“What’s in a name?” asks Juliet in Shakespeare’s famous play, and she goes on to make the valid point that, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. But there is something in names – quite a lot in fact. For a start, it is fascinating to discover how things got their names.
Take the word “limelight”. At the start of the 19th century, gas lighting was introduced. But gas flames, with their glowing carbon particles, weren’t much brighter than candle flames. What was needed was some material that would shine with special brilliance when heated in a gas flame. Such a material was calcium oxide or lime, which shone with an intense, greenish-white light when heated.
In this way, “limelight” was discovered in the 1820s and was used to light up the stages of theatres for a long time. We still use the phrase “in the limelight” although we don’t use lime any more for illumination.
The word “dunce” comes from the 16th century and was used as a derogatory name for a follower of the 13th-century Scottish theologian John Duns Scotus. The word was used by humanists to ridicule followers of Duns Scotus as enemies of learning.
The word “ostracism” comes from the Greek word for a shell or piece of pottery on which names were written to vote to banish unpopular citizens.
Names of people are full of interest as well. The names of some unfortunates became new words in the English language. The word “boycott” came from Capt Charles Cunningham Boycott, land agent on Lord Erne’s Mayo estate, who was – that word again – ostracised by the community there in 1880 after refusing to reduce rents following a bad harvest as the Land League had requested him to do.
Thomas Bowdler gave us the word “bowdlerise”. He was a 19th-century English doctor who published The Family Shakespeare in which he removed passages he considered inappropriate for young and delicate eyes and ears. Dr Bowdler was a philanthropist and did a lot of good work on prison reform but his name will forever be associated with a type of squeamishness.
