No mermaids ????:-(
Thought I saw some in OZ on the other hand they may have been killer sharks?
P
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Joanna Boulter
Sent: 18 October 2007 12:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Sharon's poem
I'd always felt the word had the 'feel' of Latin 4th declension, which would
therefore take its plural in -us, with the u a little more elongated than in
the singular. However, I just now went and looked it up, and both halves of
the word are Greek, of which I know very little. Meaning is 'flatfoot'.
There was no help given as to a plural -- perhaps they are too rare? though
let's hope there are enough to breed!
What intrigues me about them is the thought of those early naturalists,
happening on these creatures and trying to fit them into the scheme of
Linnaean classification. And this will have been in the days when there
didn't seem, to many people, any reason why mermaids shouldn't still be
discovered somewhere.
Sudden thought -- if I were a naturalist about to name this 'new' creature,
I really don't think it'd be its feet I would home in on as the salient
characteristic for hanging a name on.
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Max Richards" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 7:30 AM
Subject: Re: Sharon's poem
> P.S.
> Went to the Yarra footbridge,
> As if for Sharon's sake,
> Didn't see no platypuses,
> But think I saw a snake.
>
> Max
>
> [as for those plurals, it depends whether the word comes from Latin or
> not,
> and I think pus must be ancient Greek, no? As in Oedipus = swellfoot...
>
>
> On 18/10/07 10:46 AM, "Max Richards" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Ah, Sharon, come with me, Marilyn, and the dogs
>> to the footbridge over the Yarra
>> at Finns Reserve, Templestowe, not far from here,
>> and there's a good chance we'll see
>>
>> a platypus
>>
>> in the shallow water flowing under the bridge.
>>
>> I like most dawdling there and
>> pointing it out to passersby,
>> as few waterways suit them
>> and behind glass in a sanctuary
>> is how most folk meet them.
>>
>> Best from Max
>>
>> (platypi are no plural now no-one knows Latin.
>>
>> But come to think of it, cacti are everywhere.)
>> (Liked my first glance at your website,
>> and it prompted me to join Facebook.
>> Will I remember my password?)
>>
>> On 18/10/07 8:33 AM, "sharon brogan" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> thank you!
>>>
>>> i love platyupuses. platypi?
>>>
>>> not that i've ever seen one.
>>>
>>> the very idea of such a thing, i mean.
>
>
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