Rwanda Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the largest Rwandan cities.

Kigali takes its name from two languages, where Bantu ki and Rwanda gali meaning 'broad' comes from the name of Mount Kigali which rises to 1,850 metres above sea level.

Rubavu district takes its name from a mountain, its name means 'a rib' and apparently named because the rib is an indispensable part and the mountain similarly described.

Ruhango district takes its name from uruhango or 'a herd of cows' and originally mu Ruhango 'within a herd of cows'.

Nyagatare district is thought to come from the Runyankole dialect word agarte or 'market'.

Musanze district is possibly from nimusanze or 'the land cultivates evenly' and a reference to to the flat farming land heareabouts.

Rutsiro district takes its name from the Rutsiro River, said to be named from urutsiro and a reference to the mineral deposits left by the retreating waters after flooding.

Gisagara district refers to this place as where important meetings took place.

Kicukiro district cames from icukiro, a reference to a place where cows were kept and the collection of the dung into heaps.

Ngoma district is said to refer to an area where drums were sounded to call leaders to a meeting.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.

Blooming Etymologies

With spring fast approaching here in the UK and, undoubtedly aided by a mild winter, the flowers associated with the season are already adding a splash of colour. Snowdrops have come and will soon be gone, crocus are putting on an excellent show, yellow daffodils are out or nearly so, and tulips will soon be flowering and looking past their best seemingly hours later.

As with all nouns, names of flowers were originally created in order to be recognised. Over the years these have been corrupted and changed beyond recognition, or named by science for reasons usually only they understand. Thus this time, as you may have guessed, a look at the origins of some flower names. Taken in alphabetical order we begin with .......

Agave is named from the Latin, itself from Greek Agaue, a proper name in Greek mythology. Her name, and thus that of the flower, is derived from the Greek meaning 'noble, illustrious' and thought to have been used by scientists to refer to the flower stem rather than the flower.

Alyssum certainly comes from another Latin loan word from the Greek, although just why alyssos describes the plant as 'curing madness' is not clear.

Amaryllis also has a Latin/Greek origin and comes from amaryssein meaning 'to twinkle, sparkle'.

Anemone is a Greek word meaning 'wind flower', literally 'daughter of the wind' and can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European animus, to breathe', with a feminine suffix.

Aster is named from the Latin and Greek for 'star', a refernece to the flower shape.

Azaleas like sandy soil and is named from the Greek azaleos 'dry'. Related words are found in Hittite hassa 'hearth' and Sanskrit asa 'ashes, dust'.

Begonias are named after the French governor of Santo Domingo and patron of botany Michael Begon (1638-1710).

Chrysanthemum comes from the Greek khrysanthemon literally meaning 'golden flower' and unites the elements anthemon 'a flower' and Proto-Indo-European andh 'bloom'.

Cowslip is named for it was thought to grow only on ground where cow dung could previously have been found.

Cyclamen comes from Latin/Greek where ultimately kyklos meant 'circle', a reference to the bulbous shape of the root.

Dahlia comes, as many will know, from Anders Dahl, the Swedish botanist who first found and identified it.

Delphinium is another of Latin/Greek origins. Here Greek staphis agria literally means 'wild raisin'.

Edelweiss, as Vince Hill will undoubtedly have told you, is from the Old High German edili weiss of 'noble white'.

Erica is a plant genus named from the Greek ereike 'heath'.

Forsythia, which just so happens to be showing the first signs of the yellow flower through the window, is named after Scottish horticulturalist William Forsyth (1737-1804). His family name is of Gaelic origin, Fearsithe meaning 'man of peace'.

Fuchsia comes from German botanist Leonard Fuchs (1501-1566) whose name means 'fox'. While the term 'fuchsia' has been taken for the red colouring of the same name, the idea of 'red' referring to the colouring of the fox is, to say the least, fanciful.

Geraniums are named from the Greek and Latin, where grus means 'crane' and refers to the seed pods resembling a bill of the crane, indeed the plant is still sometimes referred to as 'cranesbill'.

