Re: Venus [was: Why borrow 'seven'? (was: IE right & 10)]

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Peter P" <roskis@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, enlil@... wrote:
> > Loreto:
>
> >In fact, we
> > could tie in the Venutian cycle too using "seven". (...)
> > = gLeN
>
> As I was reading this I became curious about the possessive form

of

> the word Venus, the planet (named for)/and the godess. I have
> always thought that it should be Venereal from Latin Veneris gen.
> sing. of Venus. I don't think this form is used much since it is
> closely associated with disease. Perhaps politeness has forced us
> to invent the word Venusian for the possessive form. Is Venereal
> acceptable or not in English as would be used in "Venereal

cycle"?

> Perhaps the malady should have been named Venusian disease, if the
> correct possessive form of Venus is Venusian. It's amazing where
> the mind can go when reading some of the more interesting posts

here.

>
> Peter P

********
"Venereal" is reserved for "social diseases" (there's a term I
haven't seen for some years!). "Venusian" is the adjective for the
planet. But in the planetary scientific literature perhaps the
commonest adjective is "Cytherean", from one of the epithets of
Aphrodite, derived from the Island of Cythera where she fisrt
floated ashore.
Dan Milton