What's In A Name: Derek, Meaghan

Derek-Also spelled "Derrick," with some other less common spellings used. This male name goes well back in history as a contracted form of Germanic "Theodoric," meaning, "ruler of the people." Its continued use in various forms certainly was helped by it being the name of "Theodoric the Great," dating to his birth in the 400s A.D. He was the ruler of the Ostrogoths, a branch of the Germanic Gothic tribes. The Gothic dialect/language was from the East Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. All of the East Germanic dialects have now died out. English is from the West Germanic branch. The first part of "Theodoric" goes back to Germanic "theudo," which meant, "popular, of the same people, tribal or national (in the sense of closely related people." It is this Germanic ancestor that lies behind the modern words "Deutsch" and "Dutch," and English once had "þeod," which can also be rendered as "theod," with "þ," called a "thorn," and which is still in use in modern Icelandic, representing the "th" sound. The last part of "Theodoric" developed from Germanic "rikija," which meant, "rule/ruler." The general Germanic form is the ancestor of "rich" and of Old English "rice," not pronounced like the grain product, but pronounced "rye-keh," the close relative of German "Reich." The English form was later replaced by the borrowed word "empire." In English a shortened form of Theodoric was "Deodric," also "Dederick," although the use of the shortened forms either ended or became very limited by 1400, the name was either reintroduced into English or provided reinforcement for its limited use by Flemish, a Dutch dialect of Flanders (now part of Belgium), where "Derck" was in use, and by Dutch, where "Derk" was in use in the northern Dutch-speaking areas.      

Meaghan-Also spelled "Meagan," "Megan," "Meghan," and some others. The female name came into English from Welsh, which originated the name as a nickname for "Margaret." * It gradually became a name in its own right in Wales, but its popularity in other English speaking areas didn't materialize until the 1900s. 

* For the name "Margaret," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2014/12/whats-in-name-nathan-margaret.html

I consulted the following for this article: 1) "A World of Baby Names," by Teresa Norman, published by Perigee/Penguin Group, New York, 2003. 2) www.behindthename.com 

WORD HISTORY:
Attorney-The main part of this word is closely related to "turn." It goes back to Indo European "tereh," which had the notion, "to turn, to twist, to rub or wear down during a turning process." This gave Ancient Greek transliterated "tórnos," meaning, "a lathe," which was borrowed by Latin as "tornus." This produced the Latin verb "tornare," meaning, "to fashion by turning on a lathe, to polish by rubbing while turning." This gave Latin-based Old French "torner," which meant, "to turn around;" thus also, "return" (as well as, "turn on a lathe"), which spawned Old French "atorner," which meant, "to turn to someone, to turn over something to someone;" thus, "to assign, to designate." Its past participle form was "atorné" (later "atourné"), which also was used as a noun to mean, "one assigned or designated to (do something)." English borrowed the word seemingly about 1300 with the meaning, "one designated to represent and act for another," with specialized meanings developing thereafter for people trained in particular legal matters (civil and business, criminal, etc). Initially spelled with one ''t," with a second "t" added in the 1400s by influence of Latin "attornare," which meant, "to turn over a right or responsibility to another." The word "attorney" has not been used in the British court system since the second half of the 1800s, as the word is used disparagingly there and it was replaced by the word "solicitor" in most contexts.