Gladiolus is Latin for 'small sword', a reference to its sword-shaped leaves.

Gypsophila comes from the Greek, where gypsos philein literally describes 'to love chalk'.

Hydrangea comes from the Greek hydor angeion meaning water vessel' and a reference to the seed pods.

Lavender came to English from French and ultimately from Latin, where lavare meant 'to wash' and a reminder the scent was used to wash and perfume fabrics.

Magnolias are named after the French physican and botanist Pierre Magnol (1638-1715).

Narcissus comes from the Greek narke 'numbness' and related to narcotic becuase of the sedative alkaloids obtained from the plant.

Orchids are the favourite flower of many because of their numerous forms and extraodinary colours and shapes. It is also my favourite flower, but for very different reasons. It came to English from Latin orchis and Greek orkhis meaning 'testicle' because of the shape of the root. Around 1300 it was known in England as the 'ballockwort', where 'ballock' is simply the diminutive of 'ball'.

Poinsettias are named after Joel Poinsett, the US ambassador to Mexico who is credited with bringing the plant to the attention of the rest of world - but this may be a load of orchids.

Rhododendron is the Greek for 'rose tree'.

Snapdragon flowers are said to resemble the mouth of a dragon - and also, since 1704, the name of a game where players pluck raisins from burning brandy and them eat them while still burning.

Tansy is a herb, its name from the French and ultimately the Greek athanasia 'immortality'., itself a a prefix meaning 'not' and thanatos 'death'. This may seem a strange meaning until we learn the plant has always had negative associations with pregnancy, either as a contraceptive or to bring about a miscarriage.

Tulips are my least favourite flower, the leaves begin to droop even before the flower emerges and the petals fall far too easily. It came to English through French and ultimately from Turkish tulbent 'a turban' as it is said to resemble such.

Wisteria was wrongly named after American anatomist Caspar Wistar (1761-1818), making it rather less of an honour.

Really Rank Recipes

Virtually none of my writing involves anything later than the end of the nineteenth century, most very much earlier. Examining old maps and records may give glimpses into who was where and when but does not allow us to experience what it was really like to live and work in the towns of Victorian, Georgian, Tudor, Norman or even Saxon England. It struck it was tantamount to watching cookery programming on television, you can see it but neither smell nor taste it. Hence I have uncovered a few recipes used in the industries and processes of the past. You might not want to try these at home.

Common to just about every community since records were kept, the tannery was known for being odious in the extreme. Whenever possible it was situated at a good distance from the residential area. When the hides arrived they were already quite smelly, having been removed from the animal some flesh and fat would remain and that would quickly begin to rot. In order to clean up the hide and to help remove the hairs, the hide would be soaked in urine, concentrated and well-matured worked best. Then the leather would be softened, which required it to be pounded in a solution featuring animal dung (dog and pigeon was seen as particularly desirable). Tanners would tread this in bare feet for around two to three hours.

An alternative to dung was animal brains. Unfortunately not all animals have enough brains to rot their own hide, hence it was sometimes necessary to had something from the other end to help with the mixture.

Leather scraps would be turned into glue. Soaking the rotting scraps in water until it rotted down to produce the valuable adhesive. This took little in the way of man-power. Just let nature take its course, which it would after a few months.

Urine was also used to degrease and clean woollen cloth. Although there was an attempt made to ban this process in the Middle Ages, it was only successful for the larger scale production, those producing their own continued to use the free liquid.

Plasterers will tell you it is one of the hardest manual trades to learn as you have to work quickly to finish the job – in its simplest terms the whole task needs to dry as one, for this helps prevent cracking. When walls were made be interweaving flexible wooden poles through larger stakes, the gaps were sealed with wattle and daub. This was the plaster of its day, and effectively did the same job. Here a mixture of mud and animal dung was blended with straw, to give it some body, and smeared into the walls of the building. When dry it provided a draught-proof and fairly waterproof covering. Unlike the modern plasterer, who mixes and applies the plaster with tools, the wattle and daub was mixed with bare feet and applied with the hands.

But perhaps this was deliberate to cover up the smell of the cooking.