Interesting point of view, Joel. The IAU does not have authority to control how language develops. Very true. When my daughter was a toddler, she called every bright star or planet in the "Venus". At the present time (recorded history and tradition aside), by international convention (law), they do have authority to define and name celestial bodies. Whether those names & classifications stick or not is up to the passage of time and the accumulation of scientific knowledge through investigation. You are correct also that a name does not change a celestial body's properties. It's the properties that determine what it is called. Science has this funny requirement of people agreeing on the definition of quite a few terms, thus the IAU's decision in this case, regardless if it goes against the grain of non-astronomers. I don't have a dog in this fight, I really don't care what anybody classifies Pluto as. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) Look Patrick, the horse is still twitching! ;) On Tue, Jul 21, 2015 at 6:59 AM, Joel Stucki <joel.stucki@gmail.com> wrote:
For the vast majority of human history the term "planet" which means "wanderer" included all permanent objects in our sky that did not have a fixed position against the other stars. Our ancestors identified 7 of them and our corresponding days of the week are named after them. I'm a bit upset about the demotion of the sun and moon from the list personally. Neither the IAU nor any other body has control over how language develops. If you want to call it a planet do so. The name we call an object does not change its properties. As a linguist I can tell you that language is directed by those who use it. In other words, over time those who talk about planets most will determine what the word will actually mean and your voice is no less authorative than the IAU or Neil Degrass Tyson on the matter. By the way dictionaries do not define words, cultures define words and dictionaries, a relatively modern invention, attempt to record those definitions. Our bizarre authority driven culture has oddly inflated the importance of dictionaries and grammarians as governing bodies of language.
As a side note, I personally will not support adding 3 additional days to our week to account for modern discovered planets unless those days are considered "weekend" days.