Good evening Uro people:
No news, just a question if you'll indulge me.
I'm trying to track down what "uromastyx" actually translates to? I can get "uro" in the latin dictionaries ... but nothing for 'mastyx' ... let alone 'uromastyx' in its entirety.
Perhaps somebody can help out an old uni-lingual soldier?
Thanks
Wes
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Uro Latin Terminology Question
Apr 12, 2004 09:21 PM
Replies (4)
shelley7950
Apr 13, 2004 07:32 AM
Ha! A person after my own heart...I have also worked on this one; as you already found out "uro" is tail..."mastyx" is supposedly from the Latin for whip (unfortunately I do NOT know the etymology for this)...so it's literally, "whip tail"...In parts of Europe they're also known as "mastigures", which, again, is "mastig", whip, and "ure", tail...If you find out the anything more about the roots of "mastyx", please let me know...Thanks...
SR
sunfox
Apr 13, 2004 09:04 AM
I think you're on the right track, Shelley. The French name for uromastyx is "fouette-queue" which translates directly into "whip-tail". Fouette = whip, queue = tail
I am biligual French and English so I can confirm this with 100% certainty. 
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1 Mali Uromastyx named Ra
shelley7950
Apr 13, 2004 09:39 AM
Thanks Sunfox, that's interesting...I envy you being bilingual...I stumbled through high school French, but I've always been interested in linguistics...I've got my sister the magazine editor and English geek onto this, so if she finds out anything more, I'll let you guys know...I seem to remember reading that "mastyx" was an obsolete term for a particular kind of whip, but I'm not positive...
SR
Apr 13, 2004 12:14 PM
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