tellurio elettrico

[tsoapm]

Hello,

This had me a bit confused at first:

L'istituto doterà il laboratorio di (…) un modello di sistema solare, di un tellurio elettrico (e) un globo celeste.

since the definition I found for tellurio in monolingual Italian dictionaries only concerned the chemical element tellurium, which is evidently not right here. A bit of googling turned up the "tellurion", an orrery "that only includes the earth, its moon and the sun", but wikipedia gives me some alternative names for it: tellurian, tellurium and loxocosm.

The trouble is that none of these are to be found in the OED, so I’m a little suspicious of them all. What do we tend to call these things in English? My instinct is for "tellurion", but "electric tellurium" turns up more hits than "electric tellurion". "Tellurium" and "tellurian" both seem unattractive options because they already have other meanings.

Any thoughts?
Thanks, Mark.

 

[johngiovanni]

I would translate "tellurio elettrico" as "electric tellurion" as this avoids any confusion with the element. Any further suggestions you would probably obtain more easily on the EO forum, as there have been several spelling variations for this piece of kit over the years.

 

[Paulfromitaly]

Tellurion is correct

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tellurion



However there are virtually no hits for "electric tellurion" which leads me to believe it's not the right term.

 

[alfaalfa]

electric drive tellurion?

 

[tsoapm]

Well I'll be blowed: I found it in the OED after all, my Shorter desktop OED from way back in the mists of 1997, whereas I was led to believe that the online OED is full of terms that aren't fully approved for the paper editions. Goes to show you can never be too careful. Apologies.

Anyway, it confirms "tellurion", and says that "tellurium", in this sense, is rare, so I guess that more or less settles it, though I noticed, as Paul did, that the web isn't brimming with electric ones. Nonetheless, if the shoe fits: "electric tellurion" would appear to be right, despite its rarity.

 

[johngiovanni]

electric drive tellurion?

Yes, I have found "electrically driven".

 

[tsoapm]

Ah, marvellous. Thank you: I suppose I had better go with that then, since it's in use.