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This afternoon, on a Sunday hike, I had a portentous encounter with a yellow-and-black-striped spider about the size of an infant's hand!
I was sufficiently moved to do a bit of looking around arachnology websites (to find out about the brute's toxicity for one) and finally found out that the spider was a Giant Wood Spider also known as a Golden Orb Weaving Spider.
It is common here in Japan, where they call it "O-jyorou gumo" which I'm told means, roughly: "big femme fatale".
It's Latin name is Nephila clavata. It's this last that I am unsure of. Can anyone tell me what it means?
I'm guessing that "clavata" is related to the Latin "clavate" (meaning thicker at the apex than at the base) but "Nephila"? I haven't the foggiest, unless it has something to do with "nymph" ?
Thanks.
Last edited by Homo Loquens; 10/09/05 03:43 PM.
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By the way, this is the Nephila clavata
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, the ph in nephila is a tip that its roots lie in Greek and not Latin. It might be related to Gk nephos 'cloud'. I'm not really sure. (Your best bet is to look at a scientific dictionary that lists roots used in coining new species names.) The Latin verb clavo (past particple clavatum) has a secondary meaning of 'to furnish with purple stripes'. I looked at pictures and see that it is different from the garden orb weaver we have in California.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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It seems to be related to the Hebrew " Nephilim": 2 entries found for Nephilim.
Nephilim
\Neph"i*lim\, n. pl. [Heb. n[e^]ph[=i]l[=i]m.] Giants. --Gen. vi. 4. Num. xiii. 33.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Nephilim
(Gen. 6:4; Num. 13:33, R.V.), giants, the Hebrew word left untranslated by the Revisers, the name of one of the Canaanitish tribes. The Revisers have, however, translated the Hebrew gibborim, in Gen. 6:4, "mighty men."btw, I'm not familiar with any translation of "gibborim" that would have it "giants" and not "strong or powerful men."
Last edited by inselpeter; 10/09/05 06:47 PM.
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Quote:
...The Latin verb clavo (past particple clavatum) has a secondary meaning of 'to furnish with purple stripes'...
I would have expected some relation to clave/key (but maybe I'm just being naive) Edit: "naïve" - right on! option-u-i and ï both work.
[aside: Is there an ASCII # or even an &# for i-with-a-dieresis for "naive"]
Last edited by wofahulicodoc; 10/09/05 11:55 PM.
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I would have expected some relation to clave/key (but maybe I'm just being naive)
I was concentrating on the secondary meaning. Latin clavo is from clavus 'nail' as opposed to clavis 'key' (whence our clef).
For naive, I used the HTML entity iuml between an ampersand and a semi-colon, but as noticed by others in the bugs thread, something's wrong with the forum software configuration, and no diacritics or Unicode.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quote:
[aside: Is there an ASCII # or even an &# for i-with-a-dieresis for "naive"]
Wofa, you're still on a Mac, yes? option u + i
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Or Alt-0239 (on the number pad) under Windoze: ï. Still Unicode characters beyond 255 don't seem to render, e.g., small letter e with macron ē, with breve ĕ, or with caron ě.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quote:
Or Alt-0239 (on the number pad) under Windoze: ï. Still Unicode characters beyond 255 don't seem to render, e.g., small letter e with macron ē, with breve ĕ, or with caron ě.
Which is nothing compared to the fact that your Great Old One looks distinctly more pachydermish than cephalopodic, thanks to the avatar being squished.
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ï
That's what option-u i gives
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