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Last summer I was reading a Daily Mail article entitled Meet the pink big-eyed octopus so cute that the scientist who discovered the creature is considering naming it ‘ADORABILIS’ (The Daily Mail 16 June 2015, Available online at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3125869/Scientist-considers-naming-unclassified-octopus-species-Adorabilis-overcome-big-eyed-cuteness-deep-sea-creature.html).
I guess it's a beautiful-sounding new word in the English language. I was wondering what its word-formation pattern is. Maybe adorable+-ilis or adorable+-is. In point of fact, failed to find the suffixes -ilis and -is in English dictionaries. Does anyone know how the given word was formed?
This Wiktionary entry lists it as a Latin suffix (and most species' names are Latin derived).
The full name suggested in that article is: Opisthotheusis adorabilis.
According to the currently accepted binomial nomenclature used for taxomomy, both words are supposed to follow the spelling and grammar of Latin (with a few exceptions made for other languages). The first name (Opisthotheusis) identifies the genus, assuming one already exists, and in this case the genus is well established and includes types of cephalopods with "flat" body shapes. Your common octopus is in the same taxonomic family, but is in the genus Octopoda (but I'm not 100% positive on that).
But your question is about the "adorabilis" part of the name (which is the species). This is the part a biologist has to "make up" when they discover a previously unknown species, and there's a fair amount of latitude in that process. Beyond the requirement for a Latin form, the name is supposed to be descriptive, easily pronounced, not contain any diacritical marks, and not be offensive. See this article about the naming of species.
So given the photo of this "new" creature, I get the "adorable" part. But the "ilis" ending was most likely a matter of style. The species could just as well have been named "adorarbatia" or "adorobata" or maybe even "adorabus" (but I'm not an expert on Latin).
For example, "Homo habilis" = man + handy (since the species was associated with the first use of tools). The "habilis" part has its roots in the Latin "habilitatem" which means "aptitude." But again, it could have been "habilatus" or something else. Other species of the genus "Homo" have been named "georgicus" (discovered in the Republic of Georgia) and "erectus" (first to stand upright).
There are some Latin scholars on this forum who may add to my response, but I'm pretty sure, bottom line, that "adorabilis" just sounded the best.
It's been fifty years since I studied Latin, and I was never much of a scholar, but a year or five ago, the Queen (I *think* of the UK) declared an "annus miribilis", which is latjn for a year of catastrophes (according to the queen's representatives) or a year of wonders (according to the dictionary.
As always, I stand in awe at the wonderful exposition and explanation Heimhenge has offered. When I grow up, I want to be him.
http://www.royal.gov.uk/ImagesandBroadcasts/Historic%20speeches%20and%20broadcasts/Annushorribilisspeech24November1992.aspx
On 24 November 1992 The Queen gave a speech at Guildhall to mark the 40th anniversary of her Accession. In it The Queen referred to recent events as part of an 'annus horribilis'.
Martha Barnette
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