Cronian maps Options

[Jeffrey]

(Since we have Jovian for the Jupiter system, I'm assuming Hermean, Venerian, Arean and Chronian are the proper adjectives for the rest of the planets. I think, though, that "Poseidian" is a bit much and "Uranus" is basically the same word in Greek and Latin [Ouranos vs. Uranus.] Even "Venerian" isn't entirely correct, but it's either that or "Aphroditan. )


As you may have guessed, my interest in planetary maps has peaked again, and I think it's time to update all my Voyager-sourced maps. The question is, should I buy the latest USGS maps of Mimas, Iapetus, Enceladus, Dione, etc. or are new maps coming anytime soon?

[Greg Hullender]

Oh no! Another linguistic discussion!

As a real linguist, I’m not going to try to say what’s “correct” and what’s not, but just looking at the specific problem of the English genitive of “Venus” it’s pretty clear that “venusian” dominates in actual usage – by far.

To test this, I did a quick search of all titles in the UW library for all three terms. I found 269 with “venusian” in the title, 6 with “cytherian” and only one with “venerean” (and that one isn’t about the planet).

To usefully tie this back to UMSF, let me suggest that captions of pictures posted to the web should use “venusian” (even though it’s a barbarism) simply because that is the term that scientists and lay people alike will be putting into search engines. Anything meant to be found on the web simply can’t ignore a 269-to-1 usage ratio.