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<p class="MsoNormal">Greetings to list members—<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Questions about a Javanese fish name: The Dutch ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker introduced <Betta> as a taxonomic name for a fish genus. His earliest publication of the name was apparently in “Bijdrage tot de kennis der ichthyologische fauna
van Midden- en Oost-Java,” _<i>Verhandelingen van het Bataviaatsch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen</i>_, 23, 1850. Bleeker lists “indigenous names” (“de inlandsche namen”) for many species of fish. For his <Betta trifasciata>, found in the vicinity
of Ambarawa in central Java, he gives the name “Ik[an] wader bettah.” “Ikan” I presume is the Malay word for “fish.” The word “wader” is glossed “a freshwater fish” in Robson and Wibisono’s Javanese dictionary. Bleeker’s “bettah” is not self-evident. Robson
and Wibisono list <betah> as a verb meaning “to feel comfortable” and “to endure” but I’m not sure what this word would mean conjoined to <wader> as a fish name, or even if this is the word in question.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">My thanks to anyone who can illuminate the matter—Jim Rader, Merriam-Webster, Inc.<o:p></o:p></p>
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