Nectaring

[Sunsol]

Language changes much more quickly than style books or dictionaries. And
style books disagree with each other.  With so many people using English,
there are bound to be disagreements about what is correct.

I use nectar as a verb. I also use fruit as a verb. But it is a plant that
is "fruiting" not an insect. Plants fruit after they "flower," which is also
a verb make from a noun.

Sally
Michael Gochfeld <gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu> wrote in message
news:37E7EC57.B513FBE2 at eohsi.rutgers.edu...
> John et al.
>
> Copy editors are strange people entitled to their own professional
> beliefs, but we have hammered away successfully.  Your sounds like my
> college English professor who said that nouns cannot be used as
> adjectives. Thus  "kitchen door" is an unlawful uses of English.  He
> didn't think it funny when I wrote "a jam of traffic". (He committed
> suicide midway through my first semester). I hope it was nothing I said.
>
> We hammered away successfully at getting species names capitalized.
> I've argued before why they should be capitalized. Is a little wood
> satry just a small wood satyr (no way for a reader to know).
>
> I don't see any reason why our discipline can't coin the term "to
> nectar". Maybe we have to send it in to the dictionary people for their
> next edition. I vaguley remember seeing a call-for-new-words issued from
> some publisher.
> I wonder when the term "to benchmark" became acceptable. Anyway "Ohio"
> is a great and valuable book and I don't recall being upset at the way
> the editing worked out.
>
> Mike Gochfeld
>
> John Shuey wrote:
> >
> > When we were writing the "Butterflies and Skippers of Ohio" which was
> > published as a reviewed monograph, our editor assured us that there was
no
> > verb - "to nectar".  Rather she documented that nectar is a noun, and
that
> > butterflies are often seen feeding at nectar sources.  Given her power
over
> > the monograph and its adherence to rigorous standards, she expunged all
of
> > our attempts to conjugate "to nectar" from the text, and replaced with
more
> > exacting use of the english language.  This placed feeding at nectar
sources
> > in the same category as feeding at rotting fruit,, feeding on carrion,
> > feeding on fox feces, and so on.
> >
> > While I'll admit that "fecesing" and "fruiting" don't ring my bell, I
still
> > like nectaring.  While I would not attempt to use it in a peer reviewed
> > publication again, I do use it when writing for more general audiences.
> >
> > John Shuey
> >
> > ys-sedman at wiu.edu wrote:
> >
> > > Lepidopterists, especially butterfly workers, often use the word
> > > "nectaring" when butterflies appear to be feeding at a flower, and
this
> > > seems quite appropriate even if not always accurate.  Are other forms
of
> > > the verb used to describe butterfly activity?  Is it said that
> > > butterflies have "nectared" in the past, etc.?
> > >
> > > Finally, what words are used when butterflies are seen on feces,
> > > puddles, rotten fruit, carrion, etc. (puddling, etc.) and seem to be
> > > taking up fluids?  Yale
> > >
> > > --
> >
> > --
> > John Shuey
>