Names: and Their Meaning; A Book for the Curious. Leopold Wagner
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Islands and Baffin Land indicate the names of the famous Arctic navigators to whom their discovery was due. Banks Land was so called in compliment to Sir Joseph Banks, the eminent naturalist and President of the Royal Society.
Newfoundland is the only territory discovered by Cabot which has been allowed to retain its original name. Rhode Island, a corruption of the Danish rood, red, signifies Red Island, in allusion to its reddish appearance; whereas Long Island has reference to its long and narrow conformation. The Bermuda Islands were discovered by Juan Bermudez in 1522. San Salvador means “Holy Saviour.” This was the first land sighted by Columbus (October 11, 1492); he therefore gave it this name, as a token of thanksgiving. Jamaica is a corruption of Xaymaco, a native West Indian name signifying “the country abounding in springs.” Cuba and Hayti are also native names, the latter meaning “mountainous country.” The Island of Barbadoes derived its name from the Latin barba, a beard, in allusion to the beard-like streamers of moss always hanging from the branches of the trees. Dominica is indicative of the day of its discovery by Columbus, namely, Sunday, November 2, 1493; and Porto Rico is likewise Spanish for “rich port.” When Columbus first sighted the Isle of Trinidad he discerned three mountain peaks rising from the sea, thus conveying the impression of three distinct islands; but on approaching nearer he discovered that they formed one piece of land only; wherefore he gave the island the name of the Trinity, of which it was so eminently an emblem. But perhaps the most interesting of the West Indies in connection with the subject we are now discussing is Tobago Island, so called by Columbus from its fancied resemblance to the Tobaco, or inhaling tube of the aborigines, whence the word Tobacco has been derived. St. Kitt’s Island is an abbreviation of St. Christopher’s Island, so called by Columbus in 1493 after his patron saint.
Ascension Island was discovered by the Portuguese on Ascension Day, 1501; and the Isle of St. Helena on the Feast of St. Helena, 1502. Tristan d’Acunha received the name of the Portuguese navigator who discovered it in 1651. The Canary Islands were originally so called on account of the numerous dogs, as well as of their unusual size (Latin canis, a dog), bred here. Madeira is a Portuguese term signifying timber; the inference being that this island was formerly covered by an immense forest. Majorca and Minorca, literally in accordance with the Latin major and minor, the Greater and Lesser Island, are denominated also the Balearic Islands from the Greek ballein, to throw, because their inhabitants were anciently noted slingers. Corsica is a Phœnician word denoting “the wooded island”; Sardinia expresses the “land of the Sardonion,” a Greek term for a plant indigenous to this island; Capri signifies the “island of goats,” agreeably to the Latin caper, a he-goat; Sicily received its name from the Siculi, a tribe who settled upon it in early times; Malta was anciently Melita, “the place of refuge”; Candia comes from the Arabic Khandæ, “the island of trenches”; and Cyprus from the Greek Kupros, the name of a herb with which the island abounded; while Rhodes indicates an “island of roses,” in conformity with the Greek rhodon, a rose.
Belleisle is French for “beautiful island”; Jersey was originally Czar’s-ey, meaning “Cæsar’s Island,” so called by the Romans in honour of Julius Cæsar; the Isle of Wight denoted in the long, long ago the Island of the Wyts, or Jutes; just as Gothland indicated a settlement of the Goths. Heligoland expresses the Danish for “holy island settlement.” Anglesea is really a corruption of Anglesey, signifying, in accordance with the suffix ey, the Isle of the Angles [see Chelsea]. The Isle of Man is the modern designation of Mona Island, by which was meant, agreeably to the Celtic mæn, a stone “rocky island.” The Hebrides were anciently referred to by Ptolemy as the Ebudæ, and by Pliny as the Hebudes, denoting the “Western Isles”; the Orkney Isles expresses the Gaelic for the “Isles of Whales,” alluding to their situation; and the Shetland Isles, the Norse for the “Viking Island,” conformably with their native prenomen Hyalti, a Viking. The term Viking, by the way, meaning a pirate, was derived from the Vik, or creek, in which he lay concealed. The name of Iceland needs no comment, further than that, perhaps, the north and west coasts of the island are frequently blockaded with ice, which has drifted before the wind from Greenland. Spitzbergen is literal Dutch for “sharp-pointed mountains,” referring to the granite peaks of the mountains, which are so characteristic of this group of islands; while Nova Zembla presents a strange mixture of the Latin and Slavonic, literally “new land.”
THE MONTHS, AND DAYS OF THE WEEK.
The titles of the months are modernized forms of those in use among the Romans, namely:—January, in honour of Janus, a deity who presided over the beginning of everything; February, from the Latin word febru, to purify, because the purification of women took place in this month; March, after Mars, the God of War; April, from aperio, to open, this being the month in which the buds shoot forth; May, after Maia, the mother of Mercury, to whom sacrifices were offered on the first day of this month; June, from Juno, the queen goddess; July, the name given to this month by Marc Antony in honour of Julius Cæsar, who was born in it; August, named by Augustus Cæsar after himself, because in this month he celebrated three distinct triumphs, reduced Egypt to subjection, and put an end to the civil wars; while September, October, November, and December literally express the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months of the old Roman Calendar, counted from March, which commenced the year previous to the addition of January and February by Numa in the year 713 B.C.
The Egyptian astronomers were the first to distinguish the days by names, when, as might have been expected, they called them after the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets, viz., Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. Of these the two first and the last survive, but for the rest the names of as many gods of the Scandinavian mythology have been substituted. Nowadays, then, we have the following:—Sunday, originally signifying the day upon which the sun was worshipped; Monday, the day of the moon; Tuesday devoted to Tiw, the God of War; Wednesday, set apart for the worship of Odin, or Wodin, the God of Magic and the Inventor of the Arts; Thursday, the day of Thor, the son of Odin (or Wodin), and the God of Thunder; Friday, allotted to Frigga, the wife of Odin, and the Goddess of Marriage; and Saturday, the day of Saturn, one of the planets of the solar system.
CREEDS, SECTS, AND DENOMINATIONS.
Theism and Deism both express a belief in God; the former term being derived from the Greek Theos, God, and the latter from the Latin, Deus, God. The Theist, however, admits the Theocracy or Government of God (Greek Theos, God, and kratein, to govern); the Deist, on the contrary, maintains that God in the beginning implanted in all His works certain immutable laws, comprehended by mankind under the name of the “Laws of Nature,” which act of themselves, and are no longer subject to the supervision of the Creator. Pantheism (from the Greek pan, all, everything, and Theos, God) is the religion which rejects a belief in a personal God, but recognizes