speculative etymology of "menomena"
Jan. 10th, 2006 11:44 pmGiven the care of beekeepers to prevent their honey from being contaminated by toxic local flora, these cases are generally accidental. They are common enough, however, on the northern Pacific coast for emergency room departments to consider honey poisoning as a differential diagnosis to be ruled out in cases presenting as acute myocardial infarction.http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ag151/addendum.html
The Roman naturalist, Pliny wrote of the toxic honey of the region, calling it 'meli maenomenon,' or "mad honey" and noting that, although the people of the area were able to pay a large tribute of beeswax to the Romans every year, they were unable to sell their honey due to its poisonous quality. Pliny was also one of the first writers to attribute the toxic source of the honey to the native rhododendron, azalea and oleander plants.Would menomena then be "mad" as applied to a plural noun?
Or, if it can be used as a substantive, would menomena not mean "mad things"? And they are, they are mad.