A recent article on the planet Venus got me thinking. What is the proper adjective of Venu?
Popularly it is assumed to be ‘Venusian’. This article has it as ‘Venutian’. I thought I heard it once as Venerean. But I’m not sure.
And while I’m asking, what do you call it? I’m just curious.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson has told the story on his podcast more than once that the proper adjective form of Venus should be “Venereal”, but, um, that adjective was already taken for a very different meaning…
MISSED EDIT WINDOW: I can’t seem to insert the link I want. But for the last time, here it is: Life on Venus? Carl Sagan predicted it in 1967. He may be right. | Mashable
Sorry, Solost, it looks like we double posted. In any event, don’t mind me. Carry on .
Apologies to have inserted my NDT anecdote before your addendum.
This comic explores the issue.
*SNRK!*
(Having to add more text else Discourse refuses to accept the post)
NASA and the European Space Agency seem to have mainly settled on “Venusian”:
You do occasionally get other adjectives; this 2012 NASA/JPL article uses “Venetian” (“With his telescope, Galileo started cranking out Venetian discoveries, including how the planet changed its illumination phase just like the moon as it circles Earth”), but of course “Venetian” is normally used to mean referring to Venice (the city in Italy), including by NASA. (Indeed, one is tempted to say that usage from the first link was simply a mistake; even “rocket scientists” sometimes make mistakes.)
“Venerian” saw a fair amount of use in 20th century science fiction, generally back when people still thought it was likely there was advanced life there (“people” I mean, not maybe hypothetically phosphine-secreting microorganisms):
I thought the properties and characteristics of the planet itself were Venusian while the inhabitants were Venutians. Can’t remember where I got that idea though.
That reads like a misspelling of ‘Venetian’. Erroneous ‘Venus’ for ‘Venice’ is quoted in the OED: Venus cloth, Venus sumach.
Seems some get it backwards sometimes, too.
Asimov suggested “Cytherian”
Considering Jupiter’s adjective is Jovian and I’ve seen Arean for Mars and Hermean for Mercury we could use Aphroditian for Venus.
Doing a google search I see that I am right plus a lot of other possibilities.
Jove and Jupiter are both Latin, though, not Greek like Ares, Hermes, or Aphrodite. The Greek equivalent of Jupiter is Zeus. “Jupiter” is the nominative singular form of the name, but all other forms of the name are based on “Jovis”
I got the proper use of the name from here back in the late 70’s
Apparently the proper word is Russian.
In the original Latin, the genitive (possessive) form of “Venus” was/is “Veneris”, so it seems that “venereal” would be closest to the desired word.
Likewise - the Latin genitive form of “Mars” is “Martis”, and that of “Jupiter” is “Jovis” - yielding “martial” and “jovial”.
The genitive in Latin was always kind of mercurial.
I see what you did there, but it’s the nominative that’s inconsistent. The genitive always sets the pattern for all of the other cases. But the nominative, while you can usually give a good educated guess from the genitive, can be anything.
Yes, I know. I took some Latin in HS. But don’t ruin the joke by overanalysing.
not that he was wrong but I think we are closer to find life on mars than Venus in the closest future