Old English to Modern English

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Old English to Modern English. The Saxons, Angles, Jutes and Frisians arrived on our shores from the fifth century AD. They brought with them the basis of our culture and a language which we refer to as Old English. Over the next 1,500 years influences principally from the Scandinavian and French tongues took this to Middle English and eventually to Modern English. English is the most diverse language and this is not simply down to the number of words adopted from quite unrelated tongues, a remnant of colonial days. There is a reason why English, more than any other, needs a thesaurus - indeed most languages never bother publishing a thesaurus (Japanese is a notable exception). That English has been influenced by so many others has led to such a great number of alternative words. Learn how these came began, where they came from and, most interestingly, how they evolved, how the meanings changed and developed to become the language we know today. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

The letter A is for an used in such things as ‘an egg’ instead of ‘a’ when the following noun begins with a vowel. However, it actually began as ‘one’ hence ‘one egg’ and the use of ‘a’ actually the loss of the following ‘n’. Note it is difficult to say AN LEG, AN HORSE, AN BOTTLE) but Old English would have been pronounced as AYN LEG, AYN HORSE, AYN BOTTLE which is rather easier. The same thing is seen in anfeld which may have been used to mean ‘simple’ but actually comes from ‘one-fold’ as in ‘once’.

The letter C is for ceap meaning ‘market’ and which also gave geceapian ‘to buy’. Now today we look for things on the cheap at the market, where originally they would market things at the cheap. Note we say ‘on the cheap’ to mean ‘cheaply’ – on the cheap meaning ‘on the market’. And this is still seen in place names such as Chipping Norton, Chipping Sodbury and street names such as Cheap Street and Cheapside.

The Letter K is for nothing, no not a silent ‘k’ but a letter coming to modern English from the Scandinavian languages. Incidentally the silent ‘K’ is a modern idea – once we had k-nights, and k-nives, but nobody wore k-nickers as this was originally knickerbockers and even that word unknown before 1859. This was not what you were expecting when I mentioned knickerbockers – admit it.

The letter Q is French and did not appear in Old English. Oddly the word ‘queue’, albeit with a spelling of c-u-e, appeared in English before the Norman invasion. It was used to describe a ‘tail’ (and other long parts of the mammalian anatomy), and first used to refer to a line of people in 1837, some 350 years after the first queues were named as ‘lines of dancers’.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

30 Years of Not Being Published

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with 30 Years of Not Being Published. In over three decades more than ninety published works have appeared on the shelves. This talk is not as negative as it may first seem. During this period I have amassed a vast number of rejection letters, but still managed to average three books a year and more than one article each and every week. Listen to the experiences, the mistakes, the ideas, the tips and advice on how all writers have something to learn and also to contribute to the literary world. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

When it comes to finding a publisher, possibly the best piece of advice I have is simply to find a published book that is as close to yours as possible, then pitch it to that publisher. The reason? Because an editorial department have the job of producing something new, but sales teams want what is selling .

Interesting verbs are seldom very interesting. — Says Jonathan Franzen, who fails to remember ‘very’ is a word which Oscar Wilde advised writers to edit out and replaced with ‘damned’ as the publisher will then cross out every example and thus make the ideal manuscript.

“Write what you know about” – Brilliant advice. Except for the advice on how to check every fact, research every snippet, and all the rest of the baloney. And there’s also the fact that people (yes even writers) are sometimes mistaken and what they “KNOW” is incorrect. If not, nobody would ever get divorced, have unwanted pregnancies, jobs they can’t do, or ever make a mistake. As a little pointer to how stupid this advice is, do some research into all these HOW TO books for writers and look at how many books they’ve had published previously – you’ll be amazed at how often it is their FIRST and perhaps even ONLY book .

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Stupid Moments in History

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Stupid Moments in History. Everyone knows of the error which resulted in the deaths of many troops at the Charge of the Light Brigade, but this is by no means the only error nor does it come close to the biggest error in history. Hear how history has recorded some of the dopiest decisions, some of which can hardly have seemed the brightest idea at the time. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Little Big Horn - In 1876, US Lieutenant Colonel George Custer led the 647 men of the 7th Cavalry Regiment against an alliance of Sioux, Cheyenne and other tribes camped on the Little Big Horn River. Custer decided to launch an attack from several different directions to catch the tribesmen by surprise, disorient them, and stop them forming up properly. In fact the tribes knew Custer was approaching and were waiting. The attack was launched at midday. Custer's detachment of 210 men was first isolated, then overwhelmed. The detachments led by Major Reno and Captain Benteen were forced back but managed to link up on a defensive position where they held out for the next 24 hours until relieved. By dividing his force, Custer lost both his life and the battle.

