What’s in a name?
The great majority of history teachers/university professors lack any knowledge-- not even a soupçon -- of the origins of the word “America.” As Americans, we were taught from very early on (around kindergarten), that our beloved country was named after the Florentine merchant explorer-navigator, Amerigo Vaspucci. We were taught that he went, first, to France and , then, to Seville to work as a banker for the Medici family. Later, we were told that he was involved in preparing Columbus’ second trip to the “Indes” (more about the origins of that word some other time). Further, we learned that he got to know ol’ Cristobal pretty well; further, that Amerigo, himself, took several trips West under the auspices of the Spanish and French monarchies.
However, it was the publication of letters attributed to him "Quattuor Americi navigationes" and "Mundus Novus," or "Epistola Alberici de Novo Mundo," that brought him to the attention of the German humanist, Martin Waldseemüller who published Amerigo’s four letters, in 1507, (actually, only one can be verifiably attributed to him), about his four trips to the newly emerging world, of which only two can be documented; one for Spain and one for Portugal. Waldseemüller published Vaspucci’s letters in back of his own pamphlet, “Cosmographiae Indroductio,” in which he declared that the New World would be named "ab Americo Inventore . . . quasi Americi terram sive Americam" ("from Amerigo the discoverer . . . as if it were the land of Americus or America"). Originally, the name only applied to South America, however, later, would include North America.
Enough! Any grammar school kid could have garnered the same information from any Encyclopedia....the way I did. So, what’s new? Well, for starters, where does the name Amerigo come from? Amerigo, like any good Italian from that era was named after a Catholic saint. However, he wasn’t named after an Italian saint but an Hungarian one, St. Imre (from which the Italian Amerigo emerges), the hapless son of the founder of the modern state of Hungary, St. Stephen. Not done, yet, I’m afraid.
Where did the Magyars get the name Imre in the first place?
Well, if you know a little history you would have jumped to the head of the class and said that there are many Turkic words in Hungarian deriving from the close, ethnic and linguistic connections that the ancient Magyars had with the Turks. The name Imre derives from the Turkic “Emir” as in “chief.” The Turks, in turn, got in from the Arabic “Amir,’ a title given to the descendants of Mohammed through his daughter, Fatima Zahra. And, there is still more.
The arabic “Amir” or “Ameer,” came from a still older and more ancient culture and civilization: Ancient Egypt... From now on, you won’t find any of this in your cursory searches in Lexus, Nexus, Google or anywhere else, except in a grammar of Middlle Egyptian Hieroglyphs. I would recommend Sir Alan Gardiner’s classic (Oxford University Press) text; Chapter V, para 79. “Imy-r” Overseer (as in the king’s main administrator, or subsequent little administrators), literally “One-who-is-in-the-mouth,” The glyphs are of an owl and an oval that is supposed to represent a mouth. The phonetic equivalent had originally been an ox tongue (get it, in the mouth?). Therefore the word, America, fully qualifies as, what my fellow French inmates would characterize, a “Signifiant Flottante.” ................. N’est-ce pas? No more deconstructionist nonsense, I promise.
These are the things that I think up, here in the sanitarium. It’s either write (or any other occupational therapy), or go outside and listen to the tomato plants nudge their way skyward. The fear, however, that I will be forced outside to..... errrr, work, is making me think that I should alter my professional designation from an arranger of disparate words and symbols, to say, a philosopher. That way, I can wile away my time doing Quiet Sitting without trepidation.. It would, also, go along way to explain my apparent lifelong impecuniousness existence (pecus = cattle. The Romans first bartered with cows). And, eventually, before I flow back into the void, I can declare, like Socrates, that, although others may argue to the contrary, I am firm in the conviction that I know absolutely nothing.
Speaking of Americans, there are many over here in Eastern Europe trying to bring light into the darkness of this post-Soviet and deprived world. They have set up schools where they teach that the world is 4,000-and-change-years-old. I know how they got that figure: a certain English scholar, his name escapes me right now, added up all the years that are mentioned in the Old Testament on the lives of the prophets, added on the post Christ years and came up with that figure. Well, I can tell you for certain, that they are off by a lot. You see the first historic calendar to be acknowledge is from ancient Egypt (You can see where this is going?). In Breasted’s “History of Egypt,” (He was no light weight Egyptologist), he cites the first calendar at beginning at 4241 B.C. Add on the 2005 years since and you come up with 6246. Therefore, my American compatriots, over here, who are lifting up the minds of these backward leaning people, are teaching them all wrong. With a little bit of subtraction one can plainly see that they are off-- way off-- by, at least, 2000 years. With such an egregious error in calculation. how can one believe anything else they have to say?
I had a louche colleague, once, who confided in me his worst fears. “The world, “ he said, “is coming to an end, soon.” I’m a nice guy (do you know the origins of the word, “nice”?). So I didn’t want to hurt him with ridicule or sarcasm, so I said, “Really/” and. “How did you come up with that?”
“The world, as we know it, will start to end on January the 20th, 2001,” he said.. “Well how do you know that,” I replied. “Because of the Millennium Bug,” he whispered ever so softly.”
I ran into this fellow, here, in the asylum a few years ago before he was discharged for being too sane to stay,. I was able to get his attention for a few minutes one lovely afternoon as we had our Supervised walks through the Garden. “Tell me,” I asked, “What do you think, now, that 2000 and 2001 have come and gone and the world is still here, and no Millennium Bug appeared?”
Well, this fellow nearly jumped out of his skin. “Fool, he said, “Nice fool,” he added for emphasis, “The world began its decline on January 20th, 2001 just as I predicted.”
“But, “ I stuttered, triumphantly, you may be right about the end of our civilization, but you were wrong about the Millennium Bug!” He stared at me the best he could with his wandering eyes, “Very nice fool, “ he said rasing his voice a full fifth (sub tonic) above his usual sotto voce, “The Millennium Bug did come. It’s right here hiding among the Bushes.”
Which brings me to the Patriot Act. Boswell quotes Dr. Johnson as having defined patriotism as the last refuge for scoundrels. If anyone should know the meaning of patriotism it ought to be Johnson,. after all he wrote the first English dictionary. Having said that, do you think that would have gotten him on the No-fly list?
I have to go now, my attendant is coming to take me to my class on the "Ethics of Survival." I can’t see her, yet, but I can smell her perfume. She’s the only person here who wears Guerlain’s “Mitsouko.” At more than a thousand dollars an ounce and with very few stores in America and even fewer in all of Eastern Europe that sell it, I asked her how she came by it and how could she afford it?
“Oh,” she quipped, “My boyfriend is a custom’s officer.”
Szia,
From Budapest
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