'Automatica'

[Drew Danielson]

I am passing the following on to ADS-L as a request for clarification
from an engineering professor friend in Germany.  Anyone with a
background or interest in new coinages and/or new technology naming
conventions please reply off-list.

Thanks,
Drew

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I just had a discussion with a [colleague] who is seeking an
appropriate English term for a degree program. One option is
'Automatica' (whereas my suggestion was 'Automation and Information
Theory'). The question came up whether 'Automatica' is indeed a valid
English word. Since there is a journal with this title, it can't be
competely wrong, but the word is not contained in the dictionaries I
have. So I am wondering where this ending 'a' comes from. (It is not
unique: There is, e.g., also a mathematical tool called 'Mathematica'.)
My feeling is that Automatica stands for the subject or science of
automation, but this is just a guess.

Can you provide a clarification?

Thanks a lot!

-Olaf


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my (quick & unproofread) reply:

"Automatica" appears to be a good Italian word...
http://www.em.ee.unian.it/ é il 'website' del Dipartimento di
Elettronica ed Automatica della Università di Ancona....

Anyway, I vote for your suggestion.  From what I see in contemporary
English, at least the American version, we tend not to use one-word,
non-compound names for new abstrations.  Thus 'Computer Science' and not
'Informatics'.  When we do use one word, it's a compound name like
'Sociolinguistics' rather than a brand-new pseudo-Latinism.  Especially
if you are offering a degree, it's better to give the future employer a
good sense of what the student studied, which 'Automation and
Information Theory' does better than 'Automatica' would.

'Automatica' probably does stand for science of automation, but
'Automation' does a better job of standing for itself.  To me,
'Automatica' and 'Mathematica' sound more like trademarks than fields of
study.  My guess about the title of the journal 'Automatica' (and it's
just a guess) is that it's a play on the word 'automata' (plural of
'automaton').  It seems to imply that it's the journal of the study of
automata (rather than automation).

I will also forward this to the American Dialect Society to see if
anyone there has an opinion.  I will pass any responses on to you.