Dead Air

More folklore, mythology and magic in 'Tales from the Other Side.' Red headed, Irish enthusiast, Claire Alcock explores the deep and often dark traditions and superstitions surrounding Fairies and their forts, in Irish culture. Read the article here: https://www.bulldogz.org/post/fairy-forts

"Hello again Word Lovers!" We are in the Easter season and so it seems a sensible time to look at the etymology of the word "Easter"

Easter: The official citation comes from the Venerable Bede, the chronicler who lived on the island of Lindisfarne. It references his work, The Ecclesiastical history of the English people where he complains about the Celtic church retaining the name Easter. This is believed to be the name of the pre Christian era month, from the name of a Pagan Goddess.

At the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD the King of Northumbria declared the Romans to be correct and the only people who disagreed with the timetable were the obstinate Picts and Britons at the remote corners of these far flung islands.

An alternative explanation is the "east" but the first explanation seems more likely.

Easter Egg: The Pagan tradition of handing coloured eggs as a symbol of fertility. The word egg came to English via the Norse.

An old pronunciation of egg was "eya" which is found in the term "cockenayers". In the 14th century this was a "milksop" or a spoilt child but later became a way for country people to refer to people from London. Living in the big city of London had transformed the people into Cockenays, or Cock's Eggs. So disconnected from reality that they did not know which animal laid the egg. This transformed into the word "Cockney" that we still use today. This is a disputed derivation but sounds so delightful that we are going to stick with it.

This is a nice inversion of the more common habit of city folk deriding country folk. The expression "country bumpkin" which probably comes from the Dutch bommekjin to mean little barrel or the diminutive of boom for tree. It was a derogatory term for Dutch people being short and dumpy (Ed: curious as in the modern world Dutch are statistically taller than any other country.) The word came into English as a nautical term for a projected boom from a vessel.

Shrove Tuesday: The start of lent in English (pancake day), comes from scrifan in Old English which means to decree, possibly emanating from the Latin to write. It came to mean "confession".

Maundy Thursday: To decree, ordain, mandate...leads us to another word, Maundy Thursday, from old French commandment or mandate. "I give to you a new commandment" John 13:34 (Mandatum novum do vobis), opens the Easter church service and are understood to be Jesus' final instructions to his followers as he washes their feet at the last supper. "I give to you a new commandment, love one another, as I have loved you".

Holy: Derives from PIE root - "kailo" meaning "whole" or "uninjured". The word Holidays obviously is a well known outcome of "Holy Days". Enjoy Interesting Etymologies? Check out our narrator, C. C. Taylor's hilarious novel on comedy in Roman times 'Skip Delirio's worst ever gig' https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/skip-delirios-worst-ever-gig

More folklore, mythology and magic in 'Tales from the Other Side.' Red headed, Irish enthusiast, Claire Alcock regales us with the ancient story of 'The borrowed days of March'. Read the article here: https://www.bulldogz.org/post/the-borrowed-days-of-march

"Hello again Word Lovers!" This episode is going to explore the world of Angels & Devils!

Beelzebub : We kick off with some different theories on the origin of the name Beelzebub. It seems t be accepted that this is a derivation of "Lord of the flies" which came about as a taunt or mockery, but Robert Fripp the guitar player with King Crimson has other ideas!

Lucifer : The Carrier of Light or head of demons.

Demons: The world was awash with Daimones in the Middle Ages, spirits that shared our world with us. As Christianity expanded, the unseen world became divided between the good Angels and the bad demons.

Ghoul : From Arabic Ghul, a maligned spirit that robs graveyards.

Macabre: From Arabic Maq´bir = graves from root qabar "to bury".

Angel : Angelos, A messenger, originally in Sanskrit a Messenger on a horse. Old English enjoyed the fabulous Aerendgast which has fallen out of favour in the modern tongue.

God : From the PIE root ghut meaning something you invoke. This may come as a surprise, as many believe there is a clear connection between God and Good (Ed: Which is a etymological observation not a philosophical one!). The journey of this word is an interesting one and Charly explores it further.

Enthusiastic : Originally meant "Inspired by God"

"Hello again Word Lovers!" Surprisingly few words have come into English from Welsh, Scots or Irish, especially considering the proximity. English was imported to the British isles and has accepted words from many languages.

Here are some of the few that made it from Welsh

Coracle : It has come from the Latin Corium meaning "leather" (Still apparent in the Spanish word for leather Cuerro.

Corgi : Actually means "dwarf" and the suffix gi is a mutation of ci which means "dog"

Crag : A steep or rocky cliff face. Spelt Carreg, or Karrek in Cornish.

Flannel : Uncertain etymology but may come from flain in French, to mean blanket and there is the Welsh word Gwlanen to mean woolen cloth.

Adder : Believe to have come to Welsh from Latin.

Bow : Could be from old English bugan "to bend" or "bow down" or Welsh bwa.

