Repenting of having used the word at all, I had resolved to say nothing more
about it, but I have
received too many off-line queries.
The 'English" singular form is, normally, homoeoteleuton.
Variants are, however, possible; and in a context in which the presence of
Greek dropouts could be excluded I would myself write 'homoioteleuton'.
Doing so is akin to writing 'Thoukidides' instead of the Latinized form
'Thucydides'. The first form is 'more correct', but it is also unfamiliar,
a piece of business designed to confuse or annoy the ignorant when it is
used out of context.
The plural form is either -era or just -a. Again the first is 'more
correct' at least in Patristic Latin (sic), but the second would have been
more immediately accessible by analogy with such pairs as automaton/automata
and criterion/criteria.
Bill Fairchild's conjecture is thus entirely correct, and I will try to
avoid Greek very largely in the future. (I was strong tempted to use
Hapax legomenon [mot ou expression qui napparaît quune seule fois dans un
corpus donné, παξ
λεγόμενον]
earlier today, but in the end I did not do so.)
John Gilmore
Ashland, MA 01721-1817
USA
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