Kruschev Threatens the West… or Does He? - In 1956, with Cold War tensions high, Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev told a group of Western diplomats ”We will bury you.” The West took it as a threat, and it stoked the fires of fear and tension between communist Russia and the capitalist West. But Khruschev didn’t really mean it as a threat. He was using a common Russian saying “Мы вас похороним!”, which is better translated as “We shall be present at your funeral” and understood as simply “We shall outlive you” and could hardly been seen as much of a threat. In another speech in 1963, Khruschev clarified ”Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you” but the damage was done.

The treaty between Italy and Ethiopia in 1889 was mistranslated. The Italian version gave the Italians the rank of protectors and made Ethiopia a protectorate, the Amhara version did no such thing. Within seven years the two countries were at war.

In July 1977 the New York Con Edison building was hit by lightning. To restore power the operator had to reset switches in a row. The twerp somehow missed one switch and blew the whole system for 25 hours. With a heatwave and the lack of light, New York City descended into chaos with looting, vandalism and arson resulting in an estimated $300 million in damage.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Street names

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Street Names. Defining street names is increasingly seen as a tool to understanding more recent history. Earlier names show what these places were used for before the Industrial Revolution. When the population of our towns and cities veritably exploded as entrepreneurs built vast estates to accommodate their workforce, they also left many clues as to their friends and families in the names they chose for these newly built streets. Find out why they chose these names in a revealing hour. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Now obviously street names are chosen to be unique within a village, town, or city and thus for the most interesting examples we need to give the place. However, there are a number which are common to many places and we will look at a few examples of those.

Those found most places include: High Street – is used in the sense ‘important’ rather than elevation; Main Street – is easier to see as ‘important’; Pinfold Street – was where loose animals were held until their owner turned up and paid the requisite fine. This also paid for the Pinner’s wage; Glebe Lane – is land used solely to raise money for the church and always stands alongside same; and such as Station Street, Church Street, School Lane I won’t insult your intelligence with.

There are also those which of which we have all heard: Downing Street – was named after George Downing who, in the 17th century, owned both the street and the houses. For one of the most famous streets in the world, it bears the name of a man known only for being a most unpleasant individual, indeed the famous diarist Samuel Pepys described him as a ‘perfidious rogue’; Lime Street – most famously also the name of the Liverpool station named after the street, itself named at its creation in 1790 for the lime kilns owned by local businessman William Harvey.

At that time Lime Street was outside the city limits but, by 1804, the lime kilns were creating worse problems for those in the nearby infirmary and thus relocated elsewhere but the street retained its original name; The Shambles – most famously in York, but also found elsewhere, it had been known as the Great Flesh Shambles – itself from Old English fleshammels ‘flesh shelves’ and thus where butchers would display their meat.

All Alone Road in Bradford, Yorkshire used to be exactly what it says, or rather it ran to a solitary house owned by Dr Samuel Ellis and built in 1773. He lived here with the Honourable Liam Plunkett, until his death in 1798, his gravestone in Calverley churchyard claims he was the brother of the Earl of Fingall in the County of Meath, Ireland. It is speculated the good doctor’s friend was in fact his patient, a man suffering mental problems. Dr Ellis built this house on common land, resulting in him incurring a fine of £1 7 shillings in 1777, but not evicted.

Dumb Woman’s Lane in Winchelsea, Sussex was once the home address of Terence ‘Spike’ Milligan. He lived in what was known as Carpenter’s Meadow, a house designed by 1960’s architect C. P. McLaughlin. Spike described his home as ‘the ugliest house in the world’ and promptly renamed it The Blind Architect and, when asked on Room 101 what could be done to improve it Spike replied “set fire to it”. As to the name there are two suggestions as to how it came about, one stating a woman unable to speak offered herbal remedies to locals; while the second speaks (pun intended) of how this had been the route taken by smugglers since the 14th century, so she could not tell of the enormous amount of contraband passing her home they cut out her tongue.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line. Incidentally, if you are booking this talk you’ll need to give me adequate time to research sufficient examples.

