Taxacom: Mandatory ending correction after 226 years of wrong usage - the Dasytes case

Wed Jan 29 17:29:06 CST 2025

You are probably right. But the only other name ending in -otes I could
think of was Monotes, formed in the same way, meaning uniqueness, and it's
always treated as masculine.  Were the botanists and zoologists going from
this (from Wiktionary):

*-της* •
<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wiktionary.org%2Fwiki%2FWiktionary%3AAncient_Greek_transliteration&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cdf8fc3760055419be46808dd40bcc0f5%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638737902354199354%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=f7uCrLRqmItTyEtWgHhCPxzHfIMj9%2BidXu5Xu1ymY8c%3D&reserved=0> (
-tēs) m (*genitive* *-του
<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wiktionary.org%2Fwiki%2F-%25CF%2584%25CE%25BF%25CF%2585%23Ancient_Greek&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cdf8fc3760055419be46808dd40bcc0f5%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638737902354218810%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=hIz9j7xkke4CNlRd1YW7d%2Fuu0FsDKkPgZ9kyuiXLCpw%3D&reserved=0>*); *first
declension
<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wiktionary.org%2Fwiki%2FAppendix%3AAncient_Greek_first_declension&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cdf8fc3760055419be46808dd40bcc0f5%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638737902354231793%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=1f85yO6WatmcLQOoiDnjWwAwXTVUtLgMDst0d4fgSOk%3D&reserved=0>*

   1. Added to noun stems to form masculine nouns of the person concerned
   with a thing
   2. Added to verb stems to form masculine agent nouns: -er
   <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wiktionary.org%2Fwiki%2F-er%23English&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cdf8fc3760055419be46808dd40bcc0f5%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638737902354243982%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Z%2B5JfEdpZmMNSa25E5dWLn%2FnfypQoX1hbsra8CgabeA%3D&reserved=0>
   3. Added to place names to form masculine demonyms
   <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wiktionary.org%2Fwiki%2Fdemonym%23English&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cdf8fc3760055419be46808dd40bcc0f5%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638737902354256136%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=AvUm2NsELAyQLlNpPShzDDjhrInF7j98sjGhPM%2FEbLM%3D&reserved=0>: -ian
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On Thu, Jan 30, 2025 at 11:41 AM Douglas Yanega via Taxacom <
taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

> On 1/29/25 1:48 PM, Michael Heads via Taxacom wrote:
> > also it's plural, although the species epithets in Dasytes are all
> > masculine singular.
>
> No, it is emphatically not plural - it is a noun in the nominative
> singular, as required by the Code.
>
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.perseus.tufts.edu%2Fhopper%2Fmorph%3Fl%3Ddasuths%26la%3Dgreek&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cdf8fc3760055419be46808dd40bcc0f5%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638737902354278727%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=l9AnW5LyEXm5PuifykWpAETZ36MIi16wpY9yBB0lWJo%3D&reserved=0
>
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wiktionary.org%2Fwiki%2F%25CE%25B4%25CE%25B1%25CF%2583%25CF%258D%25CF%2584%25CE%25B7%25CF%2582&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cdf8fc3760055419be46808dd40bcc0f5%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638737902354289957%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=vtHeGQ3PmAa2hT%2BAN8B39E9mm0gGQ0acTEXIYmnilP0%3D&reserved=0
>
> Plurals cannot be genus names, though genus names might sometimes have,
> by coincidence, the same spellings as a plural word, or a verb, or a
> genitive.
>
> Also, Isidor neglected to mention, that the Code prohibits authors from
> determining the genders of genera when the name they use is a Latin or
> Greek word that *already has a fixed gender in the dictionary*. The Code
> explicitly states, in Articles 30.1.1 and 30.1.2, that only the gender
> in the dictionary is to be used. Paykull is not permitted to make
> "Dasytes" into a masculine word by power of authority - the *dictionary*
> determines the gender. Paykull made an error, and it should be fixed
> rather than perpetuated. Where the author CAN determine the gender is
> when a genus name is based on a word of variable gender, the most common
> examples being Greek adjectives, of which there are thousands of genus
> names based upon them.
>
> The Greek word ending "χαρής" (chares) is a good example - it is
> adjectival and not of fixed gender, meaning "delighting in" (e.g,
> δρυμοχαρής - drymochares - "delighting in the woods"). There are some 70
> genera with this ending, nearly all of which are masculine under ICZN
> Art. 30.1.4.2, though two genus names, Cecidochares Bezzi, 1910, and
> Limnochares Latreille, 1796, were coined with feminine adjectival
> epithets, and are therefore feminine.
>
> The rules in the Code are not especially difficult to apply or adhere to.
>
> Peace,
>
> --
> Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
> Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314  voicemail:951-827-8704
> FaceBook: Doug Yanega (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
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>          is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
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*Biogeography of Australasia:  A molecular analysis*. Cambridge University
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*Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics. *University of California Press,
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*Panbiogeography: Tracking the history of life*. Oxford University Press,
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