An Electronic Blend

I love blended words, also known as portmanteau words. My latest find is redditors, a blending of the website Reddit and editors; so redditors would be people who use Reddit. I learned of the website Reddit a while ago; it is a social network with a clever Latin name. In Latin reddit, from the verb reddō, reddere, reddidī, reditum I return, I give back means “he/she/it gives back, returns.” Back in April I heard a news story about people from around America wishing to send pizza to the first responders and families affected by the bombing in Boston; the redditors used Reddit to send a lot of pizza, an excellent use of a social network.

Perfidy

I was intrigued when I saw on the television last night that the song playing on the Big Band channel was called Perfidia, which is a Latin word meaning “faithlessness, treachery.” Tommy Dorsey and his band were credited as the artists, so I did a little search to find out the history of Perfidia, and learned that perfidia is actually the Spanish word for faithlessness and, according to Wikipedia, the tune was written by a Mexican composer, Alberto Dominguez. Most interestingly, however, Alberto Dominguez was born on 21 April 1913, a century ago on Rome’s traditional birthday! So although I thought the title might be Latin, in fact, it is not, but there is a slight classical connection. You can hear an early version of the song with Spanish lyrics here. In Book Four of Vergil’s Aeneid, Dido twice reproaches Aeneas with the term perfide, faithless one, treacherous one. No dancing matter in the Aeneid, but two millennia later, Perfidia the dance melody is featured in two classic movies, Casablanca and Now, Voyager. Both movies star Paul Henreid; in Casablanca his wife, played by Ingrid Bergman, is having an affair with Humphrey Bogart; they dance to Perfidia in the flashback scene in a Paris nightclub. In Now, Voyager, Paul Henreid is having an affair with Bette Davis, and they dance to Perfidia in a Rio de Janeiro nightclub. Perfidia, the Latin word, also gives us English perfidy (treachery) and perfidious (full of treachery, faithless, treacherous).

Fauna Foods

Running errands today I stopped by my favorite dog food purveyor, but I had to turn carefully into the driveway, because a delivery truck was almost blocking the way. I did not notice the name on the truck until I was leaving the shop, and I smiled to read the words FAUNA FOODS. Of course, what a perfect name for a pet-food distributor! Usually the word fauna is accompanied by the word flora, as in flora and fauna, the plant and animal life of a geographical area. Carolus Linnaeus, the father of scientific binomial nomenclature, chose fauna, animal life, as the partner of flora, plant life; Flora was a Roman goddess of flowers, and Fauna was the sister of Faunus, the goat-footed Roman equivalent of the Greek nature god, Pan. So Fauna Foods provides food for animal life. I also stopped by my veterinarian’s office on my way home and noticed that he, too, has an account with Fauna Foods. From Faunus we also get the word faun, a lesser Roman deity represented with human upper parts and goat legs and feet.

Driving forward with Greek and Latin

Friends visiting for the weekend just pulled out of the driveway, and as we were saying our last farewells, my husband and I noticed the tires on the car. My husband noticed the brand (Hankook), because the brand had been recommended to him, and I noticed the model, VENTUS AS, because ventus is the Latin word for “wind.” Having never heard of Hankook before, I searched the Internet and found their global site, where I learned about the scope of the business and interesting tire names. Probably in the not too distant future Hankook tires will be on your radar if not your vehicle, because Hankook is a Korean company, with plants all over the world, making millions of excellent tires. In addition to the VENTUS model, there are also OPTIMO (from the Latin word optimus meaning “very good, excellent, best,” and other models with names rooted in Greek and Latin, such as the KINERGY (from kin, Greek for “move,” and (en)ergy, Greek for “work”) and the DYNAPRO (from Greek dyn meaning “power” and Latin pro meaning “forward”). The DYNAPRO is an excellent name for a tire designed for the toughest pickup truck! I again maintain that knowledge of Greek and Latin helps us understand the world around us and gives us the power to name our inventions and creations, no matter who is doing the inventing and no matter where the inventions are coming into being. 

Out of this world

My big dog, a German shepherd, loves his new toy, and when he plays with it, I also smile. His new toy is a big, squishy, minty, hollow orange ball with the word Sol on it. It is one of a series of three dog balls called Sol, Luna, and Venus. They are made by a company with the name Orbee and go, collectively, under the name of Cosmos. I love dog toys with Latin names! Sōl, sōlis m. is the Latin word for sun, lūna, lūnae f. is the Latin word for moon (this ball glows in the dark), and Venus, Veneris f. is the Latin word for Venus, goddess of love and beauty and a planet.  See the Cosmos collection here. The name Orbee sounds like the Latin word orbis, orbis m. circle. My dog loves chasing his toys in circles around the yard!

Lysistrata, Temptress of the South

The Halifax Chronicle Herald Arts & Life section today features a review of a new production based on Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, and it sounds like an amusing entertainment. If you find yourself heading to Nova Scotia, you have until August 11 to catch a performance of this ancient Greek comedy translated to the American Civil War and performed by Two Planks and a Passion Theatre at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, near Canning, Nova Scotia.  Pique your interest in Aristophanes’ original with this translation available at Perseus, and you can also try an audio version at a site with a great Latin name, LibriVox (“voice of a book” or “BooksVoice”).

Via Latin

At the Ovens Natural Park yesterday evening in Bayport, Nova Scotia, I spied a good-sized RV called a Via made by Winnebago on a Mercedes Benz chassis. This is the second occurrence this week for a via connection, as earlier in the week I learned that train service in Canada is called VIA Rail Canada.The Latin noun via, viae f. way, path, road is the source of these names. Via is a good name for an RV, as one must travel by way of roads to reach any destination. Via is also a good name for a rail service, as it provides a way of travel. In English we also use the word via as a preposition to mean "by way of," as "I am travelling to Montreal via VIA Rail Canada." In English we also use two pronunciations of via, both VAHYuh and VEEuh. I would love to travel via RV or train, but for right now I will enjoy the beauty of the Nova Scotia seaside.