5 ms·

Surely we do give the moon a specific name: "moon". The concept of calling other large rocky natural satellites "moons" almost certainly came later. </nitpick>

by leoedin 12y ago

kissickas 12y ago
Not originally your error, but the name of the Moon should normally be capitalized, as far as I know.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  Let's just call it the Mün, and the other one Minmus.
quarterto 12y ago
I like the convention in most space-exploration sci-fi of calling natural planetary satellites "moons" and stars with planetary systems "suns", but calling our sun "Sol" and Earth's moon "Luna".
- dijit 12y ago
  that's not just Sci-fi, that's their actual names in latin, which means that's what's used in science. Luna and Sol: Root origins of "Solar System" and "Lunar eclipse" etc;
  - quarterto 12y ago
    Well, yes, but they're not used as names in common speech, hence my point.
    - ejk314 12y ago
      I bet there's a word for that - using the more general term for something as a proper noun when the meaning is obvious from context. Like calling the largest nearby city just "The City". I figure it's the same general idea behind calling it "The Moon".
      - innguest 12y ago
        Metonym?
        mturmon 12y ago
        Also, synecdoche ("a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa")
    - Shorel 12y ago
      'Sol' and 'Luna' are used as their names in common speech, every single day, in all Spanish speaking countries.
      - quarterto 12y ago
        And this is a conversation about English common names and literature.
dingaling 12y ago
Even more confusingly, the Greek name for the body was Io, later allocated to a satellite of Jupiter. Moon came into Emglish from Danish for 'month'. Luna was the Roman goddess represented by the body.
- innguest 12y ago
  > the Greek name for the body was Io When? I was under the impression in Ancient Greece that the moon was called Selene (Seleenee) or Mene (Meenee)?
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  > Moon came into E[n]glish from Danish for 'month' This is flat-out wrong. Check etymonline ( http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=moon http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=moon ): moon (n.) Old English mona, from Proto-Germanic *menon-, from PIE *me(n)ses- "moon, month" That's a straight line of descent from proto-Indo-European to modern English. No borrowing at any point. Interestingly, etymonline also points out that the english word "moon" is cognate with the classical Greek word for the moon "mene". This leads nicely into your more interesting, and less wrong, claim: > the Greek name for the body was Io This is a little unconventional. I'm not really trained in classical Greek, but I also thought the word was selene. Doing a simple search of greek dictionary entries through perseus ( http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/definitionlookup?type=begin&q=moon&lang=greek http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/definitionlookup?type=be... ) quickly tells us that there are many, many, many greek words relating to the moon that use a form of selene or mene (aselenos, moonless; selenion, moonlight; hyposelenios, under the moon; triselenos, of three moons; numenia, the new moon; dichomenia, the full moon; skotomene, moonless night; etc. etc. etc.) Further inspection reveals that the term selene never appears in Homer, while mene does, so mene is probably older. (Knowing that mene comes from a PIE root also supports the idea that it's older.) Io also appears, with a short gloss of "the moon". But the related dictionary entries don't really deal with that sense; they prefer to define Io as the mythological daughter of Inachus. But there is a citation to "Eust.ad D.P.92" in which Io is the "name of the moon at Argos". Wikipedia's entry on Io (the mythological figure) also says, "The ancients connected Io with the Moon", with a citation to "Eustathius of Thessalonica commentary on Dionysius Periegetes, 92", which looks like the same thing as the LSJ cite perseus gives. Wikipedia also cites this to a 10th-century Byzantine encylcopedia which Eustathius is known to have been familiar with, and to a 5th-century Greek philologist. None of those cites go to web resources, and I would be unlikely to get much out of them even if they did, but it does appear that there was a minor strain of referring to the moon as Io in some places at some point. But selene and mene are clearly better candidates for "the word for the moon", since only they are used to form moon-related words. (Really, there are two words for the moon -- both terms appear as goddesses, but obviously have an ordinary, non-divine sense.) As far as I can see, Io is a mythological allusion, not "the word for the moon". It's even capitalized in the dictionary entry with the moon gloss. How'd you learn that the Greek name for the moon was supposedly Io? Do you remember? Finally, > Luna was the Roman goddess represented by the body. Sure, that's true, but luna is also just the ordinary Latin word for the moon. You might notice that the same thing happens with both selene and mene. Personification deities are dirt-common in classical literature. Take the goddess who started the Trojan war, Eris. She's referred to (by us) as the goddess of discord. And Eris isn't really a name -- it's just the word for quarreling and strife.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

