On another forum someone mentioned a type of wood of the above name. Is this a British rendering of what we in the USA call cypress, or a different species? The poster is English, and a teacher, so probably didn't mistype.

Attempts to look it up only revealed someone of that family name who was the sole survivor of Mount Pele's eruption. Somehow I don't think that's what I'm looking for.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Asa Lovejoy>,

I know of no tree called cyparis. There is a Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, however, Port-Orford-cedar, AKA Lawson cypress. There's also an X Cupressocyparis leylandii (Leyland cypress), a bigeneric hybrid of Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (Alaska-cedar or Nootka cypress) and Cupressus macrocarpa (Monterey cypress).

Around 2002 a new genus of conifer was found in Vietnam and named Xanthocyparis vietnamensis. Subsequently Alaska-cedar was transferred to this new genus. This meant that Leyland cypress would become X Cuprocyparis leylandii. In 2004 it was pointed out that Alaska-cedar was first described as Callitropsis nootkatensis in 1824.

It was proposed, in 2006, that the the genus Cupressus be divided into two genera. The two species of Xanthocyparis and the new world species of Cupressus all be put in the genus Callitropsis and the old world species would remain in Cupressus. There is a table published in the Gymnosperm Database which shows these proposed changes, followed by this sentence:

quote:

If this is not sufficiently confusing, check back in a year or two.

(Edited to provide link for Gymnosperm Database quote)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,

A Google search gives hits with two model shops in first and second position. It does therefore appear to be a type of wood.

The word would seem to be related to Greek κυπαρισσος (kuparissos 'cypress'. The ending -ισσος (-issos) suggests that it is a non-IE, pre-Greek substratum loanword, cf. θαλασσος thalassos 'sea'. (It may be related to the name for the island Cypress, though that might have been a folk etymology for some non-IE language's term for copper.) Cyparis looks like a Latinized spelling and shortened version of the Greek word, as is its appearance in a genus name.

I'm guessing cyparis refers to one or more of the Chamaecyparis species.

From Encyclopedia of Stanford Trees, Shrubs, and Vines:

• Chamaecyparis is closely related to the cypress (-cyparis is just a spelling variant of cypress), but differs by displaying its twigs as flattened sprays covered with tiny stem-clasping scales and by dropping its cones annually. The prefix chamae- is borrowed from an ancient Greek word 'chamaidrus' meaning a stunted tree. The word drus taken on its own meant tree; in fact English 'tree' and Greek 'drus' have a common origin.
  
  
• Name derivation, genus | species Gk. chamai (low growing) and kuparissos (cypress) | Charles Lawson (d. 1874), Scottish nurseryman who raised it from the original introduction in Great Britain in 1854.

Thanks, y'all! I've e-mailed the original poster of the word to see what he knows, but have not heard from him yet.

BTW, arnie, it appears that Google and such are geo-centric, since I didn't get those hits when I tried it. I often try looking up stuff in other languages for just that reason. It expands one's research capabilities - IF you can actually understand what you've found!

Barely monolingual Asa

I suspect cyparis was a mis-spelling, or a copy of one, for cyperus, which is a large genus of about 600 species of sedges. Apparently the papyrus plant is part of this genus.

EDIT: I was mistaken.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: shufitz,

The URLs were very long and "broke" the forum's software, so I posted an abbreviated version of the Google search; no doubt the parts I left out were more important than I'd thought.

Here goes again:

Phills Model Shop [ sic]

Balsa Mart.

Both suppliers are in the north of England.

I heard back from the person who introduced me to the word, who directed me to a posting from the Large Model Association in the UK that avers that "cyparis" is a North American wood! Yet we in North America have never heard of it! Go figure...

I think Tinman is right. Now I've got to figure out which one these Brits are referring to!

Edit: after referring to an old (1937) book I have, I've found that it's what we locally call Port Orford cedar. Mystery solved. Thanks for the help, y'all!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Asa Lovejoy>,