancient Greek word lepis, lepidos meaning "a scale", and latinised to lepidotus, meaning "covered with scales"." Sharr does not mention that "lepidotus" is a latinization of Greek lepis, lepidos. Lepidotus is clearly a latinization of λεπιδωτός (lepidōtos). Currently, the information you have provided is merely a misinterpretation of the source. Wimpus (talk) 13:31, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

In this edit you seem to have misinterpreted phellosus as latinization of Greek phellos. That is actually a similar mistake. It seems that you do not know what a latinization is. So get informed, before making any etymological edit. Wimpus (talk) 16:12, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for taking the trouble to discuss the issue here rather than reverting. Seems to me that these sources agree with each other about the derivation of lepidotus and that you are suggesting my "latinisation" is incorrect. Can you suggest how the derivation might be improved? Gderrin (talk) 21:40, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

I have used Backer (1936). Greek letters between brackets. Genitive is added, to reveal the stem. In his introduction, Backer explains that when a second word is given, it is the genitive case. As our readers do not read the introduction to this botanical dictionary, they might confuse the second form as some kind of equivalent (nominative case) form. Therefore I have added the word "genitive".

• The specific epithet (lepidota) is derived from the Latin word lepidotus, a latinization of the ancient Greek word lepidōtos (λεπιδωτός), meaning "scaled", itself derived from the ancient Greek word lepis, genitive lepidos (λεπίς, genitive λεπίδος), meaning "scale".^[4]