Daily post

Sleep: 2:30 to 5am, 5:30am to 6:30am

Weather: clear, 35F, 59% humidity, high 56F

Daily BPAL: GHÛLHEIM
Description: A dark and disjointed scent: smoke and black musk, bladderwrack, opoponax, galangal, and pepper.
In bottle: musk, hints of opoponax and galangal, a seaweedy undertone of bladderwrack, and just the slightest afterscent of pepper. Very complex, but good.
On me: Smoke, pepper, and musk. Nice, but not as complex.

Daily Tarot: Queen of Pentacles: This is a woman who is the Earth Mother, generous with her gifts. She is rich but charitable, a truly noble soul. A creator on the physical plane. Other meanings are opulence; security. Trust of those around one. At times melancholy or moody. Good use of practical talents.

MyMiniCity: Increase Population
Increase Transportation
Increase Industry
Increase Security

Reading:
Myths of the Norsemen: from the Eddas and Sagas by H. A. Guerber
Letters by Pliny
Kate Crackernuts by Katherine M. Briggs
Down in New Orleans: Reflections from a drowned city by Billy Sothern
Death Will Get You Sober by Elizabeth Zelvin

Interesting fact of the day, and a meditation on patronymics

So I just read that the term "bint", derogative British slang for a woman, similar in connotation to "bitch", is actually derived from an Arabic patronymic form. Just as "ibn" means "son of", so "bint" means "daughter of".

This got me thinking about patronymics in general, something I've had to deal with as I work with my genealogy. Below are the ones I'm familiar with, please add any you know:


Irish: Irish is particularly difficult because of the various contractions of patronymic phrases. At its most simple, you have "mac" as "son of", "nic" as "daughter of, "o'" as "grandson of" and "ni" as "granddaughter of".

Welsh: "Ap" for "son of" and "verch" for "daughter of"

Nordic: the Norse put their patronymics at the end of the name. "son" or "sen" means "son of" and "dóttir", "datter", "dotter" means "daughter of". There is also usually an extra 's' to form the possessive between the name and the patronymic, i.e. Olafsson ('son of Olaf') or Gunnarsdottir ('daughter of Gunnar').

Arabic: "ibn" for "son of" and "bint" for "daughter of". The Arabs also have a reverse patronymic, "abu" meaning "father of".

Norman: the Normans used "fitz", a version of the Latin "fils" to mean "son of". The patronymic still lives on particularly in Irish names, a carryover from the time that Ireland was dominated by the Normans. Among British nobility, however, the patronymic took on different connotation, in which "fitz" was used to indicate an illegitimate son who has been acknowledged by his father. This twisting of the patronymic convention led to the creation of the name "Fitzroy" which does not indicate the son of a man named Roy, but rather an (illegitimate) son of the King (roi in French).

Russian (and related Eastern European languages): various spellings of "-evich" for "son of" and "-ovna" for "daughter of" (like the Norse, these come at the end of the name).

Hebrew: "ben" for "son of" and "bat" for "daughter of"


So those are the ones I know. Any one know any others?

Serendipity

So, after my whole post about patronymic naming conventions, I'm home watching West Wing on DVD. They're talking about the Icelandic ambassador. Pres. Bartlett asks for the name and Leo says "Vigdis Olafsdottir" and goes on to say "he is looking forward to meeting you". I immediately had to rewind to make sure I hadn't heard incorrectly. Nope, he definitely said "he is looking forward to meeting you."

As I posted merely hours ago, the -dottir suffix is a *feminine* patronymic. Even in countries that no longer use a patronymic system, but retain vestiges in their surnames, I've never heard of the feminine patronymic being carried forward. Moreover, Iceland *does* still use the patronymic convention, so "Vigdis Olafsdottir" would actually be the daughter of a man named Olaf. In some of the continental Nordic countries it would be possible for there to be a woman with the surname "Olafsson" as a patronymic remnant, but not in Iceland.

So they messed up! I'm surprised. West Wing usually has pretty good script editors and fact checkers. And having looked it up, it turns out that Vigdis is a feminine name as well, so it looks like they pulled an Icelandic name out of the Reykjavík phone book and didn't bother to check gender.