Talk:-zoan

RFD discussion: March–December 2018
The etymologies of the derived terms don't use this suffix. It seems to me that this page is a misanalysis. DTLHS (talk) 02:30, 18 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Wow, the (early) edit history is weird, displaying the unlinked text "imported>SP-KP‎" in the space where the username of the creating editor should go. - -sche (discuss) 02:42, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
 * It is the username of the creating editor- with the prefix "imported>" tacked on. That's how they must have handled edit histories of interwikis in those days. Chuck Entz (talk) 04:14, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Delete. As mentioned above, this is not a true suffix. PseudoSkull (talk) 04:18, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm conflicted: on the one hand, this is obviously bogus. On the other hand, it would be nice to have someplace to explain the invariant pattern of individual members of taxa with translingual names ending in -zoa being called by an English name ending in -zoan. This is the same as with the taxonomic sense of -phyte (which also has other problems) and -phyta. Then there are -ids, -ines and -forms, as well as -aceous adjectives. Chuck Entz (talk) 05:00, 18 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Well the OED has it. Ƿidsiþ 06:51, 14 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Well, we do use "suffix" in etymology sections to describe endings that are not strictly suffixes (Category talk:English nouns ending in "-ism" has some discussion of this). And while I've opposed entries for some in the past (Talk:-oth, Talk:-os), they've been kept for lack of consensus to delete. I even created a suffix section for -x, which replaces the arguably non-suffixal endings -o/-a on e.g. amigo/amiga. In this case, even major lemmings like the OED and Merriam-Webster (and Collins) have entries for this (MW and Collins also have -zoon, but not -zoan). And it comes from a Greek word zoion, so the only leap is in analysing the ending as a suffix; it's not a case of a word being broken up "incorrectly" like adder being extracted from nadder. And it's useful, as Chuck says. So, weak keep. - -sche (discuss) 18:51, 16 June 2018 (UTC)

Closed with no consensus to delete Since nobody has voted in six months, it's unlikely a consensus to delete will emerge. Purplebackpack89 20:27, 18 December 2018 (UTC)