Talk:sica

Other sense, pronunciation

Century also has a biology sense, "In the structure of the extinct pelecypod genus Lunulicardium, one of the two curved smooth sickle-shaped blades which bound the edges of the great anterior hiatus between the valves." This however seems to be restricted to one author:

• 1904, John Mason Clarke, Naples Fauna in Western New York, page 229:

  In Prochasma, however, the hiatus is bounded by vertical sicae. We can therefore employ the term only with restricted value as a designation for the smooth or finely lined species of Lunulicardium, bearing in mind that in respect to […]

• 1913, Maryland Geological Survey, Devonian: Plates:

  LUNULICARDIUM ENCRINITUM […] Right valve showing the smooth concentrically lined surface and the sica.

There is a related adjective sical:

• 1904, John Mason Clarke, Naples Fauna in Western New York, page 242:

  Lunulicardium (Prochasma) absegmen sp. nov. […] […] meeting the sical margin at the middle of the shell. Sical margin oblique, longer than one half the length of the shell, slightly arched. Surface depressed and evenly curved, smooth or with only very obscure concentric striae. No radial markings visible. […] In L. enode the sical margin is longer and more oblique.

• 1904, Geologisches Zentralblatt: Anzeiger für Geologie, Petrographie, Palaeontologie und verwandte Wissenschaften. Geologie. Abt. A., page 457:

  For the sickle-shaped walls which, standing vertical to the horizontal axis of the animal, bound the hiatus, the term sicae or sical surfaces is proposed.

  (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Century says this sica is pronounce /ˈsaɪkə/, whereas for the weapon one would think /ˈsikə/ might also be found, or (as a spelling pronunciation, and based on the pronunciation of Sicarius) /ˈsɪkə/. Apparently, the word was historically quite mispronounced in various languages until classicist pronunciation of Latin became standard:

• 1999 October 15, Sheila Embleton, John E. Joseph, Hans-Josef Niederehe, The Emergence of the Modern Language Sciences: Studies on the transition from historical-comparative to structural linguistics in honour of E.F.K. Koerner. Volume 2: Methodological perspectives and applications, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 19:

  For, to cite an extreme example, sicae “daggers” (nominative) had come to be pronounced [s'aisiː] in England and America, which reversed the vowels of the two syllables and altogether neutralized the difference between the consonants; in Germany it was [z'iːtseː], maintaining both a consonantal and a vocalic distinction, though at a considerable remove from true ancient Latin.

- -sche (discuss) 05:09, 31 January 2022 (UTC)