Re: [aroid-l] Etymology of AROID <= ARUM <= ARON

I feel honored to have evoked such intellectual discourse on what I
supposed, was a simple question. Apparently, in order to find an answer, we
had to leave the family Araceae and venture to a foreign family, Liliaceae.
I don't think the Trillium flower bears to much resemblance to an "Aroid"
flower.  Ron    P.S. I still hope someone can give me the names of the
tubers that were sold at the Fairchild show by the Thai man.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Planter Rik" <planterrik@hotmail.com>
To: <aroid-l@lists.ncsu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 1:52 PM
Subject: [aroid-l] Etymology of AROID <= ARUM <= ARON


Well, I've lost the earlier comments now, but here's the gist:

A post noted that "aroid" derived from the Latin word "arum," which means
lily.
Either the same post or a response said that "arum" derived from the Ancient
Greek "aron" (which is where etymological comments end in most
dictionaries).
Another post reasonably asked for the meaning of the Ancient Greek, "aron."

Now, this is me:

From what I find, the Latin "arum" was more specifically applied to one
plant, the wake robin (Trillium erectum), the Ancient Greek word for which
was "aron."  Later, the Latin "arum" was generalized to include all lilies.
Aroid, therefore, etymologically, means lily-like:  "ar[um]" (lily) plus the
suffix "-oid," which means "like or resembling."

There's my best effort.  Oh, the thrill and inescapable lure of pedantry.

Ric



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