LL-L 'Etymology' 2006.07.23 (07) [D/E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 23 July 2006 * Volume 07
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From: 'Stellingwerfs Eigen' <info at stellingwerfs-eigen.nl>
Subject: LL-L 'Etymology'

Ron wrote:
> But ... talking about the sweltering summer and heat and also about "dog"
...
> what's the original idea behind "dog days (of summer)"?

De tijd van de Hondsdagen was in de Romeinse tijd de periode waarin de
Hondsster (Sirius) in de ochtendschemering waarneembaar was. Deze tijd werd
beschouwd als de warmste, droogste en ongezondste tijd van het jaar, tussen
24 juli en 23 aug. Op onze breedten (West-Europa) momenteel tussen 19 juli
en 18 augustus. Vervelende bijkomstigheid van de Hondsdagen: etenswaren
bederven snel.
Vraag: vanwege het wel of juist niet zichtbaar zijn van Sirius, kennen de
andere werelddelen ook Hondsdagen?
Met een vrindelijke groet,
Piet Bult

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology 

Thanks for the explanation, Gabriele and Piet.  Someone once explained it to me a
long time ago, and I forgot about it, have never been very retentive with regard
to astronomy.

I've dug around a bit further, in part to find at least a partial answer to your
question, Piet, as to whether there are similar traditions elsewhere.

Latin _Sīrius_ comes from Greek Σείριος _Seirios_ ('glowing one', 'scorcher'),
denoting the main star (or "dog star") in Canis Maioris ("Great Dog").

Sirius is also known by the Latin name Canicula ("doggy") and the Arabic name Al
Shira or Aschere (< الشعرى _aš-ši‛rā_) which I suspect is a derivative of Greek
Σείριος _Seirios_.

In Chinese, Sirius is known as 天狼星 (Mandarin _Tiānláng xīng_, Cantonese _Tin1
long4 sing1_, Hakka _Ten1 long4 sin1_, Minnan _Tĩ1 long5 chhẽ1_ "Heavenly Wolf
Star"), and the same name is pronounced _Tenrōsei_ in Sino-Japanese and 천랑성
_Cheonlangseong_ in Sino-Korean.  (There's another piece of evidence that
Eurasian cultures have long been on a continuum.)

Further:

Catalan: Sírius ~ estel del Ca ("dog star")
Czech: Sírius ~ Psí hvězda ("dog star") ~ Aschere
Dutch: Sirius ~ Hondsster ("dog star") ~ Aschere
French: Sirius ~ l'étoile du Chien ("dog star")
German: Sirius ~ Hundsstern ("dog star") ~ Aschere
Italian: Sirio ~ Stella del Cane ("dog star")
Low Saxon: Sirius ~ Hundssteern ~ Aschere
Norwegian: Sirius ~ Hundestjernen ("the dog star")
Polish: Syriusz ~ Psia Gwiazda ("dog star")
Portuguese: Sirius ~ Estrela do Cão ~ Estrela Canina ("dog star")
Slovak: Sírius ~ Psia hviezda ("dog star") ~ Aschere
Swedish: Sirius ~ Hundstjärnan ("the dog star")
Turkish: Sirius ~ Akyıldız ("white star") ~ Köpek Yıldızı ("dog star")

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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