|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Very interesting. Though I've been to Cymru, I never managed to get to one of those great villages where the name had more letters than inhaibtants. For others who may wonder, the word is a compound: eglwys 'church' (as somebody pointed out in another thread, a loanword from Latin ecclesia) and Eirw 'a saint's name'. Does anybody know what Eriw's name is in Latin?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Is it possible that "Eiru" is not a name, but a title,
equivalent of "saint". I'm thinking of German "Ehre"/
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Not only that but James is rendered in Welsh as Iago, like in Santiago.
Yes, but Hebrew has no /dZ/ j-sound either. James is one of the English forms of ya’akobh. You can see all kinds of transformation of the name throughout European languages: Italian Giacomo, Spanish Diego (from Santiago, i.e., Saint James), Jaime, French Jacques. The thing about "Welsh" surnames is that the Wlesh didn't tradtionally have surnames, like many peoples throughout the world, but worked with a system of patronymics. Many folks were forced by government decree to adopt family names sometime in the late 18th century / early 19th century. Cf. Jews in the Russian Empire. Most of the names ending in -baum and -stein date from that era. One of my favorite onomastic prefixes is Ffitz from Anglo-Norman fils 'son'. The double eff is /f/ in Welsh whereas single eff is /v/.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
mav's second site says The church is dedicated to St. Eirw . Afraid I just assumed the saint was a "him".
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
I notice there's a Eglwyswen (Whitchurch, 'white church') nearby. The name could contain other than a saint's name, n'est-ce pas? White in Welsh is gwyn, which after soft mutation gives us wyn, or in this case (?) wen. Is it possible that the second part of the compound is something like gwrw or geirw? I'm not sure. Probably should just have Mav ask one of the local historians or pastors at one of the churches. BTW, Sanskrit guru means 'heavy' literally, as well as 'teacher'. Related to Latin gravitas.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
mm, I've tried that, nuncle, and there seems to be a bit of confusion as to whether the name does actually derive from a a putative saint about which damn-all is known  Another theory has it that 'wrw' derives from a word that translates as 'acre', though I fergit the prezact etymology just now. Tell me if you get any more inspired thoughts! OK, it's home to cook supper ~ have a great weekend folks.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
well, this suddenly struck me as I saw all those "w"'s go by. My last name is Grow, and an uncle a while back traced our North American lineage back to one John Grow, who lived in Ipswich, Mass, arriving on the shores around 1640, IIRC. one book I found, "the History of Newbury, VT" states that he came "from Wales". my Father inquired of some sort of authority in Wales who said that Grow didn't sound like much of a Welsh name. but, I wonder, might it have been Grw? would that even be likely? I am just really curious, and would love to be able to share some info with my family.
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
eta-- Almost anything's possible when it comes to personal names, family history, etc. Took a look at an English surname dictionary and there's no Grow in there, but there is Grew and Grewcock (li'l Grew) from AN la grue 'crane'. Thing about the 'w' in Welsh is, I'm not sure it was used all that often in Middle Welsh (which was ending around the time of your ancestor's emigration). Good luck.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
thanks, jheem. it's an on-going project, so something will surface someday...
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,326
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
704
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
