29 replies to this topic

[William. T]

 

It's settled. We need to write up a proclamation of formication. Not this:

formication

[fawr-mi-key-shuh n]

noun
1.
a tactile hallucination involving the belief that something is crawling on the body or under the skin.

This happens when I watch too many ant videos.

 

That's what happens when I trip on a S. Invicta nest.

[Teleutotje]

Formiculture sounds great but, following the established uses, I would say Myrmecoculture. All systematic names are based on Formica but all the other names are based on Myrmica. Formica is Latin, Myrmica is Greek, both mean "Ant".

Edited by Teleutotje, August 26 2015 - 10:55 AM.

[Gregory2455]

Myrmeculture.

[Reacker]

I propose Reackerculture, since my naming ability seems to have sway here for some ungodly reason. 

 

Edit: Really though, haha, I am honored to think that my made up name might become the general use term for the hobby. As Teleutotje pointed out, I followed no rules or established patterns in coming up with the name. My sole reasoning was that it sounded good, and rolls off the tongue easily.

Edited by Reacker, August 26 2015 - 5:28 PM.

[William. T]

I propose Reackerculture, since my naming ability seems to have sway here for some ungodly reason. 

 

Edit: Really though, haha, I am honored to think that my made up name might become the general use term for the hobby. As Teleutotje pointed out, I followed no rules or established patterns in coming up with the name. My sole reasoning was that it sounded good, and rolls off the tongue easily.

Well, how it sounds like is part of the question. Ha ha! I need to make a poll for this.

[James C. Trager]

An addition to what Teleutotje wrote; the root of ant words coined from Latin is formic-, and of those derived from Greek is myrm- or its variants myrmec- or myrmic-.

 

Properly, the Latin-based word should be formiciculture (with one more syllable than formiculture). A Greek-derived coining could be something like "myrmecectrophy". But for the hobby and practice of ant husbandry as practiced by most who visit this forum, I think the shortened form formiculture is perfect. 

[dspdrew]

Would that mean that the word formicarium, should more properly be formicicarium?

[James C. Trager]

No, formicarium is correct, from formic- + -arium (not your hypothetical /-carium/).

[dspdrew]

Oh yeah... duh... Forget I asked. I guess adding the "i" is what confused me.

[William. T]

Well, formicarium sounds good enough for me.