Sun Idioms

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

Under the sun – as in anywhere in the world – is first seen as early as the late 12th century.

The sun never sets is a Spanish phrase quickly translated to English and both dating from around the 1630s.

Having one’s ‘place in the sun’ first appears in English in the translation of Pascal’s Pensees.

The ‘sun is over the foreyard’ (note not the yard arm) is first seen in the 17th century, it marking the time it is traditionally acceptable to have the first alcoholic drink of the day – roughly corresponds to noon.

While ‘basking in the sun’ is found from the middle of the 15th century ….

….. it took until 1821 for suntan to become a verb, and until 1888 as a noun.

Sun tan oil is not seen until 1934.

Sun dress is first recorded in 1937 in an advertisement, prior to that (since 1929) the term had been ‘sun back dress’.

Sundials are first seen in the 1590s – at least the term is – for the technology had been known for centuries. Prior to this they were simply referred to as ‘dials’.

Sun-drying of fruit and vegetables is not a new thing by any means, the term has been in use since the 1630s and the process for millennia.

Sun dance, the movement not the film character, has only been recorded since 1849 – undoubtedly dances to herald and praise the sun must have been around since before recorded history, but not referred to as sun dances.

Sun tanning may be a fairly modern phrase, but sun bathing has been around since 1866 in a cosmetic sense and since 1600 for therapeutic purposes.

Sun wake is the rays of the setting sun glinting on the water. Sailors would claim a narrow wake signaled good weather, with bad weather forecast by a broad wake.

Nobody wore a sun bonnet, that with a projection in front to protect the face and another to protect the neck, until 1837.

Think the sun lamp is a new invention? Nope, first named in 1885.

Sun worship, in the religious sense, is first used to describe such in 1670; but the phrase to refer to one who habitually sun bathes is not seen until 1941.

Sunburn has been described since 1520, at least in the modern sense, prior to that it referred to drying out (usually bricks) under the suns rays.

Sunset is seen from the late 14th century; for the Saxons the word was sunnansetlgong while sunset for them simply meant ‘the west’.

Sunrise is seen from the middle of the 15th century, prior to that it was used to mean ‘the east’.

Ride off into the sunset, the stereotypical ending for a Hollywood Western production, is unheard of before 1963.

What on Earth?

Or not on Earth as the case may be. I was looking at the names of our planet in languages other than English. It came as something of a disappointment to discover they were mostly translations of 'earth' in the sense of 'soil, dirt'.

Hence, I decided to look elsewhere in the heavens and see what names other languages had given to the remaining seven planets in orbit around our sun. Below is the language, its name and, where possible, the translation. Many nations simply use the same name, albeit with the phonetic spelling reflecting local pronunciation. As these clearly come from the same source as the English names, I have concentrated on the alternatives, and we start with the planet Mercury.

Arabic - Otaared - is the same deity as Mercury, the messenger.
Aztec - Payinalcitlal - research failed to trace any details on where this name originated.
Babylonian - Nabu - the ancient Mesopotamian god of literacy, the rational arts, scribes and wisdom.
Bengali - Budha - is a Hindu deity
Cantonese - Suising - again, no further information.
Farsi - Tir - is the Persian word for 'arrow'.
Greek - Hermes - is the Greek version of Mercury and, once again, the messenger
Hebrew - kochav chama - sun star
Hawaii - Ukaliali'i - is a translation of 'mercury', the metal.
Japan - Suisei - again the translation of 'mercury' the metal.
Kazakhstan - Bolpan - no amount of research revealed where the name comes from.
Korea - Soosung - 'star of water'
Malayalam - Utarid - is the translation of 'mercury'.
Mandarin Chinese - Shuixing - the water planet
Maori - Aparangi - is also a girls name.
Mongolia - budha - again, this is a Hindu deity.
Nahuatl - Payinalcitlal - again, no further information.
Old Czech - Dobropan - is another translation of 'mercury'
Sanskrit - Budha - is a Hindu deity also known as Soumya or 'son of Moon', Rauhineya, and Tunga.
Sumerian - Nabu - a deity, the god of wisdom and writing (known as the Saviour, the Redeemer)
Swahili - Zaibaki - which translates as 'the rest', although this surely has no relevance in this context.
Tahitian - Ta'ero - translates as 'drug', another which hardly seems appropriate.
Uzbek - Utorid - is the same as the Arabic name, but with the Uzbek phonetic pronunciation.