Lawn : Has an interesting etymology. Originally referred to the grass that surrounded a Christian place of worship, Llan in Welsh. Anyone who has been to Wales or looked at Wales on a map will know that many place names begin with Llan.

Penguin: This word has been gifted to the languages of the world by Welsh. In Welsh Pen means head and Gwyn means White. (Ed: For Spanish listeners Gwyn mutates in Irish to Vaughan, pronounced correctly on the show by Charly as Vorn. So it literally means Mister White!)

Why did Penguin come from Welsh? The story goes that it emerges from the Patagonian Welsh community and in this region, there is a type of Penguin that has white markings on the head.

Druid : Charly goes into detail about this fascinating word and the strong intertwined connection between Oak and Truth. In fact, the Anglo Saxons used the word treow for both truth and tree.

Gull : Comes from possibly Welsh or Cornish. Welsh gwylan, Cornish guilan and Breton goelann all derive from the Old Celt voilenno.

Hedgehog & Iron are also believed to have Welsh etymology.

Pen : To mean head, mountain or hill. Very common in place names. Penzance, Penryn, Penrith

Bont : Meaning bridge, clearly comes from Pont

Gwesty meaning Hotel clearly lends itself to Guest House. Gwes in fact means Guest and Ty means House.

This is an audio version of a video interview, for the full experience please check out our youtube version here : https://youtu.be/mGmegIT0mfM The Bulldogz team were very excited to sit down and talk with Megan Morrison, Zaragoza's first Irish dance teacher!

Michael Flatley made Irish dancing world famous in 1994 when he performed his Riverdance routine at the Eurovision song contest during the intermission and some years later he toured the world with his hit show "The Lord of the Dance". A very young Megan Morrison sat spellbound in the crowd. There began the journey of her life time as she pursued her ambition to compete in the Irish dance world championships on several occasions.

Megan shows us her feet of flames as she explains the different dances and shoes whilst also revealing how here Gran got banned from attending official competitions and her Mum....well you will find out.

Dance moves to inspire, and if you have always had a hankering to try out this distinctive dancing style, you can find details to sign up in the youtube description or the podcast notes. Megan has even teamed up with Bulldogz to offer a discount if you sign up before April 30th 2021.

You can book classes via whatsapp on 652013398 or messaging @meganmo91on instagram. If you quote “Bulldogz” when booking your classes before April 30th 2021 you can get four classes for the price of three

Flam & Co dance school run Flamenco and Sevillanas classes for adults and children and more besides, full details available on www.flamandco.es.

More information at our website:

https://www.bulldogz.org/post/feet-o-flames-irish-dance-in-zaragoza

Music in this video:

Tam Lin or Glasgow Reel as performed y Peak Fiddler. The original can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqNiq-Acj2M

Lord of the Dance (With Taps) by Ronan Hardiman. Published by UMG

In the shw directed by David Mallet. Original can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3paj8aTHjI

"in Sight" by Benedict Morris. Featured on a choreographed dance by the Gardiner brothers. The original can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEXcsxK1itc

This video us under Fair Use:

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act giving allowance for "Fair Use" for educational, non profit purposes.

All rights and credits go directly to its owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Guest and Irish enthusiast, Claire Alcock, takes us on a journey into Irish folklore. We are visited by a handful of folk characters and hear the tales that made them legend. Visit www.bulldogz.org for the written article and associated links. Music available from Free Music Archive www.freemusicarchive.org Sláinte - The Banshee. Gravel Walks. The Old Copperplate & - Lark in the Morning. The Atholl Highlanders. By creative commons license : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/legalcode

"Hello again Word Lovers!" we will be exploring words of unknown origin in this episode. Charly opens by saying if he was a Mathematical institute he would offer a million pounds to anyone who can provide evidence of the etymology of the words covered in this show. (Ed: Not much chance of that, he still owes me for that water and nut roast I paid for in the autumn of '03!)

Dog: This word seems to have emerged as a pejorative and then become the umbrella word for the animal. Charly states that you might utter the communication "Bad Dog!" at some point in your life and you would have used two words with unknown origin.

Bad: There are some competing theories including the word bæddel derived from Old High German, which actually means hermaphrodite. It is argued the loss of the -el leads to the word we know today. This can be compared to wench from wenche/wencel or much from mycel.

Bæddan in Proto Germanic meant to defile. In Norwegian Bad has meant trouble, fear or effort. In Danish, fight. It is all a big mystery. Oh, wait, Big, another word of unknown origin. (It was a Big Bad Dog!)

Big: One of the competing theories is from Bugge, a Norse word meaning a Great Man.

Boy: There is no clear theory on this word, mid 13th century use indicates it possibly originates from a word to describe a slave, knave or commoner. There is a French connection (Ed: All my own work by the way) to a word for somebody in chains, again referencing back to slavery.

