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Well this got my curiosity going. Dropping "tuso" into google translate, it detects it as filipino but gives two different translations depending whether
it is capitalized or not: "Tuso" = "crap" while "tuso" = "cunning". A reddit page from four months ago asks for a translation https://www.reddit.com/r/biology/comments/acarqx/etymology_of_tusoteuthis/ which likewise echoes "cunning". The Logan 1898 reference is on line in google books where the name just appears and with no meaning given (I note that
it's referred to as T. longus, not longa). wiktionary gives several choices, even in esperanto https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tuso where an etymology for the Spanish "tuso" is given as
"From the irregular old past participle of the verb tundir, corresponding to Latin tonsus" where tonsus translates as "shorn". Other meanings are docked, cropped, dog, and as a verb, to shear or trim.
Logan compares it to Teuthopsis, but "differs from that genus in having a lanceolate instead of a spatulate gladius, and a thicker, shorter shaft" Shorter? As in, trimmed, cropped, shorn â? After being all over the map, that's the only clue I see. That would mean
mixing Spanish in with the Greek and Latin which I suppose is ok. Wow, that was fun. From: dinosaur-l-request@usc.edu
[mailto:dinosaur-l-request@usc.edu] On Behalf Of
Tyler Greenfield Hopefully this question isn't too off-topic for the DML considering it involves a prehistoric invertebrate, but I know some here are more knowledgeable about etymologies
than I am. Something that has been bothering me in particular is the etymology of
Tusoteuthis longa Logan, 1898. While the words teuthÃs
(Gr. "squid") and longa
(Lat. "long") are well-documented, I've never been able to find a language or meaning for
tuso. Neither the original description nor any following papers contain an explanation.
Does anyone know the origin of this word? |