God Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘god’ and now look at ‘day’.

God bless you, said when someone has sneezed, has often been attributed to St Gregory the Great who lived in the 7th century, but it is recorded the Romans and earlier still the Ancient Greeks had similar customs and thus the expression has been in use for more than 2,500 years.

Gods gift to (whatever) first appears in 1931.

God squad, a reference to a religious group, first appears in 1969.

God’s acre, a reference to a burial ground, appears in the 1610s. It’s a poor transaltion from the German Gottesacker, which simply meant ‘field’.

God-daughters appeared in the middle of the 13th century.

Nobody was God-fearing until 1759, which tends to wreck many a Hollywood version of the Pilgrim Fathers aboard the Mayflower, prior to that the term was God-fright.

God-awful does not appear in a dictionary until 1924, but the OED states the term had been used in the sense ‘impressively terrible’ since 1897, and prior to that as meaning ‘impressive’ since 1878.

God-speed has been seen since the late 14th century.

Goddamn is seen as early as the 14th century, it is believed this came from the French godon, a term used by the French to describe the English.

Godsend, as in sudden good fortune, is seen from 1812 – prior to that it simply meant ‘shipwreck’.

Godless was first seen in 1520, and became the name of the organization who suppressed religion in the former Soviet Union.

Godfathers have been known since the early 12th century, but used in a more general sense since the release of the film of the same name in 1972.

Nothing was godforsaken until 1816.

Godparent is a term unrecorded before 1865.

Godism is first seen in 1861 as a contemptuous term for another’s faith.

The term demigod is not seen before the 1520s.

Nothing was said to be Godlike until 1510.

Godson is first recorded around 1200.

Godmother is seen from the late 13th century.

Godchild is also seen from the early 13th century.

My research unveiled this: “I want my lawyer, my colleagues, my friends, my family, and even my wife to believe in God. It will mean I will be cheated, robbed, lied about, and cuckolded less often."

Russia 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 Russian cities.

Moscow is likely from the name of the Moskva River, although the origins of the river name are far from certain. Perhaps the best option of them all is the Proto-Balto-Slavic root muzg-imuzg, itself from Proto-Indo-European meu 'wet' and describing a wetland, or possibly a marsh.

Saint Petersburg refers to Peter the Great, tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1725.

Yekaterinburg is named after the wife of Peter the Great who succeeded him as Catherine I. Her reign lasted from 1724, when she co-reigned until his death the following year, until her death in 1727.

Kazan's origins are uncertain but may come from the Tatar word qazan meaning 'boiler' or 'cauldron'. This is either named from a legend or, more likely, a topographical feature.

Samara is named after the river, itself likely referring to 'summer water' and suggesting it is completely frozen in winter.

Krasnoyarsk was originally given as Krasny Yar or 'red steep riverbank'.

Perm comes from a Finno-Ugric root meaning 'far away land'.

Voronezh is first recorded in 1177, it is probably from the personal name Voroneg, although this is by no means certain.

Volgograd was originally known as Sary Su which, in the Tatar language, means 'yellow water' and a reference to the silt carried by the river. Later it became Stalingrad, to honour Joseph Stalin, and in 1961 Volgograd after the river. The Volga River is the longest in Europe and is named after the Proto-Slavic for 'wetness' or 'moisture'.

Saratov also comes from the Tatar language, where Sary Tau describes 'the yellow mountain'.

Krasnodar was named as such in 1920 and means 'gift of the reds'. Earlier it was Yekaterinodar or 'Catherine's gift'.

Tolyatti took the name of the longest-serving secretary of the Italian Communist Party, Palmiro Togliatti.

Tyumen comes from the Turkish and Mongol word tumen meaning 'ten thousand' and a reference to an earlier conflict.

Izhevsk had been named Ustinov after Dmitri Ustinov, former Soviet Minister of Defence, but was changed in 1987 to the modern name 'plant on the Izh' and a reference to ironworks here.

Irkutsk takes its name from the Irkut river, named from the Buryat word for 'spinning'.

Ulyanovsk was the birth place of Vladimir Lenin and named after the man born Ulyanov.

Khabarovsk was named after the 17th century leader Yerofey Khabarov.

Vladivostok was a name first applied to the bay in 1859, the following year also taken by the settlement and meaning 'the small seaside village'.

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

Georgia 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 Georgia's cities.

Tblisi is said to have been dounded when, while hunting with his falcon, King Vakhtang I Gorgasali spotted a pheasant and unleashed his bird. Both falcon and pheasant fell into one of the hot springs found here, both birds dying from extensive burns. The king decided to cut down the trees and found Tblisi in 458 AD. Archaeologists have shown this region has been in continual occupation since at least 800 years earlier than this, thus this tale is unlikely to be true. However the name certainly refers to the hot springs, for in the Old Georgian tongue T'pilisi literally translates as 'warm location'.

Batumi can trace its name back to the times when this was a Greek colony and the Greek bathus limen or 'deep harbour'.

Rustavi is a Persian word meaning 'rural district'.

Zugdidi is unknown before the 17th century but is certainly from the Mingrelian tongue and simply means 'big hill'.

Gori shares a similar meaning to the previous example, albeit from athe different Georgian language where gora just means 'heap' or 'hill'.

Poti has several suggested origins, hence the actual answer is nobody really knows. The problem here is down to the original language, for if this is Greek then it comes from phasis and a river name. Yet this does seem more likely to be of Georgian origin, where the names Zan-Poti and Svan-Pasid have been put forward, as has a Semitic origin meaning 'gold river'.

Zestaponi can trace its name back to its original settlement on the river Kvirila, for Georgian zeda phoni describes its location on 'the upper bank'.

Akhalsikhe describes itself in the Georgian tongue as 'the new castle'.

Sagarejo was known as Tvali meaning 'an eye' in the 11th century and later took on its present name meaning 'of Gareja'. This shows the area was held by the David Gareja monastery, a complex of cells, churches, chapels, refectories and homes hollowed out of the rock.

Tsalenjikha is from the Mingrelian tongue and either means 'the fortress if Chan' or 'the lower fortress'.

Dedoplistsqaro is traditionally held to be after the 11th/12th century Queen Tamar, the name does literally mean 'the queen's spring' although there is no reason to believe others may not have similar claims.

Ninotsminda translates as St Nino, a Georgian from the 4th century BC who is held to have performed several miraculous feats of healing and held to be a relative of St George.

Jvari is a Georgian word meaning 'cross'.

Baghdati sgares its name with the capitalk of Iraq, both meaning 'God-given' or perhaps 'God's gift'.

Tetritsqaro means 'white spring' in Georgian, exactly as its earlier Azerbaijani name of Agbulakhi did.

Tskhaltsitela is a river named for an 8th-century Arab massacre, this derived rather ominously from 'red water'.

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