Barry Popik namecheck

[Wilson Gray]

Well, yes, if you want to get classicist on my ass. BTW, will this be
on the final? ;-)

-Wilson

On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 10:44 AM, Barbara Need <nee1 at midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:
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>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Barbara Need <nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU>
>  Subject:      Re: Barry Popik namecheck
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Actually Octavius was a nomen (the gens, or family, name) rather than
>  a prenomen (given name), such as Quintus. Females were
>  unimaginatively named with the feminine form of the nomen followed by
>  the genitive of the cognomen (sub-family--and possibly words to
>  indicate birth order: major, minor, tertia, etc.), though not all
>  families had a cognomen (e.g., the Antonii). Some people had a fourth
>  name, often some kind of nickname based on the individual (e.g.,
>  Creticus for someone who "conquered" Crete). Octavius may have it
>  roots in the word for 'eight', but if so it is really old. The form
>  Octavian comes from the fact the he was adopted by Gaius Julius
>  Caeser and so was subsequently known as Gaius Julius Caeser
>  Octavianus (though the Gaius here was his own prenomen: Gaius
>  Octavius Thurinus).  Some adoptees took the full name of their father
>  (e.g., Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, born Publius
>  Cornelius Scipio Nascia).
>
>  Can you tell I have been reading too many mysteries set in the late
>  Roman republic?
>
>  Barbara
>
>  Barbara Need
>  UChicago
>
>  P.S. IXX? What century does that represent?
>
>  On 6 Apr 2008, at 14:53, sagehen wrote:
>  > on 4/5/08 1:21 PM, Wilson Gray at hwgray at GMAIL.COM wrote:
>  >
>  >> The ancient Romans used a variation of this naming method. No doubt
>  >> everyone here recalls Quintus, i.e. "Fifth," Tullius Cicero, one of
>  >> Caesar's generals and Marcus Tullius Cicero's younger brother. The
>  >> Romans had no names for women at all, only feminine ordinal numerals
>  >> and their nicknominal and diminutive variants, for example,
>  >> "Priscilla," a nickname based on "Prima," i.e. "First (Daughter)."
>  >>
>  >> -Wilson
>  > ~~~~~~~~~~
>  > There are quite a few Octaviuses (Octavii?) & Octavias in my family
>  > tree.  I
>  > doubt if they were all eighth-born, though the IXX Cent families in
>  > which
>  > they appeared  did tend to have big broods. (There is also a
>  > Tullius Cicero
>  > -- no ordinal in evidence -- mentioned in the same genealogy). My
>  > grandfather's uncle, Octavius Decatur Gass, seems to have owned a
>  > lot of
>  > what later became Las Vegas. I haven't seen it, but I understand
>  > there is a
>  > large sign ("Welcome to GASS Station") somewhere on the strip, put
>  > up by the
>  > local historical society.
>  > AM
>  >
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
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 -Sam'l Clemens

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