On Sat, 9 Aug 2003, David Silberstein wrote: #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. Nicely pointed out and well put. (Except it should be "res *ipse* loquitur"; "res" is feminine, as in "res publica" ~~ 'public business', the etymon of "republic".) -- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel