What's In A Name: Peter, Rebecca
Peter-This male name goes back to Greek "Petros," meaning "stone," as a translation of Aramaic* "Cephas," the name given to Simon by Jesus in the New Testament of the Bible. Latin took the name as "Petrus," and it spread to other European languages by way of Christianity. The feminine form is "Petra," meaning "rock," as in "rock formation." The Norman influence in England brought the form "Piers" into use, but the English form "Peter" rebounded after a century or two, and it has remained the main form in English. Other European forms: Italian "Pietro," Spanish "Pedro," German "Peter" and "Petrus," French "Pierre," Serbian and Croatian "Petar." "Pete" is a common shortened form of "Peter."
Rebecca-This female name goes back to transliterated Semitic** "rbq," which had the notion, "to tie together, to bind;" thus further, "to join." This gave transliterated Hebrew "ribqah," meaning, "connection, joined, teamed," thus the basis for the name of the biblical wife of Isaac. The name was translated into transliterated Greek as "Rhebekka," which was taken by Latin as "Rebecca." The name was not common in English until the 1500s. The spelling "Rebekka" is an alternative form in English, as well as a primary form in a number of languages, like Norwegian, Dutch and some others. "Becky" is a common shortening for "Rebecca."
* Aramaic is a Middle Eastern Semitic language (see next note) akin to Hebrew.
** Semitic is a language family centered in the Middle East. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya. Arabic and Hebrew are commonly known in much of Europe and North America, but Amharic is spoken in a large part of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also spoken in parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, another East African nation.
I consulted the following, so for more information on any of the names see, 1) "A World Of Baby Names" by Teresa Norman, published by Perigee/Penguin Group, New York, 2003. 2) "A Greek-English Lexicon," by Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Roderick McKenzie, and Eric Arthur Barber, published by Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1940. 3) Behindthename.com
WORD HISTORY:
Rock-This is the noun^ for "stone." The ultimate origin is unknown. It appears in Old English in the compound "stanrocc" (literally "stone rock"), but meaning, "high pile of stones, column of stone, obelisk," with the "rocc" part a borrowing from Latin "rocca." This was later reinforced and given staying power by Norman French "roche/roce," which was also from the Latin form.
^ The verb "rock," with the meaning, "to move something back and forth, to make something move in such a way," is an original English word from Germanic. It also came to be applied to the "rock" part of, "rock-n-roll." It is a completely different word from the noun form above. For the verb's history, it is included in this article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/02/german-question-part-seventy-eight.html
Rebecca-This female name goes back to transliterated Semitic** "rbq," which had the notion, "to tie together, to bind;" thus further, "to join." This gave transliterated Hebrew "ribqah," meaning, "connection, joined, teamed," thus the basis for the name of the biblical wife of Isaac. The name was translated into transliterated Greek as "Rhebekka," which was taken by Latin as "Rebecca." The name was not common in English until the 1500s. The spelling "Rebekka" is an alternative form in English, as well as a primary form in a number of languages, like Norwegian, Dutch and some others. "Becky" is a common shortening for "Rebecca."
* Aramaic is a Middle Eastern Semitic language (see next note) akin to Hebrew.
** Semitic is a language family centered in the Middle East. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya. Arabic and Hebrew are commonly known in much of Europe and North America, but Amharic is spoken in a large part of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also spoken in parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, another East African nation.
I consulted the following, so for more information on any of the names see, 1) "A World Of Baby Names" by Teresa Norman, published by Perigee/Penguin Group, New York, 2003. 2) "A Greek-English Lexicon," by Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Roderick McKenzie, and Eric Arthur Barber, published by Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1940. 3) Behindthename.com
WORD HISTORY:
Rock-This is the noun^ for "stone." The ultimate origin is unknown. It appears in Old English in the compound "stanrocc" (literally "stone rock"), but meaning, "high pile of stones, column of stone, obelisk," with the "rocc" part a borrowing from Latin "rocca." This was later reinforced and given staying power by Norman French "roche/roce," which was also from the Latin form.
^ The verb "rock," with the meaning, "to move something back and forth, to make something move in such a way," is an original English word from Germanic. It also came to be applied to the "rock" part of, "rock-n-roll." It is a completely different word from the noun form above. For the verb's history, it is included in this article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/02/german-question-part-seventy-eight.html
Labels: Becky, Christianity, English, etymology, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, names, Pete, Peter, Petra, Rebecca, Semitic languages
posted by Randy at 7:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home