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I'm currently looking through dictionaries (both online and "offline") for an adjective of the word xenogamy.

Basically I want to translate the Dutch phrase "De kruibestuivende onderneming". What I came up with was "The xenogamy endeavor" or "The xenogamy undertaking".

It seems there's no adjective for the word "xenogamy" in English, or am I wrong? In Dutch the noun is "kruisbestuiving" and the derived adjective is "kruibestuivend" or "kruibestuivende". I was thinking I could use some artistic freedom here and translate it as follows: "The xenogamic endeavor" or "The xenogamic undertaking"... Or should it then be "xenogamical"?

Basically:

  1. Are there any rules I can follow to make my own noun derived adjectives in English?
  2. I'll be using this as a title for a CD/Album, so I think some artistic freedom is allowed - but I still want people to know what I mean... and use proper English if possible.
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    xenogamic sounds ok......
    – Pacerier
    Jan 24, 2014 at 9:20
  • "sounds ok" as in "acceptable & proper English", or as in "people will understand what I mean, although it isn't proper Ennglish"? Just to know what you mean by "sounds ok". - Thanks!
    – Yves Schelpe
    Jan 24, 2014 at 9:23
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    I'm guessing "sounds okay" means is "people will understand what I mean, even though it isn't an established word" – which isn't quite the same thing as "isn't proper English".
    – J.R.
    Jan 24, 2014 at 9:44
  • Thx a lot for your explenation @J.R. - that makes me more comfortable to use it!
    – Yves Schelpe
    Jan 24, 2014 at 9:48
  • At least in the US, we are so free in doing this that it won't be minded. And if you go nuts with endings like -ilicious, it just gets funny.
    – Oldcat
    Jan 24, 2014 at 18:04

1 Answer 1

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the word you need is xenogamous (no need to invent it, it already exists)

This follows other adjectives from nouns with -gamy endings eg: polygamy-polygamous, bigamy-bigamous

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  • and so "the xenamogous project" would be valid, or would "the xenogamy project" be valid as well - but with slightly different meaning? Just trying to make sense & see if I get it correct.
    – Yves Schelpe
    Jan 25, 2014 at 21:34
  • in "xenogamous project" the xenogamous is an adjective describing the project while in "xenogamy project" the project seems to be about xenogamy. You can compare with more common words such as "the productive experiment" vs "the production experiment" or "the cross-pollinating project" vs "the cross-pollination project".
    – msam
    Jan 27, 2014 at 7:21

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