Note the spellings and characters used are English, so don't write to me pointing missing umlauts, accents, etc. or how I should have used a different alphabet.

Papua New Guinea 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 some of Papua New Guinea's names.

Finschhafen was founded in the late 19th century and named after its discoverer, the German scientist and explorer Otto Finsch, with the suffix hafen 'harbour'.

Mount Hagen is a city named after the old eroded volcano of Mount Hagen, itself from the German colonial officer Curt von Hagen.

Woodlark Island is named after the Australian whaling ship Woodlark captained by George Grimes in the 1830s.

Port Moresby was named by Captain John Moresby, the first European to see the place. However, it was named after his father Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby, who earned fame during the Napoleonic wars. It is the capital of a nation which has 851 different languages, of which 11 have no native speakers.

Rabaul is finally an example of a place named from the local language, where rabaul is the Kuanua for 'mangrove'.

Bougainville, correctly North and South Districts, were named after the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a famous Pacific explorer whose name is probably better known for the genus of flowing vines known as Bougainvillea.

Sandaun is from the Tok Pisin word for 'sun down' for it is located at the extreme west of the country.

Bismarck Archipelago and the Bismarck Sea were named to honour Chancellor Otto von Bismarck when the islands were under German rule.

Louisiade Archipelago were named for Louis XV the king of France when the French arrived here in 1768.

Fly River is named after the vessel commanded by Francis Blackwood, HMS Fly, an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy.

Markham River was named in 1873 by Captain John Moresby, to honour Sir Clements Markham, the then Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society.

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

Oman 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 Oman's cities.

Adam has a very long history and thus the origin of the name is uncertain. However, most sources give this as Arabic for 'the fertile land'.

Al Ashkarah is a delightful place name, being taken from a poisonous plant indigenous to this area.

Mount Shams is the highest point in the country, hence it is appropriate that its name means 'the sun mountain'.

Al Suqayq is simply the Arabic for 'market'.

Ibra has been suggested as coming from an Arabic verb and means 'purification of guilt'.

Muscat's origins are disputed, some claim this is from Arabic where moscha means 'inflated hide or skin', although others suggest an alternative Arabic term for 'letting fall the anchor', the latter seems a little contrived. Perhaps this from the Old Persian muscat or 'strong scented', or maybe other ancient languages have contributed to the name meaning 'falling place' and 'hidden place'. The problem here is the age of the settlement. Ptolemy's map of the region give two names for this area: Cryptus Portus and Moscha Portus, suggesting the original name may have come from Old Sumerian maa-kan 'sea people'.

Nizwa possibly comes from the Arabic for 'alone' but this would be an odd meaning for a place name, although phonetically it fits much better than the water spring which has flowed here for the entire age of the settlement.

Rustaq comes from the Middle Iranian rostag or 'district'. Note this ancient tongue is close to the root word which has given similar terms in many Indo-European languages, including the modern Iranian rusta 'large village' and Latin rustica 'village'. The latter has given us the modern English 'rustic'. This is why etymology, the study of language, and toponomy, the study of place names, prove so fascinating for me.

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

Haiti 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 Haitian cities.

Port-au-Prince - since at least 1680 the islets were known as Les Ilets du Prince 'the islands of the prince', then French colonial commissioner Etienne Polverel named the largest settlement Port-Republican on 23rd September 1793 so, as he told the assemblage "the inhabitants be kept continually in mind of the obligations which the French Revolution imposed on them". Jacques I, Emperor of Haiti, changed the name to its current meaning of 'port of the prince' as soon as he could. This is a much more interesting and accurate explanation than the idea the place was named by Captain Saint-Andre who named the place in 1706 when he landed here in his vessel Le Prince.

Carrefour - simply the French word for 'crossroads'.

Petion-Ville - named after Alexandre Sabes Petion (1770-1818), Haitian general and president and one of the nation's four founding fathers.

Cite Soleil - translates as 'Sun City'.

Port-de-Paix - means 'port of peace'.

Gros-Morne - means 'big mountain'.

Les Cayes - a cay is a small, low-lying, sandy island forming on a coral reef.

