Re: [aroid-l] Etymology of AROID

From: "Ron Iles" roniles at eircom.net> on 2002.10.17 at 11:22:52(9558) Fellow Greeks Begorrah! What a muckle about a fickle or more correctly is it a mickle about a fuckle? Anyhow, Ye doth my barrel noisy make & remind me more of pheasantry than pedantry. Aroid, aron, arum, arid? What matter in the inflorescence of good words? And did your hear that today too "they" launched a satellite to see black holes that don't exist now and even when they did were too heavy even for light to escape from. Oh, woe me, I've gone beyond the nuclear confines of my barrel. & an infinitive I've split. Di.O'Jenees +More ----- Original Message ----- To: Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 10:46 PM Subject: Re: [aroid-l] Etymology of AROID <= ARUM <= ARON I feel honored to have evoked such intellectual discourse on what I supposed, was a simple question. Apparently, in order to find an answer, we had to leave the family Araceae and venture to a foreign family, Liliaceae. I don't think the Trillium flower bears to much resemblance to an "Aroid" flower. Ron P.S. I still hope someone can give me the names of the tubers that were sold at the Fairchild show by the Thai man. ----- Original Message ----- To: Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 1:52 PM Subject: [aroid-l] Etymology of AROID <= ARUM <= ARON Well, I've lost the earlier comments now, but here's the gist: A post noted that "aroid" derived from the Latin word "arum," which means lily. Either the same post or a response said that "arum" derived from the Ancient Greek "aron" (which is where etymological comments end in most dictionaries). Another post reasonably asked for the meaning of the Ancient Greek, "aron." Now, this is me: plant, the wake robin (Trillium erectum), the Ancient Greek word for which was "aron." Later, the Latin "arum" was generalized to include all lilies. Aroid, therefore, etymologically, means lily-like: "ar[um]" (lily) plus the suffix "-oid," which means "like or resembling." There's my best effort. Oh, the thrill and inescapable lure of pedantry. Ric _________________________________________________________________ Broadband? Dial-up? Get reliable MSN Internet Access. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

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