Impromtu Rant on Language and Words

I've always loved language. I have a fascination with words; not just with what they mean and understanding their use, but also with the way they sound, the way they feel in the mouth. I like to discover new words. I will admit, quite openly, that I love dictionaries and thesauruses. I use one at least once a day and not always for studious reasons. I just like words.

That may not come as a surprise since I do tend to fill this blog with reams of words. But I think it's interesting to note, especially if you've come here to read any of my work. I don't write because I like to write - in fact, if often gives me a headache - I write because I have words in my head all the time, I have to write. I can go without writing them down if I have to, but that usually doesn't leave a lot of room for more functional thoughts like 'I should eat now' or 'watch out for that car'.

There are words for this. In Welsh, Awen is the word for 'poetic inspiration', which Druid friends tell me also relates to a 'fire in the head', which perfectly describes that feeling. Imbas is a Gaelic word that means much the same. As you can see, I love languages in plural, not just English.

But you can't really love words as much as I do without loving meaning as well. I can appreciate words on their sound, but I can't use them unless I know what they mean, right? Have you ever wondered what your name means? Or how a word came about? I do. I find myself thinking about it all the time. 'Why is a town called a town?'

Let's take my name. I have several. My surname 'Robb' is from my mother's side of the family, and they're all Scottish for as far back as we can find (several hundred years). Now, common theory is the name is actually diminutive of 'Robert', which as we know is a given name. However, 'Robert' is derived from the German 'Hrodebert', which in turn comes from the words for 'renown' and 'bright'. That's interesting in itself.

But my family, as Scots, also have a clan name. My clan name is 'MacFarlane'. Let's do that one. This name comes from the Gaelic 'MacPhàrlain', which means 'son of Parlan', and if you trace that name back to its earliest origins it means in Aramaic 'having many furrows'. Then, there is my appointed Gaelic given name 'àruinn' which means 'forest'.

Then, the common interpretation of my first name 'Liam' is that it is the Irish short form for 'William', an English name that comes from the Germanic 'Wilhelm', which in turn comes from the words for 'will' and 'helmet' or 'protection'. I will protect.

That's a lot of information for a few short names. But that's really my point - how much do we know about the words we use? Does it matter? Well yes, actually, I think it does. In the same way you would want to know what 'despedida' means before you said it to a Spanish speaker, I want to know what my words mean before I use them. Is it enough to just know the general meaning in English language, or is it more productive to preserving language if we know its origin?

It's an interesting discussion and not one I'll continue any further, but I will leave you with this: do you know what your names mean?