to retain words, esp. proper nouns, in their original ( or as near to original ) lingua..
Here's a small topical quiz to illustrate...
1. What is the meaning of ' Bethlehem ' ?. Why the word ' Bethlehem ' ?.
Yes, Fahim, you are so right in pointing out that it's really not necessary for folk to Anglicise or Europeanize all foreign names they come upon! We called Beijing, Peking for too long!
There were several Bethlehems. One in biblical Israel, the Northern Israelite Kingdom and the other in Judea, the southern kingdom with Jerusalem. It's Anglicised from the Hebrew,
, bet lechem. There is no "
th" in Hebrew as it's found in English.
Translating would require a lot of reference to the time of the town or fort. It could range from place of sustenance, house of bread to sanctuary of sustenance or even strong home fort.
2. What is the meaning of the word ' Mary ' ?
This is a challenge as it's an old name from the time of the Hebrews bondage in Egypt. Mary is derived from the original Hebrew,
, pronounced, Miryam, (related names like Maryam are common in neighboring peoples such as the Armenian Christians).
She was the older sister of the Biblical Moses. She hid him in an floating arc of bullrushes so he wouldn't be killed. The male Hebrew infants were decreed to be killed. Interestingly, her name means "bitter sea" or "bitter-water" or perhaps, "tears". That's almost as if the name reflected the harsh life of the ancient Hebrews, recorded in the bible to have been enslaved by the ancient Pharaonic Egyptians.
OTOH, if you want to say the story is allegorical, then, such a name would be fitting for a young girl who has just had to send off her infant brother into the unknown fate of the chance of some kind person finding her treasured infant brother.
Take care of your family and friends.
p.s Hint...I don't know what these words mean!
Each decade puts different meaning on words and over centuries, certainly millennia, these can drift all over the place. However, we do have a good idea of word roots. Still, the metaphors and references of the time can only be guessed at. Today, however, for a Catholic, Mary has a strong identification as a religious figure related to the story of the birth of Jesus. TTBOMK, unless the family is agnostic or atheistic, the particular choice of the name Mary, relates with adoration to it's Christian iconaography and not to the names origin.
The timing, BTW, of Christmas day by the Gregorian Solar calendar is by fiat and has no particular relationship to anything known about the birth. Certainly, there was no snow, yule logs, greenery, or reindeer! In fact, for the first 3 centuries of Christianity, this was not a celebrated feast. It seems that celebrating birthdays was a pagan idea. When it was ventured to be created, dates in March, April, May and November were considered for all sorts of reasons. Although December 25th was eventually chosen about the year 273 to apparently steal the thunder from all the various pagan celebrations peaking at the time of year.
As a theologian asserted in the year 320, "We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it."
Source
That seems a perfectly good enough reason for the date!
Wishing everyone a healthy, happy and upliftng holiday!
