26
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Why did scientists abandon Latin in their publications?
This answer has been percolating in my head for a couple of months now. Given that there haven't been any other attempts to answer it, I've posted it but realise its limitations in providing a clear ...
- 8,611
15
votes
How to read mathematics out loud?
For basic mathematics, I’ve found some answers in the Institutiones Physicæ by Floriani Dalham, published in 1752:
1+2 = 3 would be read unus plus duo sunt tres
Additio est duorum, vel plurium ...
- 2,292
12
votes
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How should "Haec Fracastorius." be translated?
Haec is neuter plural, and there is an implied dicit: Haec dicit Fracastorius, "F. says these things".
I don't read "So much for Fracastoro" as necessarily dismissive: it's just a ...
- 30.6k
11
votes
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"With respect to" in mathematics
There is one word that seems to fit the bill: quoad. Although this word has a temporal ("as long as") and spatial ("as far as") meaning, Lewis and Short also gives the following meaning:
B.3: With ...
- 38.5k
11
votes
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What is the history of scientific Latin?
19th Century Scientific Latin
An example:
Gauss
From G. Waldo Dunnington's 2004 biography of Gauss, Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science, p. 37-8:
… Of unusual interest is the part which Meyerhoff⁶ ...
- 3,490
10
votes
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Rupes Recta, The Straight Wall, Correct Translation
Yes, depending on the type of wall.
Rūpēs, -is is a third-declension feminine noun derived from rumpō "break, split". It means a rock which is split apart or has a smooth face; I've seen it ...
- 64.7k
9
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Why do translators translate Newton's 2nd law as though it referred to "force" when it does not mention force?
As you mention, the phrase corresponding to "force" here is vī mōtrici, the ablative of vīs mōtrix. Vīs is a fairly standard word for "power" or "strength", while mōtrix ...
- 64.7k
8
votes
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Colors of the rainbow
Since a rainbow is a gradient, there's still no way of knowing which hue a color word refers to. At best we can approximate.
Earl Anderson's Folk-Taxonomies in Early English has a good discussion if ...
cmw♦
- 50.8k
7
votes
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How should particle names ending in -on be treated in Latin?
It is correct that ἤλεκτρον means “gold-silver alloy”, and then “amber”, and that it is the source of modern words like electricity, electric, electromagnetism etc. But I do not think you can say that ...
- 17.5k
7
votes
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What are the origins of the two Latin names for boron, borium and boracium?
The Online Etymology Dictionary gives this description for the etymology of boron:
Originally called boracium by Humphrey Davy because it was drawn from boracic acid.
So that form was originally ...
- 186
6
votes
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Descriptions of aurora borealis
The best search terms I've found are trabs, -is and chasma, -atis. Literally meaning a wooden beam, trabs was applied by both Pliny and Seneca to something which might be the aurora (though L&S ...
- 64.7k
6
votes
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Did the Romans have a definition for a species of organism?
As Aristotle is generally considered as the father of biology — Darwin wrote: “Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods… but they were mere school-boys to old Aristotle.” (in a letter to W. Ogle, ...
- 2,292
6
votes
How to read mathematics out loud?
Partial answer!
As far as I can tell, most mathematical discourse would be done in Greek. Latin was used for engineering purposes, but speaking unambiguously about mathematics became rather awkward.
...
- 64.7k
6
votes
What is the history of scientific Latin?
The earliest writings on what might be called ‘real science’ begin in the seventeenth century. They were in Latin because it was a lingua franca, widely understood across Europe. Among the greatest ...
- 18k
6
votes
What is the gender and singular declension of the scientific Latin suffix -idae?
I think it is the patronymic -ides, which is in the first declension in Latin. The plural forms are regular, so bovidae 'sons of a cow' would be bovides in the singular. It would be a masculine noun.
...
- 881
6
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What does 'spatio pollicarir emotius' mean in Otto von Guericke's Experimenta Nova?
I believe pollicarir to be a typographical error, as spatio pollicari (from pollicaris) would mean "by a thumbsbreadth." This exact collocation isn't classical, as far as I can tell, but ...
- 6,219
5
votes
Accepted
Is Kant's "De Mundi Sensibilis atque Intelligibilis Forma et Principiis" available online in its Latin original?
Is Kant's "De Mundi Sensibilis atque Intelligibilis Forma et Principiis" available online in its Latin original?
Hard to answer with a sound "no", as I might end up being proved wrong. However, I ...
- 12.3k
5
votes
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Meaning of "pro temperiei diversitate" in Guericke's Experimenta Nova
Pro means “in proportion to” (L&S II.B.6), temperies in later Latin can refer to atmospheric conditions (DMLBS), and diversitas simply means “variety, diversity”.
The parenthetical pro phrase ...
- 6,219
4
votes
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In vitro, in vivo, in situ, in simulacris mathematicis? Any good alternatives to the latter?
Although it is a bit oblique, I'll put up
in harena
because it provides a natural way to work things out by hand, but involves the use of a tool, and so might easily extend to the use of computers ...
- 665
4
votes
How should particle names ending in -on be treated in Latin?
My understanding is that the mother of all -on scientific terms is the ion, which is a Greek neuter participle (I'm told). Later -on coinings seem to be a play on the already understood word ion. Its ...
- 4,408
4
votes
How should particle names ending in -on be treated in Latin?
To add another voice to this conversation, I would like to show the entries given for various particles in the Morgan and Silva Furman University Lexicon:
electron- electron, -onis; electronium, -i
...
- 3,958
4
votes
How to translate machine learning?
First, let's just note that the English phrase "machine learning" does not unambiguously communicate its meaning. If you had no context for it, you wouldn't know if it meant using a machine to learn, ...
- 6,219
3
votes
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Translating Scientific Latin
Had you considered Adelard of Bath?
His translation of Euclid (from Arabic) and his treatise on the Astrolabe (written for William II) are both significant.
"Various questions" is a bit long-winded ...
- 8,623
3
votes
How to describe collaboration?
collaboro or conlaboro is also in L/S, with the same unique reference to the early Christian author Tertullian (who writes fairly decent classicising Latin). It is a correctly formed prefixed verb ...
- 17.5k
3
votes
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How to describe collaboration?
For referring to a collaborator, have you thought of socius or adiutor? The latter does not necessarily imply a subordinate role and can quite well be used of equals in a partnership. Each has a wide ...
- 18k
3
votes
Why is Novarupta feminine?
Dr. R. F. Griggs, the man credited with naming Novarupta (and the leader of the 1915 expedition to "study the re-establishment of plant and animal life after the devastating and almost ...
- 171
3
votes
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What is the gender and singular declension of the scientific Latin suffix -idae?
Declension of patronymics in Latin as an actual language
The Wiktionary entry on -idēs is incomplete (leading you to the mistaken impression that -idēs cannot ever yield the plural -idae): first-...
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3
votes
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Is a logician a “logicus” or a “logicista”?
I'd go with logicus.
First, I fully agree with you that starting from logic- is the best option by far.
Language is used for the purpose of communication, and using a word that looks similar to those ...
- 110k
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