Translation from latin

[Alter-Fox]

Does anyone know the literal translation of \"alopex\". I think \"vulpes\" would be \"fox\", but I've heard in many places that \"alopex\" is the same thing, so I'm wondering if that's a literal translation or an interpretation.

[heftig]

Well, Alopex was the old genus for the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus). That's probably why some think it's the same.

I couldn't find any translation. Maybe it doesn't have one. It doesn't have to have one.

[Sirius]

If \"translation\" just refers to an equivalent expression in a different language, then yes, there would be one unless English doesn't have the words to express what it actually is. Which is ... uh ... a little unlikely.

[heftig]

AFAIK a lot of genus or species terms are neologisms that \"just sound latin or greek\" and have no translation.

[Duper]

it's not Latin, it's Greek. Do a english to Greek search for fox. \"alepou\"

omg.. wow. talk about chasing your tail. (no pun intended)

\"Alopex lagopus\" which is an arctic fox seems to mean: \"fox fox\".

I'm sure there is some subtle differences but I was unable to find out what. I might if I subscribed to Webster.. but I'm not going there. :p


ooohhhh kaaayyyyyy...

At the end of that Doc I linked you will find this:

REMARKS. The generic name Alopex is from the Greek alope
meaning a fox. The specific epithet lagopus is composed of
two Greek words, lago meaning hare and pus meaning foot, signifying
that this fox has hair on the soles of its feet (Borror 1960;Gotch 1979). Genetic data appear to contradict the distinction of
Alopex from other foxes, and DNA hybridization data suggest that
the Arctic fox is as similar to species of Vulpes as such species are
to each other (Geffen et al. 1992). Most specifically, the Arctic fox
and the swift fox (V. velox) are closely related, and mitochondrial
DNA sequence divergence suggests a divergence time of 250,000
years (Geffen et al. 1992).

arg.. my brain hurts. I went through something like 20 different on-line dictionaries. Greek, Latin, and English.
o_0

**edit** bolded the Def for easy reading.

[roid]

YIFYIFYIFYIYIF

[Alter-Fox]

it's not Latin, it's Greek. Do a english to Greek search for fox. "alepou"

omg.. wow. talk about chasing your tail. (no pun intended)

"Alopex lagopus" which is an arctic fox seems to mean: "fox fox".

I've heard it means "hare footed fox".

[Duper]

*sigh* ..yeah... read what I quoted. That's there.


Also, I posted this in a progressive fashion as in. I kept adding to it over a couple of hours. Guess I should have added \"**edit**\".

Read what I have in the quote box carefully. What you want is there... unless you want to read through an 8 page PDF file.