Dysnomia
Eris is a very good name for the new dwarf planet. Dysnomia is a very good name for its moon, even down to the pun on Lucy Lawless.
Dysnomia is not, however, a good name for what it already meant in English: an inability to retrieve words. Dysnomia, doctor? Shurely shome mishtake. My recollection of words may be lawless, but I would still rather call this dysonomia. The is an integral part of the root, not a linking vowel or thematic vowel of its prefixes.
In semantics classes I refused to use the malformed word 'hypernym'. It's a hyperonym, dammit. We're linguists: there are one or two prescriptive standards we could justifiably uphold. (eta: Ack! They've been and gorn and put 'hypernym' in the dictionary today of all days! Why couldn't they ask me first?)
(eta bi: Tchoh. Tsk. And the IAU have got the pronunciation wrong, through consulting some shonky website. It's ['eris], with an epsilon.)
Dysnomia is not, however, a good name for what it already meant in English: an inability to retrieve words. Dysnomia, doctor? Shurely shome mishtake. My recollection of words may be lawless, but I would still rather call this dysonomia. The is an integral part of the root, not a linking vowel or thematic vowel of its prefixes.
In semantics classes I refused to use the malformed word 'hypernym'. It's a hyperonym, dammit. We're linguists: there are one or two prescriptive standards we could justifiably uphold. (eta: Ack! They've been and gorn and put 'hypernym' in the dictionary today of all days! Why couldn't they ask me first?)
(eta bi: Tchoh. Tsk. And the IAU have got the pronunciation wrong, through consulting some shonky website. It's ['eris], with an epsilon.)