[B-Greek] Hellenizing a Latinate name (somewhat off-topic)

Arie Dirkzwager dirkzwager at pandora.be
Thu Apr 8 18:29:07 EDT 2004


Kenneth,

A very interesting question.
Professor Conrad of course is right, but ......

Desiderius Erasmus is a "latinization" of the Dutch name Geert Geertszoon
(Geert, the son of Geert).
Geert was seen as derived from the verb "begeren", to desire.
So the "double desire" was rendered as Desiderius (from desiderare) Erasmus
(from ERAW or ERAMAI).

I presume that the name Desiderius you want to render in Greek has some
connection with Erasmus.
So, if you would like to follow Geert Geertszoon from Rotterdam, the Greek
form of Desiderius would be Erasmus.

Arie


Dr. A. Dirkzwager
Hoeselt, Belgium
e-mail dirkzwager at pandora.be

----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----
Van: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
Aan: "Kenneth C. Vendler" <kenneth.vendler at higherwinds.net>
CC: "B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Verzonden: donderdag 8 april 2004 23:18
Onderwerp: Re: [B-Greek] Hellenizing a Latinate name (somewhat off-topic)


> At 3:32 PM -0400 4/8/04, Kenneth C. Vendler wrote:
> >I know this may be on the skirts of what this list is for, so I
apologize.
> >I know of no place else where this question could be accurately answered,
> >so please bear with me :-)
> >
> >How would the Latinate personal name Desiderius be most properly
> >Hellenized? My best idea with my current state of knowledge would produce
> >DESIDERIOUS.
> >
> >Would this be correct as far as accepted conventions for transliterating
> >names into Greek go?
>
> As in Desiderius Erasmus?
>
> Just simply DESIDERIOS will do fine--i.e. take the Latin name and convert
> it into the Greek second-declension form; this is the way it was done in
> antiquity, e.g. PONTIOS PILATOS = Latin PONTIUS PILATUS.
>
> The -OUS would represent a Latin name ending in -US only if that U were a
> long U; cf. IOULIANOS = Latin JULIANUS.
> --
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
> 1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
> cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
> WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
>




More information about the B-Greek mailing list