The three botanists

[Rense Haveman]

Some kind of environmental portrait, I guess?


De drie botanici by Rense Haveman, on Flickr


For detail: click photo and press "L" for view in lightbox

 

[Pete Askew]

Nice to see them in their natural habitat! They'll be off now though. One of them has spotted you!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Four, surely? One holding the camera.

 

[Pete Askew]

Surely he must be a zoologist!

 

[Rense Haveman]

Four, surely? One holding the camera.

Never heard of a camera trap? Seen no fourth one, heard no fourth one....

 

[Rense Haveman]

Surely he must be a zoologist!

Or an anthropologist. Or is that some special kind of zoologist after all?

 

[Pete Askew]

There's ants there as well?!

 

[Rense Haveman]

that h is misplaced, isn't it? And yes, there definitely will be ants too. There's hardly a place without them. It's an anthology!

 

[Rense Haveman]

which makes me think (a rarely encountered phenomenon, btw): is anthology derived from anthem? or have they no root in common? just wondering.... as a nonativeenglishspeaker......

 

[Pete Askew]

Er, dunno... it's all greek to me!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

No, they are not connected.

Anthology - garland of flowers - same root as anther

Anthem - derived from antiphona, a sung response

Over time their spellings have got closer, but their origins were quite separate.

So says Susan...

 

[Rense Haveman]

We have this Dutch word for anthology: bloemlezing. Literally something like flower-selection..... Probably closer to anthology than the word bloemlezing suggests!!!!

Thanks Rob!

 

[Ivar Dahl-Larsen]

No, they are not connected.

Anthology - garland of flowers - same root as anther

Anthem - derived from antiphona, a sung response

Over time their spellings have got closer, but their origins were quite separate.

So says Susan...

I somehow knew where that information came from Rob. But anthropologist Rense?