Vikings at Jellyfish Cove
&
Medusa: New Origin of Monster's Name
L’Anse aux meadows and the fascinating word story of a Canadian historical site whose name may hark back to ancient Persia.
On the most northerly point of the Canadian island province of Newfoundland lies a wind-buffeted and sea-swept Atlantic cove where Viking explorers came ashore, beached their long boats and camped — hundreds of years before Columbus discovered America. The Norsemen mention these explorations in their sagas, calling the whole area Vinland (that is, [grape] vine land). Today we are interested in the many ancient verbal echoes in the place name, L’Anse aux Meadows, still the only known site of a pre-Columbian Norse village in Canada.
The northern Newfoundland place name appears earliest in 1862 as L’Anse à la Medée, a cove possibly named after the shipwreck of a ship called la Medée. French-speaking fishermen later altered it to L’anse aux méduses ‘Jellyfish Cove.’ English-speaking fishermen with little French heard that as L’anse aux Meadows, which seemed cogent because of all the open meadowland near the cove.
The French word for cove l’anse is from Latin ansa meaning ‘handle of a tool or of a vessel for liquids’, not a Roman word but borrowed early into Latin from some Baltic or Germanic word whose basic sense was ‘something located at the side’, that is, quite like the handle on a pot. By 1484 CE in Old French une anse meant a cove, a shallow inlet or bay.
New Origin of the Word Medusa by Bill Casselman
Because jellyfish tentacles hung down, quite like the snakes in Medusa’s head, zoologists early gave the scientific name of Medusa to the familiar adult stage of most species of jellyfish. Medusa was the snake-haired Gorgon slain by Perseus. Medusa is a Greek feminine form and may be derived from Greek medon ‘ruler’ and may denote ‘queen.’ Or Medusa may stem from the same root as that other horrid female, Medea, whose name is from the Greek feminine adjective medea ‘cunning.’
But I don’t think so.
Even in modern English, a Mede is a synonym for Persian. As the American humorist S. J. Perelman famously punned, “One man’s Mede is another man’s Persian.” The ancient name for Persia was Media.
The severed head of Medusa, 1597 CE, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, oil on canvas mounted on wood, Uffizi, Florence, Italy.
I think Medusa is a simple ancient Greek racial epithet of hatred and revulsion. I think Medusa is Greek medousa ‘woman acting like a Mede or Persian’, that is, a monstrous female creature. Why they murder their own children and have snakes for hair! Eek! Since the first Persian wars and attacks on Greece, starting in 490 BCE but with the racial hatred of Persians beginning perhaps centuries earlier, Greeks loathed Medes or Persians as their chief historical enemy. But did later Greeks hate the Persians enough to disparage them by making up Persian-based insult words? You bet! In the Greek travel poem and journey fantasy entitled The Odyssey, one of the ancient Greek words for ‘cock and balls’ was medos, that is, those ‘Persian’ parts ‘down there,’ perhaps a pun or coy periphrasis on medos or medon ‘the middle stuff.’ Now the standard Greek word for a Persian woman was medis. There was a Greek verb medizein that meant ‘to favour Persians’ and also ‘to dress up like a Persian,’ to parade about shamelessly in gaudy raiment indulging in obscene decadence, quite unlike the sober and upright stalwarts who were Greek and hence were embued with a virtue not capable of corruption.
A long voyage perhaps, from a Newfoundland cove to ancient Greek monsters, but one, I ween, well worth the paddle.
copyright © 2012 William Gordon Casselman
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Please email me at wordguy@shaw.ca
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Reviews of my New Book
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Jenni French of San Fancisco, California writes on her blog "My Corner of the Universe" for March 19, 2011:
Casselman, Bill. Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A World Lover's Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2010.
"I admit it: I'm a word nerd. I love words: weird words, long words, obscure words, funny words. This book is right up my alley. With chapters like "Nautical Words," "Creepy Words," and "Edible Words," I have enjoyed every page of this book.
And the author has quite a way with words, so I have found myself rereading many sentences in this book and slowing my progress through it.
My current favorite sentence is found in a discussion of dog hybrid breed names: "What a revolting concatenation of cutesiness and smarmy nomenclatorial treacle parading under the name of canine hybrid breed names" (19).
I'm sure I'll have another favorite sentence in a day or two.
This book is just that good and just that entertaining."
Author Bill Casselman replies: "Thanks, Jenni!"
Just a reminder that this book contains my ALL-NEW word esssays, none of which are available anywhere else in print or online.
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Cindy Lapeña on her blog "Creativity Unlimited" of July 19 ,2011, writes:
Posted by mimrlith in 365 Things to Look Forward to.
Tags: 365 things to look forward to, books, reading
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19. Starting a book
To a certified bibliophile like me, a.k.a. bookworm, one of the most exciting things to look forward to is to start reading a new book. In fact, sometimes the prospect of starting to read a new book is so exciting that I have to hurry to finish the book I am currently reading, just so I can start a new one.
If there’s one thing I can’t resist, it’s a book, especially if it promises to be a good one. Of course there are certain books I just won’t touch or be seen with, but at the risk of being hung by my thumbs by fans of such literature, I will not mention any genres in particular. . .
Seeing a book with a title that totally captivates me, like Where a Dobdob meets a Dikdik (yes, that is a book title!) has me so worked up, I just can’t wait to dive in. I imagine all sorts of deliciously fancifully outrageous words with a title like that. Is it obvious? I just love books on words. You won’t believe how many dictionaries I own. Or books on lexical oddities and other lexical explorations. Yes, I am a logophile of sorts. I love the new words I pick up from new books. I relish finding out the meanings of all manner of words and phrases and expressions. What could be more fun?"
(Replies author Bill Casselman: Please scroll to bottom of page or click here to link to a free seven-page preview of my new book, Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik.
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Sample My Newest Book. Click Below.
Jan. 3, 2011
“Mr Casselman,
I wanted to write to thank you for your thoroughly enjoyable [new] book. By background, I am a technologist practicing the somewhat arcane crafts of Information Security.”
David Gamey, Canada
Testimonial Email
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Dear Mr. Casselman,
A search for the origins of an improbable-looking word, paraprosdokian, led me to the first piece of your prose I have had the pleasure of reading, "The Bogus Word Paraprosdokian & Lazy Con Artists of Academe." I have just placed an order for Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik, Canadian Words & Sayings, and As The Canoe Tips, and will add more of your titles as I finish these.
I have just retired from a 40-plus year career in book publishing, the last thirty years spent as director/editor of a number of university presses, attempting to sort the genuine writers from the "Lazy Con Artists of Academe." Sad to say, the latter have so over-bred the former that I could no longer see the rare gem in the avalanches of offal that daily swamped my office and desk. I visited your website and spent far too long there; it was a pleasure to meet a real writer through his work.
. . . I revisited the paraprosdokian page, and have finally quit laughing again at “Casselman's Conclusion.” You were not unkind to the "profligate prof-lets." During my years as an acquisitions editor, in rejection letters I often quoted Prof. Moses Hadas, classicist at Columbia University, who wrote a young scholar in response to having been sent the prof-let's first book, "Thank you for sending me your book. I will waste no time reading it."
I know I will enjoy your books. Keep up the good work.
Thank you,
Luther Wilson
Director (Retired)
University of New Mexico Press, among others
Click to read my paraprosdokian column.
Nov. 15, 2010: On Twitter, Doug O'Neill, a happy buyer of my new Dobdob book, writes, "Even funnier flipping through it a second time around."
Thanks, Doug!
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Quebec French Sayings -1
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