Greek and Latin in Biological Nomenclature 43 



-TIM us, secondary denominative: nwri-timus, of the sea; fini- 



tinius, bordering 



Time 



-ANUS, primary or secondary denominative : antcluc-anus, be- 

 fore daybreak; nicridi-anns, of midday; cotidi-anus, 

 daily 



-ERNUS, (-TRRNUs), -URNUS (-TURNUs), primary or secondary 

 denominative : hib-ernus, wintry ; sempi-tern us, everlast- 

 ing; di-urnns, by day; noct-urnns, nocturnal 



-NUS, secondary denominative: autum-nus, of autumn; ver- 

 mis, vernal 



Diminutives 



-ULUS (-OLUs), secondary denominative: frigid-idus, chilly; 



hitc-olus, yellowish 

 -CULUS, secondary denominative, especially common with the 

 neuter of the comparative : minus-culus, somewhat 

 smaller; crassins-culus, somewhat thick 



COMPOSITION 



Latin, like Greek, exhibits two methods of composition, syn- 

 tactic and non-syntactic. The former, found in such compounds 

 as aquaeductus, nonienclator, rcspuhlica, and paterfamilias, is rare 

 and archaic, and needs to be noticed only to call attention to its 

 use in specific names, such as nrticaefolia, menthaeflora, etc., 

 which should be treated as non-syntactic and written urticifolia, 

 menthiflora, etc. Non-syntactic composition has been developed 

 to a certain extent in Latin, but the language is far inferior to 

 Greek in this regard. Latin has largely obviated the need of 

 composition by a wide extension of derivation, with the result 

 that composition always seems awkward and foreign to the lan- 

 guage. Notwithstanding this, Latin has a large number of 

 compounds, mostly adjectives, which have been used by biolo- 

 gists, and new compounds will doubtless be made upon the model 

 alTorded by these. It should be borne in mind that derivation 

 by suffixes is the easy and natural method of word formation in 

 Latin, as composition is the natural way in Greek, and a desir- 



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