Inspiration of poets, enigmatic presence in the starry sky, our natural satellite has always aroused curiosity and amazement.
In her book The Book of the Moon (Blackie Books), the young French astrophysicist Fatoumata Kébé brings us closer to her legend and mythology, and reveals scientific aspects of her origin, composition and the history of her name, which passed into Spanish directly from Latin. From the same origin are the names in Portuguese – lua–, French – lune – or Italian – luna -. In ancient Rome it was also called mensis – the same term used for ‘mes’ – which means ‘to shine’, ‘to illuminate’. This term comes from the Indo-European, mon, from where it passed to the Greek, men, and finally to the Latin, mensis, origin in Castilian of month, monthly or menstruation.
That is the etymology of Mond, in German, moon, in English – where Monday comes from, the day of the moon – or maan, in Dutch. And from men came lumen, in Latin, from where, for example, the verb to illuminate came to us.
In addition, the Moon appears in the classical world linked to the goddess Selene, daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Tea. From its name they derive selenite, referring to the imaginary inhabitants of the terrestrial satellite; selenography, part of astronomy that is responsible for its description; and selenosis, the name given to the white spots that frequently appear on the nails, traditionally known as lies.
And finally, we must not forget the hated Mondays – the day dedicated to the Moon in practically all languages : lunedi in Italian, lundi in French, luni in Romanian, dilluns in Catalan … -, nor the words lunar, lunado or lunatic, since it was thought that lunar magnetism altered the mood of madmen.
It is well known that dogs bark, cows moo, and horses neigh. For their part, cats do two things: meow or mayan, from the verb mayar, since both are correct and have the same meaning.
But there are sounds made by animals that are specifically expressed with somewhat more complicated and unusual verbs. Thus, for example, whales snort, owls suck, ducks blink, swans cry, reptiles hiss, macaws clamor, pigeons whip or spank, bats screech, elephants sweep, wild boars hoot, and panthers – come over– himplan.
They say it was an idea that occurred to William George Manby, inventor, publicist and captain of the British Army, when he saw how a group of firefighters tried, without success, to put out a fire in Edinburgh, when they could not get the water to reach the higher floors. He then patented a strange contraption of four cylinders: three of them were filled with water, and a quarter of compressed air that was propelled through a small hose. It was portable and could get as close to the fire as necessary: the extinguisher was born.
In fact, the original name was that, extinguisher, from where it passed into other languages almost unchanged: extincteuren French or estintoreen Italian. A device whose presence has become common in our lives and that in some American countries, such as Argentina, Uruguay or Bolivia, is called in another way, even more directly: fire extinguishers.
When the first steamships were built and a name had to be found for them, the Greek was used, as usual. Thus, from pyros, ‘fire’, and skáphe, ‘ship’, pyroscaphe was born .
If you ever come across an ET and he gives you the greeting above, do not correct him: terrigenous effectively defines everything born or begotten on Earth.
On the contrary, alien is what comes from outer space, although we can also use it to refer to someone who is in a country that is not their own.