Science

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Science. For most of us science began and ended with the school laboratory, since then only the odd documentary has subjected us to the many scientific terms. But just what is a scientific term? How many do we use every single day? You would be surprised how many you not only use but understand and even more surprised by how these terms came about and their original meaning. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

A few examples, just a taster, and beginning with sulphur: note it is correct to use the American spelling of ‘sulfur’, is seemingly of Greek derivation and deliberately uses the ‘ph’ to suggest such. Yet nothing could be further from the truth as this is from the Latin sulfur, coming to English through the French soufre, and originally used to mean ‘brimstone’ although coming from a root meaning ‘to burn’

Arsenic: is sadly best known as a poison, however it is an essential dietary requirement in creatures such as rats, hamsters, goats, chickens and even humans (albeit only in trace amounts). It is found in three common allotropes known as black, metallic grey and yellow – this final form being particularly relevant in the origin of the name. Arsenic has been known since prehistoric times and recorded by the Greeks as arsenikon, itself from the Syriac zarniga and Middle Persian zarnik, both meaning ‘gold-coloured’. That it has been used for millennia for its decorative qualities does allow us to trace it back to Proto-Indo-European ghel meaning ‘to shine’. There is no truth in ‘arsenic’ coming from the term arsenokoites, found in the New Testament when St Paul speaks against homosexuality. Undoubtedly this does come from the Greek arsen ‘man’ and koites ‘bed’, and understood as ‘lying with men’, but any similarity to arsenic is purely coincidental.

Hydrogen: may be the most abundant element in the universe but is named for being ‘water producing’ for this is from Greek hydor ‘water’ and French gene ‘producing’. In English it was once known as Cavendish’s inflammable air, thankfully this ended by the end of the 18th century

Tantalum: was named by Swedish chemist Anders Ekberg in 1802. As tantalum does not absorb acid, he named it after Tantalus, the king of Phrygia, son of Zeus and father to Pelops and Niobe. In Greek mythology he is the one who was punished (for various reasons depending upon which version one reads) in the afterlife by standing up to his chin in a pool of water under a branch laden with fruit – yet whenever he stooped to drink or raised his head to eat they always remained just out of reach. Question is, why would it bother him if he was dead?

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Household Items

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Household Items. Pots and pans, cutlery, white goods, and even those most basic items such as the table, the chair and the bed - at some point in time these must have been named and why were these chosen? A fascinatingly different look at our history through both language and everyday items. Some things will never be seen in the same light again. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

And for a taster let’s take a look at a few examples beginning with toaster: from ‘toast’, first used to refer to the browning of bread in the early 15th century, this came from the Old French toster meaning ‘to grill, roast, burn’ and, in turn, comes from the Latin torrere ‘to parch’ which is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ters ‘to dry’. Interestingly this is also the origin of ‘terrain’, which today refers to a broad expanse of ground but originally meant ‘dry ground’ and thus the phrase ‘desert terrain’ or ‘waterless terrain’ is quite superfluous.

Knife: comes from Proto-Germanic knibaz also meaning ‘knife’. Note the pronunciation with a silent ‘k’ is only since 1750 – this was not deliberate, it is simply quite difficult to continually say ker-nife.

Toilet: now you might be a little surprised to find the earliest use in English, seen from 1530s, came from Middle French toilette meaning ‘a cloth, bag for clothes’. This shares an origin with ‘toil’, itself a Middle French origin where toile meant ‘hunting net, cloth, web’ and traced to Proto-Indo-European teks ‘to weave’. So how did ‘cloth’ become ‘karzee’? The answer, as with all changes, is by association – the cloth adorned the dresser, the dresser was in a small room or closet, and eventually to the inevitable lavatory attached or included. Now you’re going to ask about ‘lavatory’, which comes from the same root as ‘lave’ and referred to a ‘place for washing’ – and thus began as a euphemism for ‘toilet’.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Measurements

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Measurements. Be it imperial inches or metric millimetres, pints or litres, pounds and kilos, each has its own origins. Whilst many of the metric terms are reasonably easy to see, those old imperial measurements have a story to tell. Pecks, bushels, feet, yards, acres, stones, quarts, and many others you have forgotten. Learn how they developed, why they were named, and what they were used for. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

For many the metric measurements will be self-explanatory (if they’re not, then you’ll have to book me to find out more) and for me the origins of the imperial measurements is far more interesting. Here’s a taster…

Yard – a word derived from the Saxon or Old English for a straight branch. When the tree was pollarded to produce straight poles – these used to produce walls, fences, gates, etc., after woven with pliable twigs and then covered by the wattle and daub method – the poles would grow straight for about three feet. Not always, of course, this measurement is a guide rather than an actual measurement. This comes from Old English yeard ‘a straight pole’.

Bushel, a measure of volume for dry goods, came to English from Old French. Of much more interest is where the French got the term, for it is derived from Gaulish bosta 'palm of the hand', a term still seen in the Irish bass and Breton boz 'hollow of the hand'.

