Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 March 23

= March 23 =

Coronavirus: why is it called "novel"?
What does the term "novel" mean, exactly, when this current pandemic coronavirus is referred to? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:43, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * , I believe it's because it's the newest coronavirus discovered. If another coronavirus is discovered I'm guessing it'll either retain its COVID-19 classification or revert back to SARS-CoV-2. Tenryuu 🐲  ( 💬 • 📝)  03:57, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, see the adjectival sense 1 here, or the adjectival sense here. --69.159.8.46 (talk) 17:53, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * COVID-19 refers to the disease, not the virus, which would be the aforementioned SARS-CoV-2, which is the permanent name for the novel coronavirus. Elizium23 (talk) 05:58, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Per the above, when first reported, it was a heretofore unseen virus, hence its description as a novel coronavirus. That was never the official name, it was a descriptor, in the way you might call The Rise of Skywalker "the latest Star Wars movie".  -- Jayron 32 14:37, 24 March 2020 (UTC)


 * "A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is any recently discovered coronavirus of medical significance not yet permanently named." If SARS-CoV-2 is a permanent name, then it's no longer novel, I guess. —Tamfang (talk) 03:14, 25 March 2020 (UTC)


 * The novel coronavirus is the one we're dealing with now, that's still kind of new, as opposed to the earlier one (SARS-CoV-1), no longer novel. See for example, here. Mathglot (talk) 03:28, 25 March 2020 (UTC)


 * I think the easiest way to understand it is as "not seen before". "Professor, has this rickettsia been seen before? – Let me have a look. No, I don't think so. We must write a paper reporting that we detected a novel rickettsia." And so they did. --Lambiam 06:25, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Very helpful. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:30, 26 March 2020 (UTC)

Pronunciation of "Quixote" versus "quixotic"
The name Quixote (as in Don Quixote) is pronounced "key-oh-tee" or "kay-hoe-tay". Why is the derived term quixotic pronounced "quick-sot-tick"? (Or, are my pronunciations incorrect?)  Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:53, 23 March 2020 (UTC)


 * First, the traditional British pronunciation was kwick-sut or kwick-soht (stress on first syllable), while the Spanish-imitating pronunciation is kee-hoh-tee (stress on second syllable).  I can't really do IPA symbols with the tool I'm using now, but you can see them at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Quixote ... -- AnonMoos (talk) 04:11, 23 March 2020 (UTC)


 * "Kay-hoe-tay" is not an established English pronunciation at all, and does not have an adequate rendering of the Spanish vowel in the 1st syllable. AnonMoos (talk) 04:14, 23 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Isn't that what is being said here? ---> ) ... (Click on the word listen.) ... That is from the introductory sentence in the Wikipedia article Don Quixote.   Thanks.   Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:25, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * When I listen to that audio clip, I hear "Kee-hoe-tay", which is the way that I have always heard it pronounced in California where I live. Cullen328  Let's discuss it  04:36, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * It's definitely /ki'xote/ and not /kɛɪ'xote/. -- Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝)  05:29, 23 March 2020 (UTC)


 * I've heard Quixote pronounced carelessly as kee-oh-tee, but kee-ho-tay is normal. Your pronunciation of "quixotic" is how I've heard it and it's what my old Webster's say. Furthermore, it says that "Quixote" has often been pronounced "kwiks-ote", a typical English mangling of a foreign word. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:28, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * When I was a kid I thought Don Quixote's name was Donkey Hotey. —Mahāgaja · talk 07:35, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Even though it was Sancho Panza who rode a donkey. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:45, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * D.Q. was a quick sot, while S.P. was a donkey hottie. --Lambiam 17:57, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * The Dutch pronounce the name like Donkey Shot. --Lambiam 18:01, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * As do the French, more or less, but they spell it Quichotte. Castilian formerly pronounced the letter ‹x› as /ʃ/ (remember that next time you want to pronounce an Aztec name). Similarly Ximena became Chimène in a French play. —Tamfang (talk) 03:29, 25 March 2020 (UTC)


 * One might say that to pronounce Quixote in such a way is quixotic. --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  07:39, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, one might. Or even two might. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:45, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Here in Britain, "kee-oh-tee" is the only version I can recall hearing. Maybe the "quick-sote" and "kee-ho-tay" variants can be heard here, but they would sound ignorant and pretentious, respectively, to my ear! I'm with Marge Simpson on this one Lfh (talk) 08:40, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * In the Man of La Mancha soundtrack it's pronounced that "pretentious" way. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:41, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Here in NC it's more "kee-yoh-tay". As for "quixotic", it is pronounced as one would expect an English word with that spelling to be, as most people are probably unaware of its derivation from the name.--Khajidha (talk) 10:36, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * 50 year old in Britain here, Quixot was what I grew up hearing from my grandparents' generation, variations on kee-ote-ay or Quick-sot from my parents' generation. Nik Kershaw used kee-ote-ay. I tend to use Quixot. DuncanHill (talk) 17:41, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Agree with Duncan (I have a decade head-start over him). I dimly recall something of a national debate over the pronunciation when a 1973 BBC adaptation was aired; I believe they used a Spanish approximation rather than the traditional Anglicisation. Alansplodge (talk) 18:05, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * This 2015 article from The Guardian, a British broadsheet newspaper, references a readership survey which found 50% of respondents using the Anglicised ("wrong") pronunciation, which they have rendered as "kwix-oat". Alansplodge (talk) 18:22, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Sounds like a breakfast cereal. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:24, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * There may be a marketing opportunity here. "Finding it hard to get started in the morning? After a bowl of nourishing Kwix-Oat, you'll be ready to go out and tilt at windmills!" {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.27.39 (talk) 07:48, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * It would be interesting to hear the Spanish pronunciation of British characters such as Sherlock Holmes, or more pertinently, Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby. Alansplodge (talk) 21:13, 23 March 2020 (UTC)
 * On a similar theme, consider the derivation of the pseudonymous Japanese writer Edogawa Ranpo's penname. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.27.39 (talk) 10:34, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * That is interesting. I suppose this version of the penname was also influenced by his desire to render the name using kanji, although not resulting in anything particularly meaningful (something like "Edo-river Chaos-step", the last part as in "footstep"). The standard Japanese pronunciation of the English name would be closer to "Edogā Aran Pō", with neither a "w" nor a hiatus between the components ("edogaaarampou"). I knew an American computer scientist of Lithuanian descent who worked as a professor in Japan and whose name, rendered in kanji without anything artificial, came out as meaning "exquisite science teacher". --Lambiam 12:58, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
 * The existence of Edogawa as a part of Tokyo may also have influenced his choice of pseudonym, perhaps? Deor (talk) 19:41, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Much appreciated. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:32, 26 March 2020 (UTC)