Today you are going to learn about patronymics. The word patronymic is a noun meaning a name (a proper name) that is derived from a father or ancestor. Origin: Greek. Pater + onoma = father + name.
The Welsh language patronymic is ap or ab. Welsh is the native tongue of Wales and many of their last names derive from combining the patronymic with the father’s name, such as:
Probert from ap+Robert or
Pritchard from ap+Richard or
Parry from ap+Harry.
Some more traditional nationalist (or, to the English, radical) Welsh families keep the ap or ab separate... such as…come on, you can do it…
Yes! As in Hughes ap Williams!
Diolch a hawddamor!
##
Just in case you are still confused, I am going to give you some more common (in America) examples of patronyms:
Fitz: Norman-French prefix – child (or sometimes grandchild) of.
Fitzpatrick = child of Patrick
Mc/Mac – Scottish prefix – son of.
MacDonald = son of Donald
##
"Brooded over by mist more often than swirled about by cloud, drizzled rather than storm-swept, on the western perimeter of Europe lies the damp, demanding and obsessively interesting country called by its own people Cymru … and known to the rest of the world, if it is known at all, as Wales." - Jan Morris (James Morris)
No comments:
Post a Comment