Limonade - wonderfully named and meaning 'lemonade', it can boast as being the first place in the Americas ever to celebrate Christmas, doing so in 1492 when none other than Christopher Columbus himself. According to Wikipedia nothing else happened until 1794, when the Haitian revolutionary hero Francois Capois died. This followed by 218 years of more nothing until the completion of of the Universite Roi Henri Christophe in 2012.

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

Stars

After looking at the constellations last time, the research kept brinign me names of some of the best known stars in the night sky. Mythology plays a large role.


Achenar - found in the constellation of Eridamus, this is an Anglicised version of the original Arabic name of akhir an-nahr or 'river's end', while the Chinese know it as Shui Wei 'crooked running water'. It is actually a binary system, lies 139 light-years away, and is the tenth brightest star in the sky when viewed from Earth.


Altair - found in the constellation of Aquila, the Arabic name of an-nasr at-ta'ir means 'the flying eagle' while the Chinese Qian Niu Xing describes it as 'the cow herder star'. One of the closest stars visible to the naked eye at just 16.7 light-years distant, it rotates in a little under nine hours (compared to our sun's 25 days) giving it a flattened appearance, indeed the diameter at the equator is 20% greater than the diameter when measured through the poles.


Aldeberan - in the constellation of Taurus the Arabic al-dabaran means 'the follower', in relation to the Pleiades, in Indian astronomy it's Rohini 'the red one', while the Chinese describe it as Bixiuwu 'the fifth star of the net'. Ranked as the fourteenth brightest star when viewed from Earth, it is 65 light-years away, and may have a planet orbiting every 643 days and around eleven times the mass of Jupiter.


Antares - part of the constellation of Scorpius, this comes from Ancient Greek for 'against Ares', he the Greek version of the Roman god Mars. Babylonians knew it as 'the breast of the scorpion', in Arabic 'the heart of the scorpion', and other ancient cultures gave it names meaning 'the lord of the seed', 'the creator of prosperity', 'the king', 'the hero and the king', 'the vermilion star' and, to the Chinese xin suer 'second brightest'. It ranks as the fifteenth brightest star in the night sky, is 550 light-years from Earth, and has a diameter 1,766 times that of our sun.


Arcturus - is the brightest star in the constellation Bootes. It is 36.7 light-years from our sun and more than 25 times the size. This is its Greek name, this meaning 'the guardian of the bear', the Arabic name of al-simak meant 'the uplifted one', while Indian astronomers refer to it as Swati 'the horned one', the Japanese catalogue gives Mugi-boshi 'star of wheat', and in China Dajiao 'great horn'.


Betelgeuse - in the constellation of Orion this star is modern astronomers best bet to go supernova, it could happen at any time in the next million years apparently. A red supergiant it is one of the largest and brightest stars visible to the naked eye and has a distinctly red appearance. Its name comes from Arabic Ibt al-Jauza 'the axilla of Orion', with other names including Persian Basn 'the arm', Coptic Klaria 'an armlet', Tahitian Ana-varu 'the pillar to sit by', the Lacandon people of Central America knew it as chak tulix 'red butterfly', and the best of the all from the Chinese Shenxiusi 'the fourth star of the constellation of three stars'.


Canopus - named after a pilot of Greek mythology, the navigator fopr Memelaus, king of Sparta whose name is of uncertain etymology. It is the second brightest star in the night sky, approximately 320 light-years away, and in 480,000 years will become the brightest. Egptian Coptic knows this as Kahi Nub 'the golden earth', in Japan it is Roujin-sei 'the old man star', which is not as good as the name by which those on the Society Islands know this where Taura-e-tupu--tai-nanu means 'festivity whence comes the flux of the sea'.


Capella - is 24 times the diameter of our sun and 43 light-years distant. Its name is the Latin for 'small female goat', in Arabic it is Al-RakibJastreb
'the hawk', Chines Wu che 'five chariots', Hawaii Ke ka o Makali'i 'the canoe bailer of Makali'i', and to the Australian Boorang people Purra 'the kangaroo'.

Centaurus - some 390 light-years from us, it derives its name from the mythological centaur and a name first applied to a savage tribe of horsemen from Thessaly. Other names include the Arabic Agena 'knees', Chinese ma fu yi 'first star of the horse's abdomen', while the Boorang people of Australia know it as Tchingal 'the emu'.


