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ArchivesRe: Ghosa?
in reply to a message by Kamikaze Kitty
There is a famous paper by Ringe where he shows that since most languages use the same sounds, for bi- and, to a lesser extent, for tri- syllabic words, words with the same sound become common between unrelated languages. It is really a difficult question to figure out the origin of a name unless you specify something about its usage patterns. It is true that gh- is a rare sound in many languages, but it still leaves a rather large field to search in.
Thus, in Sanskrit, there is a root ghuS, which means to sound or announce, and ghoSa for a few thousand years has meant the confused cries of the masses, war cries, beats of drums, whizzing in the ear, buzzing of the mosquito, the sound of herds, the twang of the bow, the roaring of a storm or a river; and also stories and rumors, prayers and proclamations, the voicing of consonants, ornaments for women, a country, herdsmen, and names of various plants. Its female form ghoSA also existed, and also had a variety of specialized meanings, e.g. as a name for the dill fruit plant. The masculine and neuter forms are such common words that I must have omitted a dozen possible specializations and extensions.
Has it been used as a name? Well we find even the female form as a name in the Rgveda, a text from more than two and a half thousand years back. That ghoSa could not find a husband because she was a leper, but when advanced in age asked the divine doctors for help, and was restored to health, youth, and beauty and she got a husband; an exploit for which the divinity are praised. But, today it is *not* a common name in India (at least, no where I know), though languages descendant from Sanskrit are spoken and though it can stand as part of a bigger name, or as a last name (probably from the herdsman sense), and may be someone somewhere is using it as the only name they use.
Overall, cross cultural questions are difficult to answer. Names are rather arbitrary tokens, and the fact that the same sound has been used by someone somewhere sometime in the past to denote something and someone completely unrelated is so common a state of affairs that, to many of us, it is of limited interest
Thus, in Sanskrit, there is a root ghuS, which means to sound or announce, and ghoSa for a few thousand years has meant the confused cries of the masses, war cries, beats of drums, whizzing in the ear, buzzing of the mosquito, the sound of herds, the twang of the bow, the roaring of a storm or a river; and also stories and rumors, prayers and proclamations, the voicing of consonants, ornaments for women, a country, herdsmen, and names of various plants. Its female form ghoSA also existed, and also had a variety of specialized meanings, e.g. as a name for the dill fruit plant. The masculine and neuter forms are such common words that I must have omitted a dozen possible specializations and extensions.
Has it been used as a name? Well we find even the female form as a name in the Rgveda, a text from more than two and a half thousand years back. That ghoSa could not find a husband because she was a leper, but when advanced in age asked the divine doctors for help, and was restored to health, youth, and beauty and she got a husband; an exploit for which the divinity are praised. But, today it is *not* a common name in India (at least, no where I know), though languages descendant from Sanskrit are spoken and though it can stand as part of a bigger name, or as a last name (probably from the herdsman sense), and may be someone somewhere is using it as the only name they use.
Overall, cross cultural questions are difficult to answer. Names are rather arbitrary tokens, and the fact that the same sound has been used by someone somewhere sometime in the past to denote something and someone completely unrelated is so common a state of affairs that, to many of us, it is of limited interest
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