Sample My Books

Bibliography of my works published in book form

 

Translate this page into any of the languages in the pop-down below. The machine translations are not perfect, but they are adequate.

 

Search this site only

Google Analytics states that my website recorded 1.3 MILLION pageviews in 2011, up to and including August 27, 2011. You are reading one of the most popular word-lore websites in English.

 

Proteus & Protea Protean things are fluctuant and mutable, as variable in form as brisk, nimble clouds scudding across windy sky. Most uses of the adjective are positive, saluting a pleasing versatility, but protean may be applied to what is erratic and inconsistent too. Proteus was a mythical Greek sea god, a son of Oceanus, who evaded capture by being able to mutate into many forms and living creatures (see the Homeric passage below). Proteus thus belongs to a very ancient order of supernatural beings whose general descriptive is shape-shifter, a trickster god of polymorphic whim and sportive metamorphosis, found flitting foxlike through many a primordial myth. But when, rarely, humans were able to seize hold of Proteus, the capricious godlet was forced to foretell their future, fishy oracle that he was. Proteus’ name Πρωτεύς is probably rooted in the Greek word for ‘first’ πρῶτος protos, so common in dozens of English derivatives like protocol, proto-Marxist and proto-punk music. The ancient thought may have been that he’s an old divinity of the first order of gods, but he’s still a hard worker. In linguistic terminology, proto- is a prefix that denotes a language’s very early stage of development, as in proto-Germanic or Proto-Indo-European. Proteus Syndrome Proteus syndrome, a disorder featuring hypertrophy (morbid overgrowth) of bone and soft tissues, is one useful etiological name for the sundry deformities and macrocephalic anomalies which afflicted Joseph Merrick (1862–90 CE), called the Elephant Man. Darwin used the word scientifically, as in this sentence from Origin of Species: “Genera which have sometimes been called ‘protean’ or ‘polymorphic’, in which the species present an inordinate amount of variation.” Protea The Flower Protea is a flowering shrub of subtropical locales, blessed with wondrously complex blooms, belonging to a genus of more than one hundred species whose individual varieties exhibit diverse and protean forms. Protea as generic name was dubbed so in 1735 by the great pioneer of scientific binomials, Carl Linnaeus, after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his form at will, because proteas have such a wide variety of forms. Proteus in Homer In Book 4 of Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus visits the house of the warrior king Menelaus, husband of Helen and a leading figure in The Trojan War. At meat-rich banquets, high tales of derring-do are exchanged over food and wine. For his part, Menealus tells the story of how he himself captured Proteus and forced the seer to reveal Menelaus’ own fate. “. . . at noon the old man of the sea came up too, and when he had found his fat seals he went over them and counted them. We were among the first he counted, and he never suspected any guile, but laid himself down to sleep as soon as he had done counting. Then we rushed upon him with a shout and seized him; on which he began at once with his old tricks, and changed himself first into a lion with a great mane; then all of a sudden he became a dragon, a leopard, a wild boar; the next moment he was running water, and then again directly he was a tree, but we stuck to him and never lost hold, till at last the cunning old creature became distressed, and said, “Which of the gods was it, Son of Atreus, that hatched this plot with you for snaring me and seizing me against my will? What do you want?” [Samuel Butler translation]  In Book 4, lines 561-569, Proteus, in the guise of the wise Old Man of the Sea (halios geron, Greek literally ‘salty elder’ or ‘old salt’), is captured and forced to foretell to the voyager Menelaus his ultimate fate, in a vision of heaven that owes very little to native Greek mythology but much more to Egyptian influence. It is a sweet passage of Homer’s melodious Greek, with my own slightly loose translation, following Butler. σοι δ' οὐ θέσφατόν ἐστι, διοτρεφὲς ὦ Μενέλαε, Ἄργει ἐν ἱπποβότῳ θανέειν καὶ πότμον ἐπισπεῖν, ἀλλά σ' ἐς Ἠλύσιον πεδίον καὶ πείρατα γαίης ἀθάνατοι πέμψουσιν, ὅθι ξανθὸς Ῥαδάμανθυς, τῇ περ ῥηίστη βιοτὴ πέλει ἀνθρώποισιν οὐ νιφετός, οὔτ' ἂρ χειμὼν πολὺς οὔτε ποτ' ὄμβρος, ἀλλ' αἰεὶ Ζεφύροιο λιγὺ πνείοντος ἀήτας Ὠκεανὸς ἀν ίησιν ἀναψύχειν ἀνθρώπους: οὕνεκ' ἔχεις Ἑλένην καί σφιν γαμβρὸς Διός ἐσσι'. “You, O Menelaus, nurtured of Zeus, shall not succumb to doomy death in the horse-thick fields of Argos. Rather, those who never die shall carry you to Elysian fields at the far perimeters of earth, where the golden-yellow god of Underworld reigns amidst an ease of living which all immortals enjoy. For there falls not rain, nor hail, nor snow, but the Ocean God breathes ever in a West wind that sings softly from the sea, and gives fresh life to humans all.”   More uplifting, perhaps, than a weekend in Cleveland?       copyright © William Gordon Casselman 2012         For readers interested in French, there is a great deal of material on my website about Quebec French. Just click below to begin.           Click above graphic to read 7-page free sample of this book - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Any comments, emendations, additional word lore or book orders? Please email it to me at wordguy@shaw.ca

