Heading into December

     The Christian faith is such a curious blend of things taken from Judaism, original thought and borrowings from 'heathen' faiths. In the end, what is accepted or acceptable is not so much divinely ordained but is decided by those who come out alive from the brawl.
      Christmas is one of those celebrations that arose because heathen celebrations were fun and it was difficult to persuade people to abandon them as well as the church needed a date to celebrate the Son's birth as a human. His earthly name was Jesus, a Latinization of the Greekifying of a Hebrew name Joshua/Yesua. He is called 'Christ' from the Greek word 'Khristos' or 'the annointed one' which is a translation of the Hebrew Masiah or Messiah. The gospels were originally written in Greek, which seems odd to me. I am sure there is a reason why Greek was still such a common language in areas where the Romans had clearly taken over.
       The 'mas' in Christmas is from the Old English 'mæse', meaning a celebration or a feast. The Oxford Dictionary states that it came from the Latin verb 'mitto, mittere' perhaps from some concluding words like 'Ite, missa est' or "Go, he/she has been dismissed." So it is the feast of the anointed one but I think that we are all special in our own way and therefore every day is Christmas.
      Another Christmas related word that interests me is 'mistletoe'. As a plant, it was sacred to the Celts.  The Druids did not write their secret knowledge down, it is Pliny who discusses it in his Natural History. The word 'mistletoe' itself comes from the Old English 'misteltan' or Old Norse 'mistiltienn'.  'Mistel' for the name of the plant which seems to have been equated with basil in Alfred's translation of Gregory's 'Pastoral Care'. 'Tan' is for twig or branch, or even diving rod. The Romans called it 'vascum' which is its genus name today. It was obviously important to winter solstice celebrations in the north and therefore it had to be incorporated into the Christian feast but it appears that its use for a 'kissing ball' may be a later development. One is supposed to remove a berry each time someone is kissed under the mistletoe and, when all the berries are gone, the kissing must stop. Then the mistletoe must be burned on the Twelfth Night (the night before the Epiphany) in case the kissers had no intent to marry.
     Pliny stated that mistletoe found on the oak tree was especially valued. So, if it is associated with oak trees and especially trees that had been hit by lightening, it is associated with Thor, who as the protector of mankind, then protected houses that contained mistletoe from being struck by lightening. This is not its only reference in Norse myth.  Mistletoe was the wood of the arrow that killed the god, Baldr, who eventually is resurrected but only after the Norse apocalypse - Ragnorok.
     The name for December comes from the latin month December, which according to the Oxford Latin Dictionary, is derived from 'decemo-membris'. Decem is the word for ten and membris can mean 'a section or division'. It was the tenth month in the Roman calendar until the Romans decided to honour Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar as gods by adding two new months, which they named for these new deities. As we move into the month and edge closer to the big day, I will probably add a few more Christmasy words and their origins.

The Other 'F' Word: Fart

     One thing that people often find more fascinating than where common phrases and words come is where the naughty words or 'not polite' words come from. After all, 'passing wind' can be referred to by its medical name (another 'f' word) flatulence, which comes from the Latin (as do many medical terms when they are not derived from Greek) flatulentus(a slow wind?) by way of the French or by its common name 'fart'.
      Flatus, the Roman word , is a masculine noun meaning blowing or wind and flatus emittere means sending out wind or farting (which appears in Suetonius as a synonym to crepitus ventris.). However the Romans also had another name for farting: the verb pedo, pedere, pepedi and the part participle, which also could be used as a noun for the thing, peditum. (which the French use commonly, peter)  Clearly the word 'fart' did not come from the Romans.
     As modern German has a similar sounding equivalent 'furz' which sounds like 'farts', our word must be derived from the Germanic Old English. Indeed, one glance at the Oxford English Dictionary shows the OE equivalent is 'feortan' and the earliest reference to it is as 'feorþing' in Aelfric's Glossary, which is very difficult to find in its entirety. I have been unable to find out why Aelfric included it in his glossary which he glossed as 'pedatio' but Bosworth Toller defined as 'crepitus ventris', due to Suetonius, which is idiomatic as 'fart' for the Romans, according to the Oxford Latin Dictionary (and Suetonius). My, they had a lot of words for this! Crepitus ventris is loosely 'a clattering, groaning or noise of the belly'. I would really love to see Aelfric's Glossary to see if he really wrote 'pedatio' because Lewis and Short does not contain this word and the Oxford Latin Dictionary does not either. So, it was not a Roman word, they used peditum, but it could have been a regional Medieval variant.
     The Cleasby-Vigfussun Old Icelandic Dictionary has a related word in it because you know the Vikings would have a word for fart and it is 'fretr' a masculine noun and a verb 'freta'. It also includes a nice compound for a vagabond: fret-karl, fart-man.
     I have wind on my mind since I am sitting here awaiting the arrival or effects of Hurricane Sandy.