On Sat, 9 Aug 2003, Mark A Mandel wrote: >On Wed, 6 Aug 2003, David Silberstein wrote: > > >#I don't see why "petroleum" would be a mistranslation since it >#just means "rock-oil" in Latin. > >Latin form of a Greek word, but who's counting? > Not that I'm trying to out-pedant anyone, but: "Petra" is Greek, but "oleum" is purely Latin (or so sayeth the OED). So it's a Latin combined word containing a Greek root & a Latin one. Quod erat demonstratum, res ipsum loquitur, et quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.