'Automatica'

[A. Maberry]

On Thu, 6 Mar 2003, James A. Landau wrote:

> In a message dated 3/6/2003 1:48:04 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> andrew.danielson at CMU.EDU writes:
>
> > 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.
> >

> The ending "a" is from Latin.  It is used for the plural of some English
> words such as "addenda", "corrigenda", "errata", "phenomena", "candelabra".
> Just to be confusing, there is English "automaton" plural "automata".

Actually it is used for the plural of some English words ending in -um.
Addendum (s)-addenda (pl), etc. Isn't "automaton/automata" the same case
as "phenomenon/phenomena" because both are derived from Greek, not Latin?

The full title of the journal mentioned above is "Automatica: the journal
of IFAC, the International Federation of Automatic Control" and is devoted
to automation and automatic control.

allen
maberry at u.washington.edu