Re:Lavenders - OFF TOPIC (pronunciation)

I'm glad that someone has raised this issue.  I agree with Anthony that there is much evidence for saying "steekas" and I also prefer the sound of this to "stow-cuss" .  But I have always assumed that the word meant "spike" in Greek (hence pterostoechas to refer to the group of lavenders with winged spikes, I thought) and now realise that this is not so. Apparently, stachys means spike in modern botany though I understand it originally referred to an ear of corn.  Stichos means a row.  Hence the Stoechades islands  (now called Les Iles d'Hyeres) from where, according to Pliny, stoechas was first imported, are literally "standing in a row".  So how do we now translate pterostoechas? 

I can cope with Latin but I never learned Greek and would be grateful for correction/elucidation from the classicists out there.

Joan
Editor The Lavender Bag, UK


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