- People just started adding the ‘-erati’ ending onto words, you could say arberati
Arberati
noun; derivation
describing a collective group of individuals all sharing the same interest in trees, plants, and shrubs The ‘literati’ term was used to describe literature enthusiasts and then it just morphed into something that can describe any group of people that know a lot about one thing. So it is not unreasonable for a person who is enthralled with trees, plants, and such to create a term to describe themselves and their group of people with similar interests. It could be considered a derivation by just having the word ‘arbor’ with the suffix ‘-erati’ put in place, or it could be considered a blend of ‘arbor’ and ‘literati’. The term ‘literati’ was used to describe a group of literature enthusiasts, but now just the ending has been used more and more like a suffix.
Etymology : (Middle English erber plot of grass, arbor, from Middle French herbier plot of grass, from herbe herb, grass) + ‘literati’ (obsolete Italian litterati, from Latin, plural of litteratus)]
Source : Obtained from a Ling 215 lecture
Last modified: 10 June 2008