International Aroid Society

According to Wiktionary:

Seguine (Italian): Compound of imperative (tu form) of seguire and ne.

And Seguire (Italian): (transitive) to follow or pursue. From Vulgar Latin root *sequire, from Latin sequ=C4=AB, present active infinitive of sequor.

And Ne (Italian): of it or of them.

In Spanish, I think of "proseguir," with the same meaning: lo prosigas, (imperative, tu form) "pursue it."

On the other hand, Wikipedia explains the surname Seguin:

Seguin is a French and Gascon name. It is of Germanic origin (sig-, that is, "victory", cf. modern German Sieg, and -win, that is, "friend", related to modern English "win").

I do know that sometimes local names in languages derived from Latin sound very much like the Latin name of the plant; one that comes readily to mind is Urtica (the genus of stinging nettle), and ortiga (the Spanish word for stinging nettle). But that usually only happens with genera, not specific epithets. On the other hand, sometimes early taxonomists would take a local vernacular name for a plant and incorporate it into the scientific name; if the plant was already called seguin for some reason, then Schott (who described it) may have used that existing name as the specific epithet. If you can find his original description, he may explain it.

Clear as mud?

Jason Hernandez

Naturalist-at-Large

Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2014 09:20:21 -0800
From: "John Criswick" <criswick@spiceisle.com>
Subject: [Aroid-l] Dieffenbachia
To: "Discussion of aroids" <aroid-l@www.gizmoworks.com>
Message-ID: <000901cffb78$48a4f050$d9eed0f0$@spiceisle.com>
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Here in Grenada the native Dieffenbachia species is D. seguina.

I perhaps would not have thought very much about this were it not for the
fact that Grenadians call these wild dieffenbachias, "seguin", pronounced
"siggin". I'm aware that the name Seguina could be a surname, and the
species simply named after someone with that surname. But if that were the
case, it is hardly likely that this surname would have entered the
vocabulary of the French patois-speaking planters and slaves of Grenada.

Therefore I am wondering what is the significance of this specific name
"seguina" and also why do Grenadians call dieffenbachias "siggin". Is
anyone able to supply this information please?

John Criswick.