Espostoopsis etymology

[christos]

Hi all!

I want to congratulate Daiv, the moderators and all the friends who help this cacti site becoming better and better!

A step towards this direction is the preceding summary that accompanies each genus.
Excellent work!

Having said that I want to make a notice about the etymology of Espostoopsis.

The name is comprised by two words: Espostoa plus opsis.
Opsis in Greek doesn't mean "like".
It means "the look", "face", "view".

So Espostoopsis can be translated as "Espostoa look" or "Espostoa face".

If there is one area I can really help, is the etymology of the usually ...Greek names given to cacti.

[luddhus]

Note that words in botanical names do not always have their exact original meaning, there are plenty of examples of this. There are even examples of spelling errors that have caused a name to mean something very different from what the author intended. So, you must consult a botanical etymological lexicon to find out if an otherwise very familiar word really means what you think in botanical Latin. Here I believe the meaning is relatively close to the original, and that the name should be interpreted as "with an appearance/look like that of an Epostoa", Epostoa-faced, or more freely translated: Epostoa-like.

[hob]

Hi all!

I want to congratulate Daiv, the moderators and all the friends who help this cacti site becoming better and better!

A step towards this direction is the preceding summary that accompanies each genus.
Excellent work!

Having said that I want to make a notice about the etymology of Espostoopsis.

The name is comprised by two words: Espostoa plus opsis.
Opsis in Greek doesn't mean "like".
It means "the look", "face", "view".

So Espostoopsis can be translated as "Espostoa look" or "Espostoa face".

If there is one area I can really help, is the etymology of the usually ...Greek names given to cacti.

Hi Christos,

in English there are several meanings for the word "like"

this is one of them from
World English Dictionary

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/like

"like" similar; resembling

so "Espostoa-like" can be read as "Espostoa resembling" or "similar to Espostoa"

maybe not a direct translation, but it works in English where "Espostoa look" is not quite right, and "Espostoa face" is not right at all.

English is a very complicated language, I have great admiration for any non English speaking people who learn it. i don't speak any other language and do not think i could learn one

The last moderator templegatejohn wrote 2 pages on Etymology for cactiguide, maybe you could look at the Greek translations on those for us?

http://www.cactiguide.com/etymology_genera/

http://www.cactiguide.com/etymology_species/

I am sure John did a great job on them but having someone from Greece look at them would be useful.

regards hob
forum moderator

[daiv]

Thanks for the input! It would not hurt to clarify that.

I hope to finish up the descriptions this winter along with lots of other updates. I don't think I will get much of anything done over the next month. Sooo busy preparing for winter! Then many cold and dark days which are perfect for staying inside and working on the computer.