 

 

 

 

Canadian epigrams

Canadian mottoes

Canadian stock sayings

learning Canadian English

learning Canadian French expressions

learning Quebec folk sayings

introduction to etymology

Canadian English as ESL

slang and Canadian English slang      

learn Canadian English

Canadian English word power      

learn Canadian words

Canadian English word lists  

.

words used by Canadians

Canadian lingo

Kalan Porter pictures photographs photos

Kalan Porter word lore

Canadian sayings for ESL

 William Gordon Casselman, Canadian author

Bill Casselman's books

Canadian words

folk sayings of Canada

Canadian expressions

Canadian phrases

words used by Canadians

Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day archives

etymology of Canadian words

etymology examples of

Canadian word origins

Canadian English

place names of Canada

word stories

funny Canadian sayings

Canadian books

books about Canadian words

word roots

Canadian vocabulary

Canadian language

Canadian lingo

Canadian turn of phrase

Canadian way of speaking

French-Canadian words

French-Canadian words in English

Quebec words

Quebec French

Canadian surnames

Canadian last names

funny expressions of Canada

Canadian word derivations

Casselman's Canadian Words

Casselmania

Canadian Food Words

Canadian Garden Words

What's in a Canadian Name?

Canadian Sayings

Canadian Sayings one

Canadian Sayings two

Canadian Sayings 1

Canadian Sayings 2

Canadian Sayings 3

Canadian Sayings three

dictionary of medical derivations

etymology of medical terms

what medical words mean

origin of medical vocabulary

medical word stories

Canadian food words

culinary terms of Canada

where food names come from

Canadian English

words about Canada

bill casselman

bill casselman books

etymology

Canadian origins of words

Acadian words

Acadian food terms

Acadian vocabulary

Canadian Word of the Day™

word power

word lore

fun with words

where words come from

Canadian Word of the Day™

Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day™

Canadian Word of the Day

Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day

Canadian French as a second language

Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day™

Canadian Word of the Day

Canadian words

words from Canada

Canadian English

Learn Canadian sayings

Learn Canadian English

Canadian English as a second language

Canadian English study

Canadian English as ESL

ESL tips with Canadian English expressions

Learning English ESL from Canadian English

speaking Canadian English

learning about Canada through Canadian English

 Canadian unique words

unique Canadian terms

words used in Canada

Words that are Canadian

phrases terms sayings words original Canadian

original Canadian words terms phrases

Canadian idioms

ESL tips for learning Canadian English

Canadian ESL phrase books 

funny folk sayings in English

Canadian slang

Canadian patois

patois Canadien

ESL sayings

ESL funny sayings

ESL teaching tips

Canadian funny expressions

Canadian English words 

special phrases in Canadian English

words unique to Canada

English in Canada

Old Canadian Expressions

Historical sayings of Canada

old sayings in Canada

Canadian historical sayings

expressions and proverbs of Canada

origin of Avril Lavigne's surname

words of Canada

.

.

Canadian terms

Canadian language

French Canadian sayings

books on Canadian English

books teaching Canadian English

English in Canada ways of speech

Canadian talk in English

.

unique words of Canada

unique Canadian phrases

unique sayings of Canada

.

word origins Canada unique expressions of Canada

 

funny sayings

Canadian expressions

Canadian French expressions

Canadian French words

Canadian French idioms explained in English

Canadian French sayings explained in English

Ca

.

nad