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Nicknames?

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Wed August 7th, 2013, 10:01 pm

As long as we're doing name-changes, how about the Jacobites? I wondered for years where THAT name came from, until one day wiki updated the page to explain the 'Jacob' is the Latin form of 'James'. So the Jacobites were the nobles, mostly Scots, who didn't like James II being chased out for being Catholic and refused to bow to James' daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange.

And on the incomprehensibility of languages, may I submit, for your amusement, Steeleye Span singing 'Cam ye o' frae France'?
As the lady says, it's nearly incomprehensible -- and even if you DO comprehend it, the words are so contextual that you have to live in the day and age to get the references.

But it was a fun exercise to decipher, and I learned a bit of history in the process! :D

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DianeL
Bibliophile
Posts: 1029
Joined: May 2011
Location: Midatlantic east coast, United States
Contact:

Post by DianeL » Wed August 7th, 2013, 11:26 pm

This may not be appropriate to the thread, but speaking of names - I found two great little bits from Smithsonian online, discussing pet names of the medieval/early modern period, and on on Greek dog names in Antiquity. Anne Boleyn's pun is pretty great.
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"

***

The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers

***

http://dianelmajor.blogspot.com/
I'm a Twit: @DianeLMajor

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Michy
Bibliophile
Posts: 1649
Joined: May 2010
Location: California

Post by Michy » Fri August 9th, 2013, 5:36 pm

[quote=""MLE""]As long as we're doing name-changes, how about the Jacobites? I wondered for years where THAT name came from, until one day wiki updated the page to explain the 'Jacob' is the Latin form of 'James'. [/quote]

The evolution of Jacob into James is as convoluted as the old game of "gossip!" :)

The etymology of words and names is a topic I find fascinating.......

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