Surely we do give the moon a specific name: "moon". The concept of calling other large rocky natural satellites "moons" almost certainly came later. </nitpick>

by leoedin 12y ago

Surely we do give the moon a specific name: "moon". The concept of calling other large rocky natural satellites "moons" almost certainly came later. </nitpick>

kissickas 12y ago

Not originally your error, but the name of the Moon should normally be capitalized, as far as I know.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
Let's just call it the Mün, and the other one Minmus.

quarterto 12y ago

I like the convention in most space-exploration sci-fi of calling natural planetary satellites "moons" and stars with planetary systems "suns", but calling our sun "Sol" and Earth's moon "Luna".

dijit 12y ago
that's not just Sci-fi, that's their actual names in latin, which means that's what's used in science. Luna and Sol: Root origins of "Solar System" and "Lunar eclipse" etc;
- quarterto 12y ago
  Well, yes, but they're not used as names in common speech, hence my point.
  - ejk314 12y ago
    I bet there's a word for that - using the more general term for something as a proper noun when the meaning is obvious from context. Like calling the largest nearby city just "The City". I figure it's the same general idea behind calling it "The Moon".
    - innguest 12y ago
      Metonym?
      - mturmon 12y ago
        Also, synecdoche ("a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa")
  - Shorel 12y ago
    'Sol' and 'Luna' are used as their names in common speech, every single day, in all Spanish speaking countries.
    - quarterto 12y ago
      And this is a conversation about English common names and literature.

dingaling 12y ago

Even more confusingly, the Greek name for the body was Io, later allocated to a satellite of Jupiter. Moon came into Emglish from Danish for 'month'. Luna was the Roman goddess represented by the body.

innguest 12y ago
> the Greek name for the body was Io When? I was under the impression in Ancient Greece that the moon was called Selene (Seleenee) or Mene (Meenee)?
thaumasiotes 12y ago
> Moon came into E[n]glish from Danish for 'month' This is flat-out wrong. Check etymonline ( http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=moon http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=moon ): moon (n.) Old English mona, from Proto-Germanic *menon-, from PIE *me(n)ses- "moon, month" That's a straight line of descent from proto-Indo-European to modern English. No borrowing at any point. Interestingly, etymonline also points out that the english word "moon" is cognate with the classical Greek word for the moon "mene". This leads nicely into your more interesting, and less wrong, claim: > the Greek name for the body was Io This is a little unconventional. I'm not really trained in classical Greek, but I also thought the word was selene. Doing a simple search of greek dictionary entries through perseus ( http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/definitionlookup?type=begin&q=moon&lang=greek http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/definitionlookup?type=be... ) quickly tells us that there are many, many, many greek words relating to the moon that use a form of selene or mene (aselenos, moonless; selenion, moonlight; hyposelenios, under the moon; triselenos, of three moons; numenia, the new moon; dichomenia, the full moon; skotomene, moonless night; etc. etc. etc.) Further inspection reveals that the term selene never appears in Homer, while mene does, so mene is probably older. (Knowing that mene comes from a PIE root also supports the idea that it's older.) Io also appears, with a short gloss of "the moon". But the related dictionary entries don't really deal with that sense; they prefer to define Io as the mythological daughter of Inachus. But there is a citation to "Eust.ad D.P.92" in which Io is the "name of the moon at Argos". Wikipedia's entry on Io (the mythological figure) also says, "The ancients connected Io with the Moon", with a citation to "Eustathius of Thessalonica commentary on Dionysius Periegetes, 92", which looks like the same thing as the LSJ cite perseus gives. Wikipedia also cites this to a 10th-century Byzantine encylcopedia which Eustathius is known to have been familiar with, and to a 5th-century Greek philologist. None of those cites go to web resources, and I would be unlikely to get much out of them even if they did, but it does appear that there was a minor strain of referring to the moon as Io in some places at some point. But selene and mene are clearly better candidates for "the word for the moon", since only they are used to form moon-related words. (Really, there are two words for the moon -- both terms appear as goddesses, but obviously have an ordinary, non-divine sense.) As far as I can see, Io is a mythological allusion, not "the word for the moon". It's even capitalized in the dictionary entry with the moon gloss. How'd you learn that the Greek name for the moon was supposedly Io? Do you remember? Finally, > Luna was the Roman goddess represented by the body. Sure, that's true, but luna is also just the ordinary Latin word for the moon. You might notice that the same thing happens with both selene and mene. Personification deities are dirt-common in classical literature. Take the goddess who started the Trojan war, Eris. She's referred to (by us) as the goddess of discord. And Eris isn't really a name -- it's just the word for quarreling and strife.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]