Deneb - the 19th brightest star in the sky and 800 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. Its name simply means 'tail', although others know it differently. In Germany Uropygium 'the parson's nose', and to the Chines Tian Jin Si 'the fourth star of the celestial ford'. Around the year 9800 Deneb will become the new pole star as viewed from Earth.


Fomalhaut - a part of the constellation of Pisces, some 25 light-years from us, and the third brightest star in our skies. This name is from the Arabic fum al-hawt or 'mouth of the fish', although the Persians knew it as Haftorang Watcher of the south, to the Chinese it is Beiluoshimen 'north gate of the military camp', and to the Wardaman people of Australia's northern territory Menggen 'the white cockatoo'.


Polaris - at a distance of 433 light-years, this is the Latin for 'pole star' and known to the Saxons as scip-steorra 'the ship star', both named for this aid to navigation. To the Hindus it was Puranas 'immovable, fixed'; to the Greeks Cynosura 'the dog's tail'; and in Arabic al-katb al-shamaliyy 'the northern axle'.


Pollux - in the constellation of Gemini this is, with Castor, one of those heavenly twins. Some 34 light-years from Earth, this is the closest star to the sun to be classified as a giant. In Arabic it is Muekher al Dzira 'the end in the paw' and to the Chines Bei He 'the north river'.


Procyon - is from the Greek meaning 'preceding the dog', a reference to Sirius. It is the eighth brightest star in the night sky, although correctly it is actually three stars, and a distance of about 12 light-years from us. To the Babylonians this was Nangar 'the carpenter'; Arabic as-si'ra as-samiyah 'the Syrian sign' or al-ghumaisa 'the bleary-eyed woman'; and to the Chinese nanhesan 'third star in the south of the river'.


Rigel - the seventh brightest star visible from Earth is 863 light-years away and part of the constellation of Orion. The Arabic version was Rijl Jauzah al Yusra or 'the left leg of Jauzah', the personal name their interpretation of the figure known as Orion the Hunter; the Wardaman people of Australia call it Unumburrgu 'the red kangaroo leader'; the Watjobaluk people of Australia call it Yerrerdet-kurrk 'mother-in-law'; the Chinese know it as Shenxiu Qi 'the seventh star of the three star system'; and the Japanese Gin-waki 'the silver star'.


Sirius - the brightest star in the sky, also known as the Dog Star, it is a little over 8 light-years distant and part of the constellation of Canis Major. To the Greeks it was Seirios 'the scorcher'; Sanskrit Mrgavadha 'deer hunter'; to the Norsemen it was Lokabrenna 'burning done by Loki'; and the tribes of North American knew it as 'wolf star', 'coyote star' and .moon dog'.


Spica - the 16th brightest star in the sky, 250 light-years from Earth, and found in the constellation Virgo. Its name comes from Latin spica virginis 'the virgin's ear of grain'; alternatives include Arabic al-simak al-a'z'ai 'the undefended'; and in Indian astronomy Chitra 'the bright one'.


Vega - the fifth brightest star in the sky is 25 light-years away in the constellation of Lyra. Some 14,000 years ago it was the pole star and, if you can hang around a bit, will reclaim that position in the year 13,727. Its name is Arabic, from an-nasr al-waqi or 'the alighting vulture'; while the Chinese know it as Zhi Nu or 'weaving girl' in the Qi Xi love story; the Assyrians called it Dayan-sane 'the judge of heaven'; the Babylonians Dilgan 'messenger of light'; in Zoroastrianism it is Vanat 'the conquor'; and to the Boorong people of Australia Neilloan 'the flying loan'.


Spellings used are English as it is written in English.

An Etymological Chemistry Lesson

Remember the school laboratory and our introduction to the noble or rare gases? Germany's Hugo Erdmann first coined the term Edelgas or 'noble gas' to indicate their extremely low level of reactivity. Some may recall these being referred to as 'inert', but this is now known to be untrue as some have been known to form compounds, albeit only under very unlikely conditions. These are also referred to as 'rare gases', this is also a misnomer as argon alone amounts to almost 1% of the Earth's atmosphere, albeit the remainder very much smaller amounts.

