AWADmail Issue 215
June 25, 2006
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the net
1 & 5 Across:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/21/DDG0MJASKH23.DTL
Surname Profiler:
http://www.spatial-literacy.org/UCLnames/Surnames.aspx
Analyzing Eggcorns and Snowclones, and Challenging Strunk and White:
http://nytimes.com/2006/06/20/science/20lang.html?ex=1308456000&en=76bbb00d355e9796&ei=5090
http://tinyurl.com/leeo8
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From: Bob Miller (bmillerATnatspin.com)
Subject: Surnames
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/chapman.html
In Salman Rushdie's marvelous book, The Moor's Last Sigh, there is a
character named James Cashondelivri, son of a merchant who refused to extend
credit.
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From: Edie Bonferraro (ediebATmailbug.com)
Subject: My Name
Bonferraro: Good blacksmith
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From: Dennis Chapman (dennis.chapmanATdet.nsw.edu.au)
Subkect: chapman
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/chapman.html
I was pleased to see my surname come up as the word of the day. My
grandfather, Harold Chapman was indeed a merchant who travelled around
selling goods, and later started a store. I am a potter by trade, should
I change my name from Dennis Chapman to Dennis Potter?
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From: Kirk Hansen (kirk.hansenATsympatico.ca)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--chapman
Your note on names was especially interesting. I had noticed that we never
meet a Fred Programmer, or Mary Filmstar, or Bob Machinegunner. All the
profession-based names are from some less technologically advanced time,
though I couldn't tell just when. Then I read in "Is Thy Name Wart", by
James Pennethorne Hughes, that surnames became universal in English when
Henry VIII ordered records kept in 1538. (Hughes, incidentally, cites Camden
in 1674 as noting that besides professions, the other three sources of
surnames are where people are from, who their parents are, and nicknames.)
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From: Sue Levy (slevyATjalcomputer.com.au)
Subject: Chapmen
The chapmen were the peddlers of small cheap books, chapbooks that grew
in popularity as people learned to read. They were originally used for
stories and religious tracts and later for nursery rhymes. See
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/chapbooks.htm
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From: Matthew C. Clarke (clarke-familyATbigpond.com)
Subject: Re: Chapman
I had a teacher surnamed "Chapman" back in the 1980s. In consideration of
moves towards non-sexist language at the time, he insisted that we should
address him as "Mr Personperson".
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From: Bill Reynolds (bill_reynATyahoo.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--baxter
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/baxter.html
I work for Baxter International. I work in the Renal division which, by
coincidence, is located in Baxter county, AR. One of my co-workers has a
last name of Becker. We aren't bakers, but we do extrude plastic tubing at
325 degrees F.
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From: Peter Smalley (pksmalleyATcomcast.net)
Subject: Comments on June 18th and 19th
In your opening paragraph on June 18th you said the name Sawyer denotes
a lumberjack. Don't think so. It's the "feller" who cuts down the lumber
in the form of a tree and jacks it down to the sawmill for the sawyer to
turn it into boards with his saw.
On June 19th you gave us Baxter without mentioning the interesting suffix
-ster as denoting, in the past, the female practitioner of most any trade,
(webster, spinster, etc.). These days it seems to be added to a word
without regard to gender, and usually leaning toward the male, (hipster,
gangster etc.)
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From: John Alzamora (catalunATaol.com)
Subject: Surnames
",,, the German aristocracy often used the expression "find me a Bach",
meaning "find me a brilliant musician". From the webpage for the Portland
Baroque Orchestra, 2003 season. http://www.pbo.org/Season2003/4Bach.htm.
In German, "bach' means bake[r], the source of the J.S. family name. After
generations of making food for the body, the Bachs made it for the soul.
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From: Lisa Pekar (lisannepekarATmsn.com)
Subject: baker
My last name is Pekar, which means Baker in Russian.
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From: Helen Slade (helensladeATtelus.net)
Subject: Professions and surnames
As a child with the surname Cox, I fended off the constant teasing with
a romantic notion that my name derived from Coxswain, a belief that
was reinforced by the fact my father was a Chief Petty Officer in the Royal
Canadian Navy. This week's theme suggests my notion was indeed a fact.
----------------------------
From: Tom Mookken (tomATpcssaudi.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--mercer
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/mercer.html
I was pleasantly surprised to see the name of my home town (Calicut -
Kozhikode) in today's AWAD. Calicut is on the Malabar Coast of India in what
is now the tiny State of Kerala. This area had extensive trade relations
with ancient Rome, the Middle East, and even China. The oldest church and the
oldest mosque in India are situated in Kerala. In fact Christianity became
an accepted and respected religion (with royal patronage) in Kerala long
before it became one in Europe. The Kerala churches were in communion with
the Arab or the "Eastern Churches".
For a long time, the sea route to India (i.e. the Malabar Coast) was a
closely guarded secret of the Arab traders who made massive profits selling
spices, timber, fine cloth, etc. to the Europeans at huge mark-ups. It was
no wonder then, that various European Kings and Queens were eager to invest
large amounts of funds on adventurers who were willing to risk their lives
to find a sea route to the "Indies". The history of Modern India (and the
British Empire) starts in 1498 with arrival of the Portuguese seafarer
Vasco da Gama who dropped anchor at Kappad a few kilometres north of Calicut.
Malayalam is the language of Kerala spoken by the 36 million Malayalees (or
Keralites), a sizeable number of whom are spread all over the world especially
in the Middle East, North America and Europe. Words such as "copra", "coir",
"betel" (as in betel-nut) and "teak" have their roots in Malayalam.
............................................................................
A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from
his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket. -Charles Peguy,
poet and essayist (1873-1914)
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