Disputatio:61 Danae

De nomine

Secundum en:wiki "It is the lowest-numbered asteroid with diacritical characters in its official name." Ergo 61 Danaë. Sed quo fonte? Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 12:50, 14 Februarii 2010 (UTC)

For diacritical characters? Here is an attestation (1797). Here is Introductiones latinae from 1495 stating that Danae is always pronounced with three syllables, although it isn't printed with diacriticals. For the claim that it is the lowest-numbered containing diacritical characters? I suppose one could check the first 60 for their classical orthography. But that would be original research, wouldn't it? Which is a no-no. My own conclusion is that it is the most trivial of trivia, equivalent to saying that Ceres is the first asteroid with a capital letter C in it. I mean, there's trivia and then there's trivia. -- Robert.Baruch 19:22, 14 Februarii 2010 (UTC)

I agree it's a trivial fact! I just wanted an astronomical source for Danaë (with diacritic) as the official name, because then we would add the diacritic in the page title and lemma. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 22:16, 14 Februarii 2010 (UTC)

The previous page in the Handbook of Astronomy might do: Handbook of Astronomy (1867) p. 229; Or this one from 1861, which has the diaresis over the a instead of the e (!): The American Journal of Science and Arts v.31 no.91 p.136; Or this later volume also from 1861 with the diaresis over the conventional e: The American Journal of Science and Arts vol.32 no.94 p.132; and finally from Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (1861) vol.21 no.1 (9 Nov 1860) p.38.