Talk:St John's wort (disambiguation)

Common name

Based on Google Ngrams (click Search lots of books; I don't know why that's neccessary to make this example work)

• St. John's wort is the most common form of this name

1. Abbreviating (St.) is more common than spelling out Saint
2. Forms with the period (St.) are more common than those without (St)
3. Lowercase wort is more common than proper name Wort
4. Google shows little evidence for use of the hyphenated form St.-John's-wort

This suggests a move to St. John's wort or St. John's wort (disambiguation), depending on whether there is a WP:primary topic. The most recent dab was at St John's wort (disambiguation) (without the full-stop), before the dab fork was created. – wbm1058 (talk) 16:20, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

I agree, this page should be moved. Considering that Hypericum perforatum extracts are dietary supplements that are sold worldwide under the name "St. Johns wort", H. perforatum is easily the topic that would be most associated with the name among the general public. I imagine only botanists would associate "St. Johns wort" with the Hypericum genus instead of H. perforatum, so this page should probably be moved to St. John's wort (disambiguation). Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 16:52, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Page history

• 15–16 February 2003 article started by G-Man at tile St Johns Wort
• 15:44, 17 February 2003‎ The Anome moved St Johns Wort to St John's Wort (added apostrophe)
• 21:18, 17 February 2003‎ Mkweise moved St John's Wort to St John's wort (lowercase "wort")
• 20:55, 21 February 2007 Galena11 moved St John's wort to St. John's wort over redirect (St. has a period; consistency with article text)
• 21:03, 21 February 2007‎ Galena11 moved St. John's wort to St John's wort over redirect (changed back to no period following St, but will address on talk pages)
• 17:50, 4 February 2012 Nnemo moved St John's wort to Saint John's wort over redirect (Real word. We are an encyclopedia. We have the time and space to write words in full. )
• 16:03, 5 February 2012‎ Rkitko moved Saint John's wort to St John's wort over redirect: revert move - the overwhelming consensus among refs is to spell it with the St abbreviation. We follow common usage, not an ideal of spelling out all abbreviations)
• 16:22, 8 November 2013 Stemonitis moved St John's wort to Hypericum perforatum (use sci. name: WP:PLANTS; article acknowledges that "St John's wort" is ambiguous)
• 16:24, 8 November 2013 Stemonitis started the disambiguation page
• 01:37, 4 December 2013‎ Seppi333 moved St John's wort to St John's wort (disambiguation) (Only one of these is the notable common name - this should be a redirect to a page with a dablink hatnote)

So, for the first ten years, Hypericum perforatum was a redirect: #REDIRECT [[St John's wort]]{{R from scientific name}}
This seems to me a strong indication of WP:primary topic status. – wbm1058 (talk) 15:49, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Previous discussion

I'm not finding much previous discussion of the spelling of the name, but did find Talk:Hypericum perforatum/Archive 1 § Spelling? which I've transcluded below:

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I am a member of the League of Copyeditors and thought I'd take on the copyedit for this article. However, before I begin, I have a fundamental question. I have seen numerous spellings of this herb, and would like to get a consensus here before making changes to the article text AND the title.

• Merriam-Webster lists "Saint-John's-wort" as the correct spelling (I tend to go with Webster when in doubt)
• Dictionary.com lists "St.-John's-wort"
• American Heritage dictionary lists "Saint John's wort"
• The Chicago Manual of Style says a period always follows St.

So, it would appear that, at a minimum, a period should be included after "St" and the word should be hypenated OR you can spell out all three elements and choose whether to hypenate. What should it be? Galena11 21:13, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

All of these sources are reputable, so you have a choice. I favour "St. John's wort". If you agree, we have a consensus.

I tagged the section in question, by the way. Brainmuncher 04:18, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

I've copyedited the tagged section. I suggest that you go through the entire article and standardize the spelling, including the article's title. (be sure to change the title in linked pages, as well, or you'll get an ugly re-direct page). Galena11 16:52, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

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So this discussion has also concluded that St. John's wort is the favored choice. wbm1058 (talk) 16:32, 9 April 2016 (UTC)