Girl: Original use seems to indicate that girl meant any child of any sex. Some guess work leads us to the Old English word gyrele, a diminutive of gurwjoz or the Proto Germanic gurwilon. Charly then attempts a pronunciation of a PIE word made entirely of consonants - ghwrgh - which seems to mean virgin. There is then a brief detour into diminutive suffixes in Germanic languages before we reluctantly draw a blank.

Donkey: Connected to Dun meaning Brown, Dun is still used today as a horse colour. A brown animal with Key possibly being a diminutive suffix. Which was in fact Dunkey before morphing into Donkey. This seems a very credible root.

Bird: Originally Bridd in older English but there seems to be a challenge that Old English for bird was fugol, clearly emerging from German. Vogel is bird in modern German and leads to the English word Fowl.

The Vampire story has always fascinated film makers and now that journey is explored in a new exhibition in the Caixa Forum in Zaragoza from 23 Feb until 13 June 2021.

Covering the development of the story of Dracula as set out in Bram Stokers work the exhibition charts a course through the depictions of Dracula in Western cinema including a fascinating comparison of the original 1922 Nosferatu by F.W Murnau and the 1979 Werner Herzog interpretation The Phantom of the Night.

Perhaps it is the relative proximity of the Dracula mania and the birth of cinema that accounts for the unending fascination the medium has with the character, and it is primarily the cinematic evolution of vampires that forms the basis of our journey through irresistible gothic horror. The exhibits cover a range of cinematic extracts, beautiful film production stills, publicity posters, concept art and even original costumes, including those of Tom Cruise and Kirsten Dunst from Interview with a Vampire.

There is also a range of graphic novels, TV productions, music videos and manga works that tackle the Count, including Scooby Doo and Sesame Street.

Entry is 6 euros per head with reduced rates for children or free for caixa bank account holders and three guests. Entry includes access to the other exhibits and once complete you can enjoy a skyline view from the cafe on the top floor and the outdoor terraza.

Alongside the exhibition is perhaps a unique opportunity to watch a screening of the original 1929 Nosferatu on Tuesday 2nd March at 19.00. On Thursday 4th March at 19,00 a round table will explore the transformation of the Vampire myth in the 21st century.

Then on Tuesday 9th March the 1958 Hammer Horror Dracula starring Christopher Lee is showing in Original English version.

Further events include a screening of The Francis Ford Coppola Bram Stoker's Dracula on Tuesday 16th March and Jim Jarmusch's vampire comedy Only lovers left alive on Tuesday 23rd March.

The exhibition runs until 13th June 2021 so keep an eye out for further events and get your blood lust sated!

Music : Dracula 2020 by CO.AG Music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcavSftXHgxLBWwLDm_bNvA

All film clips copyright retained by authors, no copyright intended or inferred. Montage adapted from Stranger Still Youtube Channel Vampire Montage : https://youtu.be/dGEfTymZulM

Further information from Caixa Forum Zaragoza web page :https://caixaforum.org/es/zaragoza/p/vampiros-la-evolucion-del-mito_a12643726

"Hello again Word Lovers!" We continue our look at the words for colours as we return to our investigation of Black:

Black: blac in Old English which curiously meant bright or shining, glittering or pale. This seems very confusing. Charly observes that the words for colour is a heated debate among etymology sleuths. There is an entire wikipedia page dedicated to the positions of the Universalist and the Relativist position in this field. Essentially universalists claim that colour terminology has absolute constraints as human biology is the same. Relativists propose that cultural specific phenomena have a huge impact on the development of words. When we read Middle English (The long nights must just fly - Ed) we can never be sure if the word blac means dark, or of no colour or pale. Which brings us nicely to:

White: Blanco in Spanish. In Old English this is Hwit. This seems to be traced to PIE Kwid which persists in Slavic languages (T)Sv(y)et to mean Light.

Purple: Represented richness and nobility due to the difficulty in obtaining purple dye. Purpura in Latin, Porphyra in Greek but then running into a wall of "uncertain origin". Some suggest it is if Semitic origin, perhaps the fish from which the dye was obtained.

Mauve: This is an interesting side note as this word has a clear history rather than etymology. William Henry Perkin discovered the colour in his investigation of Quinines. He discovered this first synthetic dye at the age of 18 and named it aniline purple. It was named mauve in England after the French name for the mallow flower and chemists later referred to it as mauveine. He actually started a dye business and went on to create Perkin's Green (a turquoise like colour), Britannia Violet and alizarin crimson.

Orange: The fruit was imported to Europe from Asia by the Portuguese and the transformation from Naranja to Orange is well established, even if the debate over which came first the fruit or the colour seems unending.

Brown: A Proto Germanic word Brunaz from PIE Bher meaning bright or, well, brown. Although the Old English word has moved on to bright with the verb to Burnish.

Grey: Latin Grex, meaning flock. The same root that gives us aggregate, congregate and gregarious. How this transforms into the colour Grey remains a mystery that no doubt universalist and relativist linguistic thinkers could seek to explain!