A new colleague of mine introduced me to rooibos tea a couple of weeks ago*. Since several people in the office were wondering how to pronounce it correctly, I took to the internet to find out more. And there I was on the Rooibos Wikipedia page**, where I checked the pronunciation:

“Rooibos (Anglicised pronunciation: /ˈrɔɪbɒs/ ROY-bos; Afrikaans pronunciation: [rɔːibɔs], meaning “red bush”; scientific name Aspalathus linearis) is a broom-like member of the Fabaceae family of plants growing in South Africa’s fynbos.”

And then it continued: “The generic name comes from the plant Calicotome villosa, aspalathos in Greek…” And I thought, ha ha, generic name: what’s next, the brand name? And then I thought, wait, this is the scientific naming system we’re talking about, which means that “generic name” is referring to … the genus. And so it immediately follows (as it does right there on that Wiki page) that the next thing should be the “specific name,” or, in fact, the species: “The specific name linearis comes from the plant’s linear growing structure and needle-like leaves.”

I have known the word pairs genus/species and general/specific for a long, long time, but how often have I thought about them together? And now it turns out they’re relatives. Click, click, and now these words will be forever linked in my head. Thank you, rooibos tea!  (Or, thank you, Wikipedia.)

This also brings to mind the time I was trying to create a word puzzle*** by coming up with two separate words that matched the irregular plural pattern -en (singular) and -ina (plural) but were not themselves related. Alas, I no longer remember the original words that demonstrated this plural pattern****. But I do remember how excited I was when I thought of the words “stamen” (part of a flower) and “stamina” (endurance) … which lasted for about five minutes, until I looked them up and discovered that “stamina” actually is the plural of “stamen”.

Well, phooey.

Except that now, whenever I hear the word “stamina,” I think of flowers.

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*I quite like it.  Hat tip to Nick Mancuso.

**Which, by the way, is worth reading. The history and economics of the plant are fascinating.

***Long-ago hat tip to Susan Garrett for suggesting this puzzle type.

****I suspect, since I was working as a medical editor at the time, that they were something technical.