At 20:11 24.1.2004, John Cowan wrote:
>Benct Philip Jonsson scripsit:
>
> > It's the past participle from GAYAS which in 'The Etymologies'
> > meant 'dreadful' but later JRRT changed his mind and made it
> > mean 'blessed'. It is supposed to translate Benedictus,
> > but I kind of like the ambiguity!
>
>So if people were called Maledictus, how would that come out in Swedish?
Perhaps as _Malt_, which incidentally would be
identical to _malt_ 'malt'.
Actually I suspect that the origin of _Bengt/Benct_ is more
complicated than a mere contraction in popular speech. In a
palaeography study book I saw the spelling {beñct} -- in fact
with a rather heavy abbreviation stroke over all of {ect}, so
I suspect the shortened name originated as a common written
abbreviation for _Benedictus_. BTW it was the same book which
inspired me to change my spelling from _Bengt_ to _Benct_.
I was young then, and have sometimes wondered if it was wise
to make the change, and especially if it was wise to make it
official! :)
>Latin "sacer" is nicely ambiguous between "sacred" and "accursed": usually
>it means the former
[snip]
I know. That's exactly my point!
> > There was a little discussion of the name on
> > elfling@yahoogroups.com. Search for the term
> > 'holy dread' since 'Aestan' occurs in my sig.
That would be message #27659. I just looked it up.
>For you on honey-dew have fed, and drunk the milk of Paradise?
I don't get that reference.
/BP 8^)
--
B.Philip Jonsson mailto:melrochX@melroch.se (delete X)
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