Agriculture (whose name was attested for the first time between 1425 and 1475) has been developing from times immemorial. New agricultural branches have brought about new terms to designate them, from horticulture (attested ever since 1670-1680) and going on with floriculture , arboriculture , terms appeared during the 19 th century, and with mariculture , monoculture , polyculture , and citriculture , terms appeared during the 20 th century, to permaculture (a term that appeared sometime in the 1970s), or to aeroculture , agrosilviculture , algaculture , animaliculture , boviculture , caniculture , heliculture , mosaiculture , multiculture , nutriculture , oleiculture , oligoculture , ostriculture , pecudiculture , plasticulture , spongiculture , terraculture / terriculture , and zooculture , that still do not have a “birth certificate” (they are attested, but linguists cannot yet say for sure when they appeared for the first time). This means 300 years of linguistic creativity enhanced by the need to define new realities, and a relatively short inventory of nouns (designating both the agricultural branch and the agricultural ‘agent’), adjectives, and adverbs – quite difficult to understand and learn by students in agriculture, particularly when it is about synonyms designating the same agricultural branch or about derivatives that follow no pattern discernible whatsoever.

English; agriculture; compounds; derivatives; culture

Presentation: oral