[Sca-cooks] names for newly discovered plants

[Stefan li Rous]

Bear commented:

<<< Relating a New World squash to Turkey would be consistent with the
nomenclature relating maize to Turkey and capsicum peppers to India. >>>

Okay, I remember the maize (Indian corn) and Turkey, which is more  
obvious, but what was the phrasing or whatever that related capsicum  
peppers to India? Just the "pepper" portion of the name? Was it  
thought that all of the peppers, black, white, long came from India?  
Or was "India" simply being used as a synonym for that area to the East?

We sometimes laugh at this use of "India" this and that, including  
the use of the name for the inhabitants of the Americas, but what  
would a better alternative have been for them? If you had come across  
the capsicum pepper(s), what would *you* have called them>?

Who knows, we may be faced with this again. Say in 500 years we are  
landing on the planets of another star system and come across native  
vegetation there. How would we name it, except in terms or variations  
of terms that we already know? Perhaps if it was rather hazardous or  
seemed to be particularly useless, we might name it after a disliked  
politician, but that is still naming it after something we know.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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