#etymology tag

[starburned-and-unkissed]

tell me whatever the fuck you want :) 🌻

romania is made up of multiple historical regions: wallachia, moldavia and transylvania. these, in turn, are split into smaller regions (for example, wallachia is often split into oltenia and muntenia, which, interestingly enough, can be translated as "land of the mountains"). wallachia was also a principality for hundreds of years, before uniting with moldavia to form romania. this is technically not what I want to focus on, but it's me awkwardly trying to segue into what I actually want to talk about.

"Wallachia". what does that mean? where did that word come from? it's certainly not what romanians (generally) called themselves, "vlach" or "wallachian" or any other variant is what other people called them. "Wallachia" is an exonym. Wallachia in romanian is usually "Țara Românească", directly translated as "Romanian Country/Land". I do think it less usually appears in other texts as "Valahia" or "Vlahia", though.

but again: it's an exonym. a name given to romanians by other people. or well, it's used to describe romance-speaking people in general, and I am talking about the language family in this case. or alternatively, "vlach" reffers to shepherds in general, as romanians have always been pastoralists. it's no wonder that one of our most important pieces of folklore, "Miorița¹"(= I've seen it generally translated as "the Lambkin", which is not an incorrect translation), is a pastoral ballad about three shepherds and a magical talking sheep! which is kind of a simple way of putting it, I know.

the thing is: wallachia, etymologically, has the same origin as wales. yes, that wales.

how does that work?

once upon a time, the roman empire Existed. it spread far and wide, and managed to spread the latin language in a lot of places, and eventually collapsed onto itself. a lot of people formerly under the roman empire continued to speak (vulgar) latin, and this is how the romance languages developed. in europe, the germanic peoples also existed. it is thought that the reconstructed² proto-germanic word used by these germanic peoples to refer to the (largely romanised) former inhabitants of the former roman empire was *Walhaz³.

in time, this word changed and developed, gaining the meaning of "a foreigner", of someone speaking either celtic or latin or both. it was used for rather a lot of the germanic people's neighbours. the anglo-saxons specifically used the derived word "Wealh", and its plural "Wēalas", to refer to the britons and their territory, eventually turning into "Wales".

again, germanic people, and also early slavs, used the term "walhaz" to refer to romance-speaking people as well, specifically to the speakers of the eastern romance languages who live south of the danube. eventually, it turned into "vlach", or "wallachian". thus, Wallachia.

not an expert of any kind but I have been thinking about this sooooo

¹ miorița is a diminutive of the word "mioară" which is another word for sheep. if I recall correctly, it is used for young, often female sheep. the general word for sheep in romanian is "oaie".

² meaning, it is not directly attested, and only thought to have existed by way of (comparative) evidence

³ this word, in turn, is probably a loanword from the celtic tribe of Volcae, which possibly (emphasis on "possibly") comes from the proto-celtic *wolkos(="hawk"). the further you go in the past, the more uncertain information is.

[ardentpoop]

“sunkist and sudafed” is so satisfying a phrase are you joking.

sun-kissed

pseudo

fed

ephedrine

ephedra

pliny the elder

[eternal-moss]

Also my dumb etymology brain latched onto half-foot naming conventions so hard. I just think they’re really cool. I’m also now imagining Chilchuck’s name to come from chilt (chalk in Anglo Saxon/Old English, sometimes cilct/cealc) bc they’re in a medieval time period…. Chalk boy…

[morwenna-crows]

I just realised I’ve never written anything about the etymology of China Sorrows as a name. It’s maybe one of my favourites in the entire series.

I’ve seen theories before that her first name is synonymous with porcelain, for her paleness and fragile, delicate features. My preferred etymology for her taken name, though, comes from a slightly more obscure, archaic definition of the word.

From the early 16th century onward, china was sometimes used to mean a colour, rather than a place.

The word china, in an historic context, referred to several different shades of pale blue; these colours were given that name because they were originally associated with the light-blue glazing found on imported Chinese ceramics.

That ice-blue, china-blue, is the colour of her striking, unusual eyes. I love the idea that this definition is why she chose it as her name.

The other part of her name also carries a second, hidden meaning. Rather than just a synonym for sadness or grief, the use of Sorrows seems to be a deliberate Irish literary reference. Deirdre of the Sorrows is one of the most famous characters in ancient, pre-Christian Irish mythology.

In the Ulster Cycle of stories, Deirdre is fated from birth to become the most beautiful woman Ireland has ever seen. But that same prophecy curses her to a life of tragedy, predicting that she will eventually lead her lover to his death, and drag Ireland into war, bloodshed, and chaos.

This is where her epithet comes from; her name is forever linked with loss and destruction.

(The story was probably first written down around 600AD; the earliest extant written copies date to the 12th century, so it’s entirely possible for China to have been familiar with the story while taking her own name, as a teenager, in the late 16th century. )

The mythology is canon relevant in terms of both foreshadowing China’s magic - she has the same ‘gift’ of strange, almost otherworldly beauty as Deirdre - and her war-era backstory with Skulduggery, the former lover she draws into a trap that ends in his death.

[morwenna-crows]

Anyway Solomon Wreath has like, objectively one of the funnier names in this series.

He’s named after King Solomon, a Hebrew judge in the Old Testament, who famously decrees that a dispute between two women over the parentage of a baby can only be resolved by cutting the child in half, and giving each woman an equal share.

A full three books after he’s first introduced, it’s then revealed that Wreath believes the only way to end all suffering in the world is to cut the population in half.

His name and character arc are like, a tongue-in-cheek, exaggerated misinterpretation of the moral in the original story - which was obviously not meant to be “the only way to solve your problems is by cutting them in half.”

And when Wreath is killed, his death is Darquesse cutting him into halves.