Talk:Pachycereus

"pakhys" instead of "pakhus"

The greek word for "thick" is "παχύς" (maskuline) or "παχύ" (neutral) ["παχιά" (feminine)], so "pakhus" should be corrected as: "pakhys". The latin ending "-us" is corresponding to the greek ending "-ος", so "pakhus" is corresponding to the greek word "πάχος" which means "thickness". Since I don't know how to edit the article, I edited this text at the "talk" page, I hope sbd. will read this to correct the article. Anjius (talk) 14:02, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

@Anjius: I added the actual Greek word. Transliterating Greek is always an issue: what to use for χ ('kh' or 'ch' or even just 'h') and what to use for υ ('u' or 'y' – or even 'i' for Modern Greek). I think 'pakhus' is acceptable, provided the actual Greek word is given, but given the genus name, 'pachys' would be better. Peter coxhead (talk) 14:33, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

@Peter coxhead: Please, accept my apology for using the wrong word “corrected” instead of “changed” which is closer to what I meant. The use of "kh" instead of "ch" is another issue; I could also propose the change of “kh” with “ch” in the word “pakhus” also, but I didn’t (I don't know why). Both forms “pakhus” and “pachys” are acceptable as forms of the actual Greek word, with the 2nd form more often used, closer to the genus name and closer to the pronunciation (and more preferred by me, for all these reasons), while the 1st one uses the “kh” which is closer to the formation of the letter “χ” and the “u” which is closer to the origin of the letter ”u” from the letter “υ”, so, I agree that "pachys" would be better. Anjius (talk) 09:28, 30 January 2019 (UTC)