This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
  1. KudoZ™ Top
  2. English
  3. Botany

periannual vs. perennial crops

12:32 Oct 1, 2007
This question was closed without grading. Reason: Other

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Science - Botany / Crops
English term or phrase: periannual vs. perennial crops
Is there any difference between these two terms or do they mean the same?
zsuzsa369 (X)
Local time: 16:55


SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
3 +7perennial
Patrick Fischer (X)
3 +6typo?
JohnGBell
3 +2same
Tony M


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


15 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +6
typo?


Explanation:
My suspicion is that periannual is a misspelling and should read perennial

If you do a google search on periannual, you get very few hits and many of those that you do get are repetitions of the same article.

JohnGBell
Local time: 18:55
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Trudy Peters
4 mins
agree  Jack Doughty
18 mins
agree  Lubosh Hanuska
36 mins
agree  David Moore (X)
1 hr
agree  Alfa Trans (X)
2 hrs
neutral  Beatriz Galiano (X): I suppose the asker needs more than suspicions.
3 hrs
  -> Thank you. I have just checked and periannual is not in the full Oxford English Dictionary
agree  Kirill Semenov
4 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

13 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +7
perennial


Explanation:
Ther are a lot of occurences for "periannual" on Google, but I have only found "perennial" lexicalised in several dictionaries : A plant lasting for three seasons or more.
I think "periannual" is just a wrong spelling.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 22 mins (2007-10-01 12:55:18 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

OK, 319 occurences for "periannual".

Patrick Fischer (X)
Local time: 17:55
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman, Native in FrenchFrench

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Trudy Peters: That's the conclusion I reached
5 mins
agree  Claire Chapman: I checked my gardening books and not one lists periannual. I'm inclined to believe that periannual is a misspelling not a type
2 hrs
agree  T o b i a s: e.g. "Perennials for Dummies."
2 hrs
agree  Beatriz Galiano (X)
3 hrs
agree  Kirill Semenov
4 hrs
agree  tms30301 (X)
5 hrs
agree  Hungary GMK
14 days
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
same


Explanation:
As far as I have been able to ascertain from a quick Google search, the two terms doe seem to mean exactly the same thing and to be used interchangeably, at least by amateurs.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 hrs (2007-10-01 19:14:51 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I really don't know how certain of our colleagues can be so dogmatic in their denial of the existence of a word.

Yes, I agree, it LOOKS like a miss-spelling, of course; but let's not forget that language is a living thing, and it takes ages for words to get into the big dicos like OED etc.

All I would say is that it is a PLAUSIBLE neologism, not just an innaccurate spelling — it is intersting that it crops up in sports contexts, which suggests it might well be an error that has been perpetuated.

HOWEVER, let us not forget Asker's original question: "Is the meaning the same?" — and I think the answer to that is pretty clearly YES — certainly, the INTENDED meaning!

As far as I am aware, Asker did NOT ask if 'periannual' exists as a word, nor if it was a spelling error — and I have not in my answer anywhere claimed that 'perinannual' is a valid or widely-used term — simply that in all the occurrences of it I have found (with the possible exception of one that is I think a typo for 'perianal'!), it certainly seems to be being used with the same meaning.

Tony M
France
Local time: 17:55
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kim Metzger: But The New Shorter OED doesn't even list periannual. It gets 19 hits in Google./Correction 19 hits for dictionary periannual.
2 mins
  -> Thanks, Kim! No, I was surprised to note that, too.
disagree  David Moore (X): If it's an incorrectly-spelled word, I suggest you can't say it means the same as the word it was intended to be. The danger is that someone else will say: "Oh yes, periannual means the same as perennial - I saw it on Proz"....
1 hr
  -> But I don't actually believe it IS a spelling mistake; it seems to be rather a US neologism... / But I do hear what you say, I was (perhaps naïvely) simply answering the original question posed.
agree  Rachel Fell: surprised to hear the other day that Jaffa cake's only just gone into the OED (not that I like them, but they've been around for ages)
10 hrs
  -> Thanks, Rachel! Odd that, but I suppose with proper names... 'muffin-top' made it in surprisingly quickly, I see!
agree  juvera: It exists as an alternative to perennial. There are medical, geological (peri-annual cycle), botanical, organisational (Peri-annual Development Land Investment Programme, peri-annual meeting) references to it.
1 day 10 hrs
  -> Thanks, Juvera!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.

You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.

Return to KudoZ list

KudoZ™ translation help

The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

See also:
ProZ.com term search
Search millions of term translations
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search