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ArchivesRe: oh dear (m)
in reply to a message by Murasaki
It would be surprising indeed if names from one culture never had an unappealing meaning in a different language. But, sometimes it is troublesome when it happens.
The Indoeuropean group of languages shared a root which originally meant to breath, and we get word like animal from that. In any case, it is an in Sanskrit (pronounced with a schwa, the a- in English about). It gives rise to various words which are used as names today: with -ila (which contracts to -il in pronounciation today, so the name is normally written anil) it means air that we breathe or wind that blows, and with -ala (contracted similarly to -al), it means digestive power or, the more commonly recognized, fire.
I knew of a guy with the latter name who found out that his name was rather unfortunate in English, even though the other word is pronounced differently, and from a completely different Indo-european root meaning a ring.
The Indoeuropean group of languages shared a root which originally meant to breath, and we get word like animal from that. In any case, it is an in Sanskrit (pronounced with a schwa, the a- in English about). It gives rise to various words which are used as names today: with -ila (which contracts to -il in pronounciation today, so the name is normally written anil) it means air that we breathe or wind that blows, and with -ala (contracted similarly to -al), it means digestive power or, the more commonly recognized, fire.
I knew of a guy with the latter name who found out that his name was rather unfortunate in English, even though the other word is pronounced differently, and from a completely different Indo-european root meaning a ring.
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Replies
I'm aware that any name could turn up to mean something terrible in another language, but even in English, latrine's very close to Latrina. And if you look at the comments on this website for names such as Bich, Jerk, Dung, it's clear some people are completely oblivious to the basic idea that similar-sounding words may have different meaning in different languages.
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Here in South Africa there's a brilliant classical musician and musicologist who, born to English-speaking parents with, presumably, as much education as any other middle-class people, rejoices in the name of Richard. His surname is Cock. By good luck or good judgement, he is never known as Dick ... but you do wonder about people sometimes.
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