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Gender of generic names, particularly those ending in ‐ma, in the ‘Names in current use’ list
Author(s) -
Nicolson Dan H.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
taxon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1996-8175
pISSN - 0040-0262
DOI - 10.2307/1223468
Subject(s) - code (set theory) , linguistics , element (criminal law) , genealogy , computer science , history , law , philosophy , political science , programming language , set (abstract data type)
Summary Nicolson, D. H.: Gender of generic names, particularly those ending in ‐ma, in the ‘Names in current use’ list. – Taxon 43: 97‐107. 1994. – ISSN 0040‐0262. A historical review of the Code provisions concerning gender is given. Not all generic names ending in the letter “a” are feminine. Indeed, a majority of those ending in ‐ma are neuter. A general rule is that names ending with the same element have the same gender. Some guidelines are offered here and due consideration is given to generic names that break the pattern. Neither is it appropriate to blindly impose classical gender nor uncritically accept what the original author did. Major weight must be given to botanical usage. These principles have been applied to more than 1200 names appearing in the generic names in current use (NCU) list.