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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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McDonald's, McCartney, MacMillan, O'Bryan, O'Malley, etc
stevenz
Auckland
30 Posts
(Offline)
1
2015/04/23 - 7:24pm

What is the technical term for the prefix on Gaelic surnames?

Ron Draney
721 Posts
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2
2015/04/23 - 9:19pm

Patronymic prefix. In Gaelic names, that can be Mc, Mac, O', or Fitz. Other languages have their own, such as Cornish Pen, Welsh ap, and Arabic ibn or bin. Most other languages use suffixes for the same purpose.

EmmettRedd
859 Posts
(Offline)
3
2015/04/24 - 11:53am

So, is the Scandinavian practice patronymic suffix?

Great grand dad was Joktan Andersson when he came to the US in the 1870s (but, Joseph Anderson is on his grave stone). And, through Scotland, my wife's family name is Robertson.

Guest
4
2015/04/24 - 1:24pm

Yeah, my ancestors were the "von Heims" but they dropped the "von" when they crossed the pond ca. 1850. I hear a lot of people dropped those prefixes, thinking they sounded too aristocratic. They just wanted to get into the melting pot.

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
5
2015/04/24 - 11:04pm

Heimhenge said
Yeah, my ancestors were the "von Heims" but they dropped the "von" when they crossed the pond ca. 1850. I hear a lot of people dropped those prefixes, thinking they sounded too aristocratic. They just wanted to get into the melting pot.

So your user name refers to the family gallows?

Guest
6
2015/04/25 - 9:42am

No, not the family gallows. Long story, but since you ask ... when we built our home we needed to blast some rock out of the side of the hill. So after construction, I had all this cool greenish basalt with milky quartz veins running through it. Used up most of it for landscaping, but there were a few rocks left over. A student suggested I should arrange them like at Stonehenge to align with the Sun at various key times during the year. And so I did. Our homestead eventually became known as Heimhenge among friends and family. And when I started my business, I registered it as Heimhenge Enterprises. Also, (and this is a nice "bonus") when I join a forum, that user name is never already taken.

If you want to see some photos of those Heimhenge rocks, go here: http://www.heimhenge.com/calendar.html

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
7
2015/04/25 - 2:12pm

More evidence that people interested in words are often rather interesting themselves. 

The difference between von and van is that von is a surname prefix that means "from" while people climb into a van to go "to".

EmmettRedd
859 Posts
(Offline)
8
2015/04/25 - 2:41pm

Anyone traveling through Rolla, MO, on Interstate 44 only has to divert a little ways off the interstate to see a half scale reproduction of Stonehenge at the northwest corner of the campus of Missouri University of Science and Technology (http://www.mst.edu ). It blocks were cut with a water jet.

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