[287/365] slinky horse and endless tape measure

[cosmolinguist]

TIL that the first part of names like Rosalind or Rosamund isn't from "rose." It's from "horse."

As soon as the L name geek told me that, I thought "aha, that makes sense! metathesis!" Because hros -> horse is one of the examples I use to explain metathesis (which is just this kind of switching two adjacent sounds, another example I like is brid -> bird) when it comes up among my friends.

I don't know why it keeps coming up among my friends. But this is far from the first time!

We ended up deciding that J's mum's name (Rosalind) means "slinky horse" like the slinky dog in Toy Story but horse. Because the "lind" I was so sure would be the Latinate word meaning beautiful but it's another coincidence! It's a Norse name and the Norse meaning for "lind" is like "soft, tender, flexible," and then goes on to mean stuff like "serpent-like." So J hears this and he's like "slinky horse!"

J did some great name interpretation today: after this, L looked up the meaning of my name and said Erik means "endless ruler," J held his thumb and finger up in front of his face, maybe an inch apart, and moved his hand away in a horizontal line, saying "endless...ruler...?" I laughed so much.

He added that a second later he realized it didn't mean ruler like measurement, but I like that so much better than it being a boring monarch or something. I'm gonna think it means "endless tape measure" now.

Comments

[sfred]

I like slinky horse!

I knew Erik was 'ruler' from when I was officially using Frederick rather than Fred. Fred is 'peace'.

[cosmolinguist]

The biggest reason I'm sad we're not a couple is that we could have Frederik as a couple name. ;)

[sfred]

<3

[cosmolinguist]

I never knew what Fred meant. "Peace" suits you so much. <3

[sfred]

Thank you <3
It's Swedish (and I think other Norse/Scandinavian languages). I found out from a Swedish colleague in the peacebuilding organisation I used to work for, when there was a suggestion that we could name our meeting rooms with "peace" in different languages. It was decided that having a room called Fred would be confusing.

[cosmolinguist]

Confusing, but also kind of great I think honestly. :)

[sfred]

I see your point! :)

[barakta]

I love these writeups of excellent conversations.

[silveradept]

Those are very excellent decisions and I'll bet they stick in the mind better than more standard explanations.