Richard,

Thanks for confirming this.

I have since found my notes on the subject (temporarily forgotten and
misplaced); P. H. Fischer (1880-1887, Manuel de Conchyliologie et de
Paleontologie Conchyliologique) provided etymologies for the genera and
species he treated. For Carychium, the etymology that he gave was "Le
buccine" -- that is "buccina" in English, which means (depending on what
dictionary I checked) a crooked horn or trumpet; an ancient trumpet-like
instrument; or a shepherd's horn.

Like Paul Monfils, I suspected that Carychium may have been derived from
Greek word for "nut", and I wasn't sure about another possibility, "thorn",
since that word is integral to the common names of these snails in the
American Fisheries List's 'Names of Mollusks.'

Robert

PO Box 3804, Smithers, British Columbia, Canada V0J 2N0
Research Associate, Royal BC Museum, BC, Canada
BC Land Snails: http://www3.telus.net/rforsyth/



----- Original Message -----
From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 12:31 AM
Subject: Re: Etymology of Carychium


> Robert,
>
> Carychium comes from the Greek "karichion", or horn. (ref.: Emerson &
> Jacobson, Am.Mus. of Nat.Hist. Guide to Shells, 1976, p.209 -- one of the
> only shell books I know of that includes the etymology of scientific shell
> names).
>
> Rich
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> www.worldwideconchology.com
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: Robert Forsyth [log in to unmask]
> Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 14:59:49 -0800
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Etymology of Carychium
>
>
> Can anyone provide me with the etymology of the terrestrial snail genus
> Carychium? It comes from the Greek.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Robert Forsyth
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> mail2web - Check your email from the web at
> http://mail2web.com/ .