And week is thought to be related to the Old Norse vika, which had the original meaning of 'a turning'. Thus as 'month' is from 'moon', perhaps the four distinct phases of the moon are referred to as 'changes' or 'weeks'.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Fire

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Fire. Without it there would be no technology for it arguably forms the basis for every ensuing development beginning with cooking. Here for an hour listen to how fire, which must have been one of the earliest words ever coined, has apparently still to be tamed by mankind as a selection of narratives from yesterday and today show just how daft some people can be. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Fire will have been one of our earliest technologies. Indeed without fire it could be argued that no other technology could have existed, for without fire no smelting or heating or any description and thus no metals or chemicals.

As an etymologist, I am aware the word ‘fire’ will have been one of the earliest coined. We know the English word came from Proto-Germanic fyr and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European. This ancient tongue, the origin of the vast majority of languages across Europe, the Middle East and India, actually had two words for ‘fire’ – paewr and egni (these giving us ‘power’ and ‘ignite’). Paewr was used to refer to fire as inanimate, ie as a substance, while egni refers to fire as an animate living force

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Ley Lines

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others and, while it’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Ley Lines. An examination of ancient trackways, how they were laid out and why. Using a number of models and images to demonstrate just what to look for and why, take a virtual walk across our ancient landscape. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

My book accepts that ley lines do exist and takes the reader along a number of these ancient routes across the counties of the Midlands. While the different leys have similar markers in a general sense, each has its own individual story to tell and is a different piece of the whole incomplete puzzle. Incomplete because the several leys can be traced across distances much greater than just central England. Not only will we discover something of the places and the markers, but will look at the possible reasons and uses for the trackway, and the people who have followed these same paths.

Although they lie outside the area covered by Ley Lines Across the Midlands, the stone circles of Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire are well-known as focal points for a number of trackways and importantly can be dated. These two religious sites are over five thousand years old. Clearly they were built on trackways existing beforehand, hence the leys themselves are older and likely very much older. Since the original markers have long since disappeared it is difficult to know exactly when any particular track was created. Indeed it is virtually impossible to say just how old any of the leys are.

Therefore we must guess as to the age of these tracks and for this we need clues. The only ones we have are the people, and when they first settled into permanent homes rather than leading the life of hunter gatherers. The only other really relevant factor are the forests, which severely hampered the vision of those people of the British Isles and created the need for marked trackways. This all happened closer to ten thousand years ago.

Whether any of the routes covered in my Ley Lines Across the Midlands are among the original tracks of ten thousand years ago is unknown and never will be known. However it is safe to assume they date from at least the pre-Roman era of two thousand years ago and are likely to be twice that age.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

The Fastener Industry

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with The Fastener Industry, this an engineer's non-technical look at nuts, bolts, screws and washers. Not simply an engineering lesson but an examination of just how early these technologies were first created and named, how they developed, and why successive improvements were made and by whom. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

The first mention of a ‘screw’ has nothing to do with fastenings. This was the Archimedes screw, a means of raising water, with the water trapped in gaps in the screw thread and raised as the screw was turned endlessly (never tightening as it had no mating part) by an oxen or other draught animal. It is almost certain the screw had nothing to do with Archimedes, nor did it resemble a screw as we would understand it today but appears more like an enlarged corkscrew in a tube. And if you want to see one in action, get yourself a chocolate fountain, it’s the same thing.

The whitworth thread, possibly still the best known thread form, named after Joseph Whitworth who defined the world’s first standard for threads in 1841 and remained popular until the metric system took over in the late 1970s.

Ever wondered why a ‘washer’ when it clearly has nothing in common with ‘washing’? For the engineer it has three practical applications: to prevent damage to a surface from a nut or bolt, as a spacer, and as a locking device. A simple item and a versatile one but nothing compared to the etymology of this six-letter noun. It is easy to find this coming to English from the Old French vis. However, this was not used to mean ‘washer’ but either ‘vice’ or ‘screw’. Both of these should be seen in the sense of ‘tighten’ or ‘wind up’ and related to the root of ‘winch’. Hence this terminology is all interlinked, with the whole assembly speaking about ‘tightening’ both as a whole and individually. Even more intriguing is where the trail leads if we trace this further back through linguistic generations. Ultimately this has the same root as Latin vinis or ‘vine’, itself from viere meaning ‘to bind, twist’. Thus, the climbing vine, which had evolved to wind itself around and climb, eventually gave its name to the fastenings used today to hold the framework up which modern vines are trained.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Salt Routes

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Salt Routes. As the original trade route, I look at why it existed and why these routes are still used today. While our distant ancestors were largely self-sufficient, for most one vital commodity meant having to trade. Bringing salt to the user produced a network of trails which can still be followed. Yet this is not just a travel history, salt has found its way into our culture, our language, our folklore and the talk brings all these factors to the fore. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Salt has long been the most valuable of necessary commodities – gold, saffron, diamonds might all be more valuable, but you can live without them, unlike salt – and retained its value until the spice trade brought other items to the table. Ironically, salt was knocked off the top by pepper.

