galenious

ruzuzu It reminds me of Galenism, which would lead toward the rod of Asclepius, then toward medical experiments on live prisoners allegedly carried out by Herophilus of Chalcedon (a town which was also the origin of the name for the milky stone chalcedony), then, eventually, toward the proscription of murder, mutilation, and torture and the prescription of a distinctive emblem for medical services under the Geneva conventions and protocols.

Lake Geneva, of course, is also known as Lac Léman.

Edit: And the genus name Asclepias was given to the milkweeds. Jul 26, 2010

madmouth I'm saving that beautiful piece of philological storytelling in my private files! Jul 26, 2010

fbharjo My paternal grandmother was born in Galena, Maryland and that ultimately lead to the rest my father's family. ( i o(we) us to my grandmother) and Galena which perhaps is derived from the Indo-european melg- that which 'rubs off' in a roundabout way.
Galena - Is its Indo-European root like the milky way galaxy root for milk? (gala) is Greek for milk.) One has to see what rubs ( melg-) off. Lettuce milk it for all its worth. (lettuce is from the latin word lac milk. (Lettuce is flakey.) )Galena is named evidently for that which rubs off in the smelting process like lettuce leaves breaking off or skimming cream from milk. A galaxy unfolding is not a dissimilar process. Teleology leads us to strange and beautiful places. Jul 25, 2010

mollusque I thought you'd like it, hernesheir. The preferred spelling is probably "galenous", but that has fewer than ten hits in Google Books (excluding Galenous = Galen), so I figured "galenious" was a legitimate variant. Finding a previously overlooked aeiou word is particularly satisfying. Jul 25, 2010

hernesheir A most "marvelious" word! Jul 24, 2010

mollusque At the upper extremity, looking directly toward the perpendicular face of the mountain that rises up to the hight of three thousand feet, you see, plainly marked, a stratum of galenious rock in the form of a perfect horseshoe.
--Harry T. Gause, 1871, Journal of a Summer Trip to Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, p. 102
Jul 24, 2010