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ArchivesRe: Names with a meaning anotnimous with "chaste"?
in reply to a message by Rene
Now, now, now, that is *very* parochial. There is/was a large part of the world where words with culturally "negative meanings" *are* used as names and "opposite" of chaste wouldn't necessarily be negative. That said, it is true that today we are homogenizing fast, and such "odd" names are becoming rare.
Thus even today, in India, dukhI is a common name. The word derives from Sanskrit duHkhI which is the nominative singular of a word meaning one having sorrow. It may actually be a reinterpreted Prakrit word from original Sanskrit duHstha, from dus- implying a negative and stha, to stay; be that as it may, the meaning is someone with "sorrow upon sorrow" as a dictionary says. Pretty negative, but it is often used as a name to guard against ill-luck.
In ancient Indian (Vedic) literature, a very famous character is called shunaHshepa, which literally means dog's genital.
Of course, you probably meant words that show a moral weakness rather than merely having a negative meaning. There, I guess, you are right, but we should check.
As to the second point about sexual connotation, prostitutes do not seem to be morally shunned in the earliest books of plays that we find in India: thus, for example, vasantasenA, the heroine of cArudatta from bhAsasya nATyacakraM from around the beginning of the common era, the play that forms the basis of the later and more well known play mRcchakaTakam, is a courtesan. [Though, there had to be a certain shame associated with it, at least outside the urban context where the play is set, as we see in the story of satyakAma jAbAla from about four to six centuries before that.]
Of course, prostitutes no longer are socially accepted in India. Even hierodules, or devadAsIs as they are called in some parts of India (literally "(female) servants of god") are looked down upon. These probably do not make it as names usually. But sexual meaning, itself, is not forbidden, especially in names from the past where the denotation is overriden by a holy connotation. That is why, even today you will find names like ratipriYA, meaning, fond of or pleasant in coition.
Thus even today, in India, dukhI is a common name. The word derives from Sanskrit duHkhI which is the nominative singular of a word meaning one having sorrow. It may actually be a reinterpreted Prakrit word from original Sanskrit duHstha, from dus- implying a negative and stha, to stay; be that as it may, the meaning is someone with "sorrow upon sorrow" as a dictionary says. Pretty negative, but it is often used as a name to guard against ill-luck.
In ancient Indian (Vedic) literature, a very famous character is called shunaHshepa, which literally means dog's genital.
Of course, you probably meant words that show a moral weakness rather than merely having a negative meaning. There, I guess, you are right, but we should check.
As to the second point about sexual connotation, prostitutes do not seem to be morally shunned in the earliest books of plays that we find in India: thus, for example, vasantasenA, the heroine of cArudatta from bhAsasya nATyacakraM from around the beginning of the common era, the play that forms the basis of the later and more well known play mRcchakaTakam, is a courtesan. [Though, there had to be a certain shame associated with it, at least outside the urban context where the play is set, as we see in the story of satyakAma jAbAla from about four to six centuries before that.]
Of course, prostitutes no longer are socially accepted in India. Even hierodules, or devadAsIs as they are called in some parts of India (literally "(female) servants of god") are looked down upon. These probably do not make it as names usually. But sexual meaning, itself, is not forbidden, especially in names from the past where the denotation is overriden by a holy connotation. That is why, even today you will find names like ratipriYA, meaning, fond of or pleasant in coition.
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