"Joker"

[W Brewer]

It would not be unreasonable to speculate that some parents want their sons
to live up to the ideals of Mohammed, Moses, or Grover Cleveland.


On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 3:56 AM, Cleve Evans
<cleveland.evans at bellevue.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Cleve Evans <cleveland.evans at BELLEVUE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Joker"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'd just like to point out that in the absence of either direct
> information from the person himself or his parents, and without knowing
> anything about how common the name Tamerlan has been historically in
> Chechnya and Dagestan, the idea that Tamerlan was some sort of "burden"
> this guy had to "live up to" may be just as silly as speculating that the
> actions of an American named William, George, or Al have something to do
> with trying to "live up to" the memory of William the Conqueror, George
> Washington, or Al Capone.
>
>
> On 4/25/13 12:02 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> >>>> >> >Russified <Tsarnaev> [tsahr-NA-yeff] variously anglified:
> >>>> >> >[zar-NA-yev], even heard an early [Sarnoff]. The patronymic
> >>>> >> ><Anzorovich> identifies the alleged father, <Anzor>. Black hat
> >>>> >> >Tamerlan [tammer-LANN] (no doubt yearned to live up to his
> >>>> >> >namesake, Tamerlane 1336-1405, <When I rise from the dead, the
> >>>> >> >world shall tremble!>)
> > I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who was thinking that. I have
> > not heard a peep re: this on the one medieval list I read. (And my
> > youngest played soccer with a Timur. . . ) I downloaded Marlowe's
> "Tamburlaine"
> > to read, but I can't recall what the medieval source would have been
> > that Marlowe used. . .
> And then later on in the day I remembered the connection between Boston
> and the name "Tamerlane" that had been nagging at the back of my mind:
>
> Poe's first collection of poems was published in Boston in 1829?. The
> title? _Tamerlane and Other Poems_. While Poe was born in Boston, he didn't
> grow up here, and he left Boston in a huff after the publication.
>
> ---Amy West
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org