Etymology

Moonbat

Moonbat

Chuckle Churner
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The origin of words, and the creation of new ones.

I am not very good at creating new words, I have just found an on-line etymological dictionary and I am also reading the Etymologicon (which is rather good) but I fear I need some help.

So I thought I'd start a thread where people could ask for ideas/help with creating a new word (I couldn't find one already created, but if I missed it maybe move this post to that thread), maybe those of you that have some skill in this area can help. Not sure if it will catch on, but I have a few to start with.

1. Name for the descendants of Homosapiens. Obviously (we all know) Homo = man and Sapien = Rational/Wise but if mankind left Earth and over hundreds of thousands of years split into different species (by evolving to suit the planets they live on) what would the new subspeices all be called to denote that they are all related. I came up with Homosapenid, but it doesn't really work, maybe something more like Homogalactica (but that sounds rubbish) I'd like to keep the Homo prefix.

2. ok, this one is a little trickier to describe. I have created a system of government that is so corrupt that the councillors will use false logic to ensure that any situation should be dealt with in the way that they want it to be dealt with. The government tell the Intelagents (my new word for AI computers) what they want to happen and the Intelagents make it seem like the people voted for it, it is then the job of councillors to use spin double talk or just plain flase logic to make the descision seem like the right thing to do. I hope that makes sense (I'm still struggling with it) so what form of government would it be, it wouldn't technically be democracy because the people don't vote and leaders are chosen.


I feel that in the course of the novel I am writing that I will require lots of new words that don't exist yet, so hopefully this thread may become useful, and not just to me.
 
Moonbat, how about

Homo proximus - it basically means next/near human

Homo superior - if there's an aspect of (self-assumed) superior evolution

Homo explorans - the exploring man

The second issue is a bit trickier. I suspect the councillors would try and pass it off as a democracy. If you were simply trying to describe it, you could try mendocracy, from the Latin mendacium - lie.

Hope this helps.:)
 
Moonbat said:
1. Name for the descendants of Homosapiens. Obviously (we all know) Homo = man and Sapien = Rational/Wise but if mankind left Earth and over hundreds of thousands of years split into different species (by evolving to suit the planets they live on) what would the new subspeices all be called to denote that they are all related. I came up with Homosapenid, but it doesn't really work, maybe something more like Homogalactica (but that sounds rubbish) I'd like to keep the Homo prefix.
Click to expand...

Homo Stella - star man
 
In West of Eden, Harry Harrison uses Mutatus to represent species that have been genetically engineered, whilst giving their original Latin names as well. I would be inclined to add a word at the end to Homo Sapiens (technically Homo Sapiens Sapiens, IIRC, which just sounds arrogant to me given how much stupid stuff mankind does) to represent the changes: for example, Homo Sapiens Alus for winged people, from Ala, wing. You'd have to check the agreement of the extra word, Latin being as it is.

As to the second option, Mendocracy does have a great sound to it. I've heard Russia described as a Criminocracy. Depending on the level of spite and totality with which this is practiced, it also sounds rather like Ingsoc from 1984.
 
Moonbat said:
2. ok, this one is a little trickier to describe. I have created a system of government that is so corrupt that the councillors will use false logic to ensure that any situation should be dealt with in the way that they want it to be dealt with. The government tell the Intelagents (my new word for AI computers) what they want to happen and the Intelagents make it seem like the people voted for it, it is then the job of councillors to use spin double talk or just plain flase logic to make the descision seem like the right thing to do. I hope that makes sense (I'm still struggling with it) so what form of government would it be, it wouldn't technically be democracy because the people don't vote and leaders are chosen.
Click to expand...

Lots to choose from:
http://phrontistery.info/govern.html

I'd go with Technocracy as your AI computers provide the semblance of impartiality and the councillors claim to enact the will of the people.
 
1. Homo diasporus? And if it doesn't work out, call them Homo Simpsons?
2. Pseudocracy?
 
Well for 2) if I was one of the councillers, I would call it Democracy if that had the most positive impact on the 'electorate'.

Isn't that the whole point of the system :)

Actually reading what you said carefully, we're almost there with our 'Democracy' anyway.
 
Wow, great replies people, thank you.

Abernovo, I like Mendocracy, that is a good one. Also Homo Explorans

David B - great link, quite a few on there that made me laugh, Squattocracy (governed by sqauatters?) and I particularly liked Foolocracy (isn't that what we have?) It did say Technocracy was technical experts, not technology itself, but was pretty close, I wonder what govern by nonbiological intelligence would be.

Judge, thank you for moving the thread, I wasn't sure where to put it. Also good link, quite a few Homos that I didn't know about, and I didn't know we were a double sapien, that means my species could be homo sapien sapien explorans, but that is a bit of a mouthfull, still it'd up my word count ;)

Alchemist, I think I'm liking Homo diasporus, as there was a great diaspora from Earth in the past which has lead to all the different species of homos.

Venusian, absolutely, as far as anyone knows it is a Democracy, it has all the outward signs of a democracy, but I am the omnipoten writer and I might want to tell me readers that it is actually a Mendocracy (Still my favorite). Yes when I was writing my notes about this I realised that the spin we currently have is edging towards a Medocracy (see, I'm using that word quite freely now.)

I don't think Homo superior is right, because they are not all superior, and it is more like they have evolved in every direction possible, some are shorter, others more hairy, and all the other possibilities I can think of.

I think my issue is I need some term to speak of all the different homo species in one sweeping word, I wont be refering to individual species by thier latin names (although I could work them out for backstory/notes) I suppose Homonids would be accurate, but not futuristic enough.

