Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: O

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

O is for orange, and the pretty obvious choice for 'O' as it enables us to examine the age-old chicken and egg question as to which came first, the fruit or its colour. The answer is surprisingly easy, for we have to show the orange was known as such in the late 14th century (albeit as the tree more than its fruit) while the colour was known as red-yellow for some time after that. The fruit originated in India with Sanskrit naranga-s 'orange tree', sadly nothing earlier than that is known.

Whilst on the subject of such posers, we do not which came first the chicken or the egg. It was the egg, and by a staggering period of time. The chicken was domesticated by man about 10,000 years ago, having diverged from the junglefowl about 58,000 years ago. A long time, most certainly, but a blink of the eye in the life of the Earth and life on it, for eggs were certainly used by all manner of creatures before chickens - dinosaurs, fish, and just about every multi-cellular creature to evolve in the sea all began life as an egg (this applies to humans, too). Hence, eggs have been around for at least 500 million years.

The chicken and egg question has an answer, because the question is wrong. It should be, which came first the chicken or the chicken egg? The answer is the chicken, because until there's a chicken to lay the egg, it won't be a chicken egg.

When our Planet Earth is not Earth

I thought I'd have a look at the different words for the Earth in different languages and what they actually mean. Most still mean 'earth' but in the sense of 'soil', which was clearly the original sense of 'earth' before it became 'Earth' (if you see what I mean).

Latin - Terra - 'earth' and has given us the name for the planet in many Latin languages.
Romanian - Pamint - again this is 'earth'.
Maltese - Id-Dinija - is different and translates as 'the world'
Dutch - Aards - a little different in 'earthy'.
Scots - Yird - another 'earth'.
Swedish - Jorden - specifically 'the earth'.
Finnish - Maa - again something slightly different, for this is 'land'.
Hungarian - Fold - 'Earth'
Czech - Zeme - again 'Earth'.
Polish - Ziemia - 'earth'
Basque - Lurra - 'earth' again.
Greek - Gaea - is the goddess wife of Uranus, the Greek personification of Earth as a goddess.
Sanskrit - Dhara - not only means 'Earth' but also 'bearer, supporter'.
Gujarati - Prathivi - 'Earth'
Thai - Look - is used to mean 'land, country, mankind, humanity, world. Earth. sphere. globe'. All bases covered there, then.
Irish - An Talamh - translates as 'the land'.
Welsh - Daear - means 'ground'.
Hebrew - Eretz - 'country, land, ground, soil'.
Cantonese - Diqiu - 'Earth'.
Korean - Jigu - 'Earth'.
Japanese - Chikyuu - 'Earth'
Filipino - Daigdig - 'world'.
Indonesian - Bumi - 'Earth'.
Hawaiian - Honua - 'earth'.
Maori - Papatuanuk - 'the land'
Nahuatl - Tlalticpac - literally 'on the ground'.
Swahili - Dunia - 'the world'.
Sesotho - Lefatshe - 'the world'.
Babylonian - Ersetu - was the name of the underworld in the Akkadian language spoken in ancient Mesopotamia.

Guyana 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 of Guyana's settlements.

Georgetown was named such on April 29th 1812, in honour of King George III of Great Britain. It had previously been known as Longchamps by its French founders, later as Stabroek after the Dutchman Nicolaas Geelvinck, Lord of Stabroek.

Mainstay Lake is clearly a modern name, indeed it had previously been known as Quacabuka, an Arawak name meaning 'in between'.

Bartica is a town on the left bank of the Essequibo River, its name comes from an Amerindian word meaning 'red earth'.

Essequibo River is named for its European discoverer, Juan de Eaquivel. He was the deputy of Don Diego Columbus, son of Christopher Columbus.

New Amsterdam named by the Dutch after their most famous city, itself named for the dam on the River Amstel and originating from aeme-stelle 'water-area'.

Hyde Park is named after the famous London location, itself coming from the former manor of Hyde and a name referring to a hide of land, defined as the amount of land required to support one family for one year.

Lochaber is named after the place in Scotland, itself from the confluence of the rivers.

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