# Notule *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 01 Aug 1998* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### mary whalen *01 Aug 1998, 21:25* This is Sean Whalen (prion). Here are the results of my exhaustive research into notules. If this is actually what Wolfe meant, I'm actually stupefied to the extent he'll go for a silly pun. Notule is French for a short note, comment, or minute. It comes from Latin notula, the diminutive of nota (mark, token, note, sign). A notula is a distinguishing mark or a mark of punctuation. If a notule is supposed to resemble a vampire bat, the latter leaves a distinguishing mark: a mark of puncturation. Shudder. Robert Borski has also previously reported that a noctule is a red bat (Nyctalus noctula). I've also found that it is the diminutive of notus (meaning well-known, famous), the diminutive of Notus (the south wind). Notum is also the back part of an insect thorax. prion ---