As we would expect the names coined for these gases are very recent, chemistry being a very recent science. There are but six noble gases and, in alphabetical order, each has an interesting reason for its name.

Argon is a Modern Latin word taken directly from the Greek argon. It is the neuter of argos, itself meaning 'lazy, idle'. This is a compound of a 'without' and ergon 'work'.

Helium may be the simplest to see as it is derived from the Greek helios or 'sun'. The reason for this is simply as it was first detected in the spectrum of the light from the sun, this during an eclipse of August 18th 1868 by astronomer Sir Joseph Lockyer and chemist Sir Edmund Frankland. Interestingly it was not isolated on this planet until 1895, and until then thought to be an alkali metal which is why the discoverers used the suffix '-ium'.

Krypton is another from the Greek, where krypton, the neuter of kryptos, was chosen by discoverers Sir William Ramsay and Morris W. Travers in 1898 for it means 'hidden'. Thus it has the same derivation as 'crypt' and both 'hidden', the gas as it remained undiscovered for so long.

Neon was also discovered and named by Sir William Ramsay and Morris W. Travers. They chose the Greek neon as it means 'new' and, in 1898, they had indeed just discovered it and thus could not be any newer. As both neon and helium were discovered by the same two scientists in the same year, it is only because neon was discovered first that we are not seeing advertising in krypton lights.

Radon is the heaviest gaseous element. This from the radioactive decay of radium discovered in 1918. It is derived from 'radium', with the addition of '-on' to indicate a noble gas, and ultimately from the Latin radius meaning 'ray' as it emits energy in the form of rays, as identified by Marie Curie. In France and Germany it has been known as niton from the Latin nitens meaning 'shining'.

Xenon owes its name to discoverer Sir William Ramsay, again in 1898, where he looked once more to Greek and chose xenon, the neuter of xenos meaning 'foreign, strange'.

Dominican Republic 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 to cast my net a little wider. This time Dominican Republic and a look at some of its largest settlements and most interesting names and starting with the capital.

Santo Domingo is quite simply the Spanish for 'Saint Dominic'. Founded by Bartholomew Columbus in 1496, the younger brother of Christopher, it was originally on the east bank of the river but moved to the west bank six years later. Santo Domingo de Guzman, to give its official name, is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in all the Americas. When first discovered the place was known by the native Taino people by two names, either Quisqueya 'mother of all lands' or Ayiti 'land of the high mountains'.

Santiago should be known by its official name of Santiago de los Caballeros, the name being Spanish for 'Saint James of the thirty Knights'.

La Vega is another Spanish name, this meaning 'the meadow' and shares its name with the district.

San Cristobal is another from the Spanish, this referring to 'Saint Christopher'.

San Pedro is certainly referring to 'Saint Peter' but it is unclear whether this was inspired by the name of San Pedro Beach, former president General Pedro Santana, or simply to distinguish it from San Francisco (a reference to Sanit Francis of Assisi) to the north which shares the addition de Macoris, this a reference to the Macorix tribe inhabiting the region prior to the arrival of the Europeans. The Macorix were thought a neo-Taino people, however their languages were not mutually intelligible suggesting the split had happened a very long time ago indeed or, more likely, the two groups are unrelated.

La Romana certainly has the best origin in the Dominican Republic, and must rank among the best in the entire Americas. The word romana simply means 'balance' and is a reminder of this being used to weigh all merchandise for export. That the name ever came into use shows how unusual something we would simply expect as the norm must have been.

Higuey is certainly a name given by the indigenous people, however the similarities between the dialects and tongues of the region's Taino peoples make translation uncertain. Among many indigenous people the term guey or huiou - the difference in spelling simply reflecting pronunciation - can be seen to mean 'sun, light, day' and thus, being at the eastern shore, this may be interpreted as 'land where the sun is born'.

Puerto Plata was named by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage, albeit indirectly. When he first saw this land he saw the nearby mountain shrouded in fog giving it a silver appearance in the sunlight and thus called Monte de Plata. This name was transferred to Puerto Plata or 'the silver port'.

Moca is named after a tree found overlooking the nearby river banks, or perhaps derived from Mocan region, or even based on the coffee crops grown here known as Mocca - thus in truth nobody really knows.

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