Evening star., 1938-03-17
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

It is now possible to pass on to a sadly
misinformed world what the %" means
in "O'Hara," what the INC" means In
Mccarthy" and what the "Fitz' means
in Fitzgerald"
DR.. John P. Harrington, expert in
comparative linguistics of the Bureau
of American Ethnology, takes a holiday
from Kiowa and Siwash now and then
to delve into the roots of our own mother
tongues, and he favored us the other
day with a learned discourse on Irish
names.
90" means grandfather"
In both old Irish and old Latin it
was "awus." In classical Latin it was
the same, spelled "avus" In English
is the word "atavism," meaning throw
back" 1t is literally "at-avus-ism," or
"grandfatherism."
Later Irish dropped the terminal "os|
leaving "aw." Then it was an easily ac-
quired habit Of pronunciation that re-
duced this to "O." In the same way
the word for water" in old French was
"ow," and has now become "eau" or Co."
So "OHara" means unquestionably
"Hara was his grandfather" reverse
way of saying "he is Hara's grandson" y,
Mac" and NC" mean "boy" or "son" +"
"McClusky" means "Clucky's boy" pos
sibly more closely than "Clusky's son." It
can be traced through the old Gothic
where hoy" was "maqus," later "mawus.' ~
The term did not change in Irish. In
WEIGH the initial M was dropped, leaving
"aq" or ZAP" In derived words or Welsh
origin the "a" also is often dropped
Thus come such names of Perry" or
"Pesry," meaning "Erry's" or "Harry's"
or "Henrys boy"
The term apparently was dropped in
Italy and also by the Germans-although
the Latin word for boy" "puer," may be
the same term which has gone through
something like the Welsh process.
The Irish name prefix "Fitz" has
an involved history. Its Latin form is
meaning sucking" In Gothic it ap-
pears as "thilious," meaning sucking"
and the same word appears in English,
"dairy"-or place of sucklings" The
Irish and Latin #" changes to 9TH" and
"a" in the various dialects.
And here's the derivation of another
good Irish word:
S1AS O2O AAAo1l 1OI WAVcI WdS cdIl.
The Goths who followed the Irish
out Of Scythia had already changed
1t to "ahwa," meaning river"
Tne aboriginal barbarians of Italy
couldn't pronounce "eah" and it became
aqua"
The old Irish for strong" was "huisk."
BY 9 series Of linguistic shifts it became
"fortis" In Latin.
In the western islands the old Irish
survived and sometime about the end
OF the 18th century use was found for
combination Of the two words-"huisk-
eah"
That's the derivation Of whisky"
There are few clues left, Mr.. Harring-
ton points out, as to the actual mean
1ngs Of Irish family and personal names.
A few can be traced with some GER
tainty. such as Riggs and, secondarily,
Briggs. They come from ''rig," the old
Irish for king" In Latin it became
rex. In Gothic It was ''riks." All are
. long way from the sanscript '.raja, !"
although from . common root. It was
"rtx" In Gallo. Caesars soldiers, BY the
way, probably had little trouble under
standing the "savages," whom they were
nghting, enough to carry on some sort
OF conversation with the captives.
Such names as Kelly and Murphy 70
back beyond history and there Is no clue
to their meanings.
Moore" oe More" n very Close 70 its