Zotero takes it name from an Albanian verb minus some morphology.

Mark Dingemanse

If you've read yesterday's post ([Zotero, an Endnote
alternative](/zotero-endnote-alternative/ "Zotero, an EndNote alternative"))
or come across Zotero elsewhere, you may have been wondering about its
name. I believe most Anglophones pronounce the word [\[ˌzɔˈtɛɹoʊ\]
(zoh-TER-o)]{.langdata}, but the term itself actually derives from the
Albanian verb *zotëro-j* [\[zɔtərɔj\]]{.langdata} 'master, acquire'.
^[1](#footnote_0_34 "See this article in the GMU Gazette."){#identifier_0_34
.footnote-link .footnote-identifier-link}^ The final *-j* marks the 1st
person indicative (the regular citation form for Albanian verbs); in the
imperative, we would get the bare verb root *zotëro*
[\[zɔtərɔ\]]{.langdata}. Such subtleties did not figure in the initial
baptismal act though, as we learn from the following transcript of a
podcast featuring the people behind Zotero:

> The web being what it is, I just quickly googled and found an
> English-Albanian dictionary and typed a bunch of our keywords that we
> associated with the project and when I typed in 'learning', uhm... one
> of the variants was 'to learn something extremely well, that is to
> master or acquire a skill in learning' was "zotëroj" \[pronounced
> [\[ˌzɒˈtuəɹʏdʲ\]]{.langdata} by DC, MD\] (laughs), which we have
> shortened, we took of the *-j* at the end which is more of a 'y'-sound
> and uh we took off the umlaut ...  
> (Dan Cohen, [*Library Geeks* Podcast
> 5](http://onebiglibrary.net/geeks/episode/005-zotero), 22:48---25:15)

It's that simple. And for good reason: essentially, want you need in
branding is a name that sticks but at the same time is not too common;
if it makes some sense (as 'Zotero' does), that's even better. The main
reason for choosing an Albanian word was thus quite simply to minimize
namespace competition. It could have been any other language --- in the
podcast, Cohen mentions Maori; Hawaiian is another popular one
(wikiwiki), and Bantu languages do well too (cf.
[Ubuntu](http://www.ubuntu.com/), a trendy Linux distribution).

## *Will It Brand?* ^[2](#footnote_1_34 "For those not aware of the covert reference here, check out the hilarious Will It Blend? viral marketing campaign."){#identifier_1_34 .footnote-link .footnote-identifier-link}^ {#will-it-brand-2 .wp-block-heading}

Well, not really *any* other language of course --- a quick glance over
the newest [web 2.0
names](http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2006/07/the_mysteries_o_1.html)
shows that the preferred languages for this kind of stuff seem to be
those with simple phonotactics, a preference for open syllables, a basic
5 vowel system, and not-too-outlandish consonant inventories. So at
least in the Zotero case, Siwu is out of luck with *suã* 'learn' (nasal
vowel penalty); as is Tamashek with *əlmæd* 'learn, acquire' (muddy
vowels and a voiced coda, *tsk*); as is Ibibio with *kpéép* 'learn,
acquire' (a labio-velar stop, for petes sake!); readers are no doubt
able to come up with better examples.

Fortunately, these need not be fatal problems. Dan Cohen's account shows
that if it doesn't fit, we can always make it fit; just chop off
needless morphology and diacritics and you're good to go. Now Albanian,
hitherto an obscure 6 million speaker language making up it's own branch
of Indo-European, enjoys celebrity status as the language that endowed
the Next-Generation Research Tool with a worthy name. Come to think of
it, who would not like to sacrifice some orthographic blunt for
publicity's sake? Suddenly all those woefully inadequate orthographies
we linguists have been cursing at are beginning to make sense!
^[3](#footnote_2_34 "Did you know that Maa (Eastern Nilotic, East Africa) has nine contrastive vowels but is usually written using Swahili’s five vowel orthography? Did you know Siwu (Kwa, Ghana) and Nafaanra (Senufo, Ghana) have three distinctive tones, none of which are marked orthographically?"){#identifier_2_34
.footnote-link .footnote-identifier-link}^ Next time the underspecified
orthography drives you nuts again, find a product in need of a name and
monetize your despair. I've heard naming consultants easily make twice
as much as linguists.

P.S. A great resource on naming is Nancy Friedman's [*Away With
Words*](http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/), which I
found via the posting on Web 2.0 names referenced above.

::: {.footnotes-made-easy-header}
## Footnotes
:::

1.  [See [this article](http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/9088/) in the
    GMU
    Gazette.[[\[]{.fme-pre-backlink}[↩](https://ideophone.org/zotero-etymology/#identifier_0_34 "Jump back to text"){.footnote-link
    .footnote-back-link
    aria-label="Jump back to text"}[\]]{.fme-pre-backlink}]{.footnote-back-link-wrapper}]{#footnote_0_34}
2.  [For those not aware of the covert reference here, check out the
    hilarious [Will It Blend?](http://www.willitblend.com/) viral
    marketing
    campaign.[[\[]{.fme-pre-backlink}[↩](https://ideophone.org/zotero-etymology/#identifier_1_34 "Jump back to text"){.footnote-link
    .footnote-back-link
    aria-label="Jump back to text"}[\]]{.fme-pre-backlink}]{.footnote-back-link-wrapper}]{#footnote_1_34}
3.  [Did you know that Maa (Eastern Nilotic, East Africa) has nine
    contrastive vowels but is usually written using Swahili's five vowel
    orthography? Did you know Siwu (Kwa, Ghana) and Nafaanra (Senufo,
    Ghana) have three distinctive tones, none of which are marked
    orthographically?[[\[]{.fme-pre-backlink}[↩](https://ideophone.org/zotero-etymology/#identifier_2_34 "Jump back to text"){.footnote-link
    .footnote-back-link
    aria-label="Jump back to text"}[\]]{.fme-pre-backlink}]{.footnote-back-link-wrapper}]{#footnote_2_34}


If you’ve read yesterday’s post (Zotero, an Endnote alternative) or come across Zotero elsewhere, you may have been wondering about its name.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

The etymology of Zotero