Thank you all for your input. I shall muse upon your suggestions.
 
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I might not be remembering this quite right but I watched a documentary where the guy studying archeology said we shouldnt be homo sapiens, but homo fabulators - the story telling ape, or something like that. I liked it and that was just about the only thing that stuck from the whole documentary.

Mendocracy sounds cool. I would buy into it not knowing what it was because it sounds like you were going to mend a broken system. So you might even get away with calling it that without the facade of democracy vainering it for the populace.

also awesome thread idea. thanks
 
It is amazing how the term Democracy cobbles together so many quite disparate governments and states.

The original instigators, the Athenians would choke on their weak wine at the current Western approach at Democracy, and probably actually not define it as such.

Mind you we could get back at them with "Well what about the women and slaves then, eh?"

Mind you what governments say they represent and what they actually put in practice are usually different. Was the Soviet Union ever communist?
 
What word could I use for a branch of science that deals with spin/propoganda/twisted logic?

The use of false logic has become such an art by the MGC councillors that is has spawned a branch of science dedicated to it, known as **
 
If you're asking about new sub-species, as opposed to new species, of human, oughtn't you to start with our sub-species name, homo sapiens sapiens? (So good we named ourselves twice...?)

Wiki mentions one other, now extinct, sub-species, homo sapiens idaltu, that last word meaning "elder or first born".


As for the science of spin, one possible name already has another meaning: topology. ;):)


Bos is the genus for wild and domestic cattle, so Bossology would have two appropriate meanings, one related to those in charge and one referencing what they're best at producing.... :)
 
How about abnutology from abnutivus negative. Not quite what you are after but I can find latin for logic but not illogic. Is that some sort of arrogance on behalf of the ancient romans?
 
So, I did zoology at uni and I work on a genomics project with a focus on humans and primates, so I know a bit about taxonomy...

The concept of "species" is somewhat fluid, but it generally refers to two populations that cannot produce fertile offspring. E.g. you can cross a horse with a donkey and get a mule, but the mule is sterile. Can your future humanoids interbreed? If not, they need to be separate species: Homo volans, Homo aquaticus and so on*.

If they can interbreed, did they radiate out directly from Homo sapiens or was there an intervening new species? In other words, are they Homo sapiens volans or Homo diasporensis volans? Either way, trinomials (genus + species + subspecies) are sufficient for naming - you don't need to tack more levels onto the full name of modern-day humans.

* Where possible, choose adjectives for the species part - it can be Latin or Greek, though to complicate things, quite a few newly-named species have bits of names that are Chinese-based, owing to the many fossils being found there
 
They can interbreed, as they need to for the fulfilment of my story (or book 10 at least)
And they have evolved from us, so I guess they would be Homo Sapiens Disaporensis (can I ask why the ensis suffix?)

But in common parlance we rarely refer to ourselves as Homo sapien (sapiens) we just call ourselves human, what is the relation between human and homo sapien?

So the subspecies bit would be the part that denotes each different time of homo sapenid? then they woudl all be part of the homo sapien species, would that become homo sapiensis is it refered to a larger group of subspecies?

Bossology took a while to get the pun, but that is very amusing
And abnutology sounds sufficiently illogical

Thank you all for your input, very much appreciated
:D
 
Moonbat said:
They can interbreed, as they need to for the fulfilment of my story (or book 10 at least)
And they have evolved from us, so I guess they would be Homo Sapiens Disaporensis (can I ask why the ensis suffix?)
Click to expand...

Adjectives derived from place names usually take that form: Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, Homo floriensis. "sapiens" means "thinking", whereas "neanderthalensis" means "of the Neander Valley" - hence diasporensis "of the diaspora". I could be wrong, but it feels right to me!

BTW, the second two parts of the name must be lower case - Homo sapiens diasporensis not Homo Sapiens Diasporensis.

Moonbat said:
But in common parlance we rarely refer to ourselves as Homo sapien (sapiens) we just call ourselves human, what is the relation between human and homo sapien?
Click to expand...

Homo sapiens is the scientific name of the species, 'human' is the English name. If you were a French or Russian scientist, you would still use Homo sapiens but your own language's equivalent of 'human'.

Homo sapiens is only ever the exact form of creature like you or I - "human" is a more general term that can be applied to our close relatives or just used metaphorically.

N.B. It's always Homo sapiens with a final 's' - that's not a plural ending, it's part of the adjective.

Moonbat said:
So the subspecies bit would be the part that denotes each different time of homo sapenid? then they woudl all be part of the homo sapien species, would that become homo sapiensis is it refered to a larger group of subspecies?
Click to expand...

No - the collective term for all your subspecies is "Homo sapiens species" (confusingly, "species" is both singular and plural, like "sheep"). You probably want to come up with a non-scientific collective name for them. Diasporids? Meta-humans?
 
Hi,

Technically your government would be some sort of technocracy, though the technocrats running it by the sounds of things, wouldn't be the scientists and engineers who dreamed up the idea, but rather beaurocrats and administrators. Given that the leaders are chosen according to some criteria of worthiness, it could also be a form of meritocracy where the most meritous rule.

As for your star man, why would men when they reach the stars become a new species? But in any case if and when they do and they go through some sort of evolutionary advancement, then Homo Galactica maybe. I don't like Homo Superior because of all the negative connotations its had over the years. But you also might want to throw a nod to someone like Galileo for first inventing / using the telescope to study the stars, or Neil Armstrong for taking a small step. Homo Galileo or Homo Armstrong.

Cheers, Greg.
 
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