A friend posed this question to me: Should a society about geography be called the Geography Society or the Geographical Society? My friend felt it was better to call it the Geography Society.
I did some checking and consulted a fellow editor. To me, the correct answer is Geographical Society. Or it can also be called the Geographic Society. Why? You see, Geography is a noun. So it should not be used as an adjective. The word does not carry the descriptive sense.
Geographical on the other hand, is an adjective. It means of or relating to geography. So the Geographical Society is correct. Just ask the Royal Geographical Society. Or ask the National Geographic Society. Both these fine institutions use the adjective as part of their name. And there are many more geographical societies.
Then what about the Historical Society? Doesn't that mean it's a society from the past? Yes, that's correct but remember, historical also means relating to history, so the Historical Society also means a society about history. So that usage is correct. Another point: a historical novel doesn't mean it's a really old novel, but a novel set in a historical time period.
And finally, what about the phrase nutrition information? Surely that's correct because nutritional information just sounds like the information is nutritional. But you see, nutrition is a noun, not an adjective. And nutritional means of or relating to nutrition, which means that while the information maybe be nutritious, it can also mean that the information is relating to nutrition.
