while reading up on punctuated equilibrium, I ran up against ploidy, which just sounded silly.
While saltational speciation by change in ploidy is observed to occur in modern populations, this form of speciation is also known to be rare (except in plants).
from M-W:
Main Entry: ploi·dy
Pronunciation: 'ploi-dE
Function: noun
Etymology: from such words as diploidy, hexaploidy
: degree of repetition of the basic number of chromosomes
just wondering about the whole ploid thing...
Okay--whose homework were you helping with? Surely you weren't reading that for fun?!
Ploid
[Greek diplous, double; see dwo- in Indo-European Roots + -oid.]
(dic.com)
But no idea where the 'y' comes from.
But no idea where the 'y' comes from.
Is is comparatively recent..
From the OED:
"ploidy . Biol.
[f. ha)ploidy, poly)ploidy, etc.]
The number of homologous sets of chromosomes in a cell, or in each cell of an organism.
1947 Genetics XXXII. 512 A state of indefinite ‘ploidy’.
1953 Jrnl. Gen. Microbiol. VIII. 101 Another possibility is that there is a different degree of effective ploidy of the F+ and F- gametic cells, the F- gametic cell having a higher degree of ploidy (or, possibly, more nuclei) than the F+.
1961 Lancet 5 Aug. 318/1 All metaphases have been analysed. When an exact account was impossible the ploidy level has been estimated.
1970 Watsonia VIII. 140 As most of our counts are approximate the ploidy level rather than the chromosome number is given.
1976 Nature 29 Apr. 785/2 To confirm the ploidy, both strains were grown axenically and their chromosomes were stained."
my impression is that when only haploid and diploid cells were known, there was probably no need for a category term.
biologists have a streak - well, I think this streak is much more widespread, if you think of all the words, like anomaly derived from an adjective and ending in y (in Greek, this was "..ia"). Then there are those not derived from an adjective, like energy etc.
What's wrong with deriving words when needed? For the record, in Greek and Latin any adjective can be used as a noun without derivation (zero derivation).
nothing wrong with derivation at all, I didn't mean to imply that, but ploidy just sounds so goofy. no prescripy, me.
