An Etymologist's look at Norse Mythology.

Continuing on after my recent course on ancient languages, I thought it would be interesting to examine a selection of Norse mythological figures and examine the etymologies for their names.

Asgard, the Norse equivalent of heaven, is a compound of ass 'god' and gardr enclosure - and makes perfect sense.

Midgard to the Norsemen, or to us 'Earth'. It shares the second element with Asgard, but instead of ass (stop tittering people) we have mid 'middle'.

Valhalla is the anglicised version of the Norse Valholl 'hall of the slain'. An appropriate name for the place where the souls of dead warriors went.

Baldr is from Old Norse baldr meaning 'brave, defiant', an appropriate description of Odin's son and Thor's brother.

Freyr simply means 'lord', which may sound simplistic but this busy deity has associations with fertility, peace, prosperity, virility, sunshine, good weather, and good harvests.

Loki, the Norse god who is always playing tricks and pranks on others, is sometimes said to derive his name from logi, the Old Norse for 'flame'. But that hardly fits with the character, and others have suggested luk might be more suitable, for it is used for things with loops (knots, hooks, locks, locked places).

Odin is the most widely revered god in Germanic paganism, as Woden he gave his name to Wednesday. He takes his name ultimately from Proto-Germanic wodanaz which has various interpretations byt is best given as 'lord of the frenzy'.

Thor is the hammer-wielding film star we know so well, he getting his name from thunaraz, the Proto-Germanic for 'thunderer'.

Tyr, sometimes given as Tiw, sacrificed his one hand to the wolf Fenrir, so perhaps he merits a name meaning 'the god'.

Ullr gets his name from Proto-Germanic wulthuz 'glory'. This is good for in days of yore it brings us images of great warriors winning even greater battles - today 'glorious' would be used to describe the runner-up's creation in Bake-Off.

Beyla is a female deity, but it isn't clear if her name means 'cow', 'bean', or 'bee'. Whilst confusing, ensuing discussions will still be more interesting than an episode of Bake-Off.

Freyja is quite simply Old Norse for 'lady, mistress'.

Frigg is from the Old Norse frijjo which may mean 'beloved' or 'free' depending upon the context.

Nanna os associated with the god Baldr, she may have a name meaning 'mother', alternatively 'she who empowers', or possibly 'the daring one', or even just 'woman'.

Sigyn simply means 'friend of victory', she appears in the Prose Edda where she assists her husband Loki during his time spent in bondage.

Snotra may not be the ebst-known of Norse goddesses, but she certainly has the best name - no, not for that reason, but because her name means 'clever'. While she is associated with wisdom, although I couldn't really see what she was held to have done to earn this accolade.

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.

India 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 Indian cities.

Mumbai comes from Mumba or Maha-Amba, the goddess of the Koli community. As many will know it was known as Bombay for many years. This has never been the local name but came from the Portuguese bom baim 'good little bay'.

Delhi has more suggestions as to the derivation of its name than the number of letters in the word. Among these are Dhilu or Dilu, a king who built the city here in 50BC; or from Hindi dhili meaning 'loose' and a reference to an iron pillar of Delhi which, owing to poor foundations, had to be relocated; or from the local coinage, the dehliwal, although it would seem more likely to have been named after the place; or the fort of dehali built by King Prithiviraja, although there is no suggestion as to its origins; or from Dilli and a corruption of dehleez or dehali meaning 'threshold' and 'gateway' respectively.

Bangalore is the Anglicised version of Bengaluru, itself from vira gallu or 'hero stone' and referring to a battle fount in the 11th century.

Hyderabad is supposed to refer to 'Haydar's city', where haydar abad translates as 'lion city'.

Ahmedabad could be named after the founder, Sultan Ahmed Shah, in 1411 or, according to other sources, four saints named Ahmed.

Chennai comes from the name of Damarla Chennappa Nayakudu, here in the 17th century.

Kolkata, from Bengali Kolikata, has several explanations: 'field of Kali', a goddess; 'flat area'; 'canal' or 'dug'; or from koli chun or 'quicklime'.

Pune is an abbreviation of Punya-Vishaya meaning 'sacred news'.

Jaipur is named after its 18th century founder Maharaja Jai Singh II.

Lucknow is the Anglicised spelling of Lakhnau and named after Lakshamana, the hero of the Hindu epic Ramayana.

Kanpur may come from 'the town of Khan' or 'town of Karna'.

Nagpur may be named after the river Nag, the origin of which is uncertain.

Visakhapatnam is generally held to be named after the temple built here to Vaisakha, itself lost to rising sea levels.

Indore is named after the Indreshwar Temple.

Thane is from the Sanskrit word sthana or 'place'.

Bhopalis named after or by the 11th century Paramara king Bhoja.

Patna takes its name from Patan, the Hindu goddess Patan Devi.

Vadodara is traditionally held to come from the Sanskrit word vatodar, meaning the belly of the Banyan tree.

Coimbatore comes from, among many suggestions, 'new town of Kovan'.

Madurai may come from the 'sweetness', the idea being this refers to the divine nectar showered on the city by the Hindu god Siva and from his matted hair.

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