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Autotomic Curves

Abstract

IN answer to your correspondent, Mr. A. B. Basset, would not the Anglo-Saxon negative prefix “un” combine more euphoniously with “autotomic” than the Greek “an”? We find analogy for such a combination in the familiar words “unauthorised” and “unauthenticated,” where it is used in conjunction with words of Latin origin; so there seems no valid philological objection to its association with a Greek derivative, while the phrase “an unautotomic curve” would certainly sound more pleasantly to the ear than “an anautotomic” one.

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THORN, A. Autotomic Curves. Nature 63, 7 (1900). https://doi.org/10.1038/063007c0

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