Osmetrium, 3rd - spelling

[Martin Dilling]

Dear listers,

Thanks for your thoughts and comments so far.

There seems to be uncertainty about the spelling of "osmetrium". I also
thought about it before I mailed my question to leps list.

Beside the German word "Nackengabel" (= "neck fork") we use the word
"Osmaterium" (= singular) here, but in a very few publications (maybe
translations) you can also read "Osmetrium". I didn't know what's the
right English expression, so I searched for both words in the www. The
English and French texts I found said "osmetrium".

In my opinion, the expression "osmetrium" may cause confusion, meaning
the latin root "metrum" sounds like "supposed to measure something" in
my ears.

"Osmaterium" makes more sense to me, because it's easier to understand:
The Greek word "osme" means "smell" and the Latin expression "materia"
can be translated as "substance", "source", "cause", "capability" - so -
"smelling thing" is the easiest literal translation for "osmaterium".

Comments and corrections welcome. :o)

Bye,

Martin