Place names which reflect salt production include Hallein and Hallstat.

Words which have come to reflect a ‘salty’ origin include ‘soldier’ and ‘salary’; and we still speak of someone being ‘worth his salt’ or ‘sitting below the salt’.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Talking Butts

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Talking Butts. An odd title which looks at the many odd ideas, often accepted as a part of history, which have no basis in fact. The title comes from the many minor place names, found most often for fields or narrow lanes, seen as 'The Butts' or similar and commonly thought to show where medieval villagers honed their skills with the long bow. Yet it is easy to see this could never be true as the name nearly always appears several centuries before the law allowing the male villagers to miss church on Sundays in order to practise. Many other 'facts' are given an airing and shown they could never stand up to scrutiny. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Some years ago I gave a talk in Banbury, Oxfordshire, when someone asked me if I could explain the origin of the place name ‘The Butts’ (as explained above) and then proceeded to argue with me saying he knew shooting took place at this particular spot. I thought he was arguing for the long bow around 700 years ago and I was contradicting in saying it was a physical abutment about twice that length of time ago. It turned out he was arguing he knew because his dad told him – and dad was doing the shooting closer to 70 years ago – the Home Guard were on rifle shooting practice.

Queen Victoria said “we are not amused” – and yet the only written account appears in 1919 (18 years after Queen Victoria died) by former courtier Caroline Holland writing about an equerry’s visit to court and how he tried to impress the queen with a story of scandal and impropriety. Yet it is a matter of historical record that Holland wasn’t even in the country at that time.

Thomas Edison invented the light bulb – nope, several versions had been developed before this, Edison’s design was simply better and lasted longer.

And the Wall Street Crash of 1929 saw brokers leaping to their deaths from skyscrapers in Wall Street. It may have been the Great Depression, but there were only four suicides recorded, just two on Wall Street, and all four shot themselves.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Peru 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 Peru's cities.

Lima had been known as Limaq which, in the Quecha tongue then spoken in this area, meant 'the talker' or perhaps 'the speaker'. This referred to a famous oracle destroyed by the Spanish but not forgotten by the locals. There is little weight given to the idea the name comes from the Spanish for 'lime'. The same is true of the Lima River, not named for being 'the talking river' but an example of back-formation from the place name.

Arequipa has long been said to come from a conversation between the Inca leader Mayta Capac and the people. The latter wished to remain in the valley they had just reached and were told Ari qhipay or 'yes, stay'. Alternatively the story speaks of the Europeans arrival and, when they asked for the name of the country around there, were misunderstood and thought to be asking for permission to sit, with the same answer. A third possibility is the Aymara phrase qhipaya ari or 'behind the peak' and referring to the nearby volcano.

Chiclayo has several explanations, most often a local man who once transported plaster between nearby cities'. Another idea gives this as from the Mochican language meaning 'green that hangs', a reference to the fruit that frows here. Or we also find the Moche language, where the word cheqta refers to 'the property of'.

Piura is from the Quechuan word pirhua meaning 'abundance' - presumably referring to the vegetation.

Iquitos is a city named by the Spanish, it is also their name for the indigenous people.

Juliaca takes its name from the Quechua words xullaskca kaipi meaning 'it had drizzled' and a reference to when Inca troops arrived here, how they had noticed the weather. Perhaps a little more credible is shulla qaqa or 'roquedal dew' and a description of the small pieces of quartz in the hills which, it may be suggested, resemble early morning dew.

Cajamarca is known as kasha marka in the Quechua language and describes 'the town of thorns'.

Pucallpa or puka allpa in Quechua describes the soil as it means 'red dirt'.

Ayacucho comes from Quechua aya kuchu or 'death corner' to remember the casualties of the battle fought here in 1825.

Chincha comes from the Quechua word chincay or 'ocelot' as these people worshipped a deity in the form of an ocelot.

Huaraz is another from the local Quechua language, where waraq means 'dawn'.

Tumbes is named after the people who lived here prior to the Inca rule, the Tumpis's settlement had a population of around 175,000.

Huaral either comes from the leader here in the 16th century, one Martin Guaral Paico, or from the Aymara word of unknown meaning.

Andahuaylas is from that Quechua language again, here anta waylla describes the 'copper meadow'.

Abancay is a corruption of the Quechua amankay or 'lily'.

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