Saturday, April 16, 2016

A-to-Z Challenge: N

Okay, past the halfway point. Let’s do this.

What’s in a name? Literally. Where does name come from?


As a noun, name comes from the Old English nama/noma, which means either name or noun. No, that sentence is not confusing. As a verb, it comes from namian, which just means to name. Those words both come from the Proto Germanic namon and before that the Proto Indo European nomn.

That’s it? It’s got a really simple explanation? It barely even changed over the last eight thousand years. How boring.

Sources
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for making me smile. 'How boring', had me in stitches.

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  2. Namian sounds interesting. Like an old Celtic word.

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  3. I guess you'll have to invent your own etmyology then.

    The 'how boring' part made me laugh, too. :)

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  4. I guess not all words can be exciting.
    Im blogging from Fill the cracks and Moondustwriter's Blog. Happy A to Zing!

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  5. Everyone is doing N is for Name today! Thanks for the post.

    Piper Presley
    N is for Novel: Blogging from A to Z Challenge
    http://www.presleyromance.com/blog/novel-blogging-from-a-to-z-challenge

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  6. Boring is okay once in a while. It would be so difficult to time travel and try to talk to the people with even such minor changes.

    Susan Says

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  7. I guess not all etymology has to be labyrinthine...

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  8. Well, you're bound to find some etymology that isn't that interesting every now and then.

    ~Ninja Minion Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

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  9. Love the a-z blogging challenge. Education and entertainment all wrapped up together. Thanks for this, enjoyed your posts.

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  10. Well, that's because it's one of those words that we use all the time. It's just stuck in the same form all that time.

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  11. Clearly everyone knew a good thing when they heard it and just decided not to mess with it. Highly unusual given human nature :)
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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Please validate me.