4 ms·

Noa-names are fascinating, the flipside to true names being taboo, because they would summon the thing. Indo-european had a word for bear, but it's completely

Noa-names are fascinating, the flipside to true names being taboo, because they would summon the thing. Indo-european had a word for bear, but it's completely eradicated in germanic languages, and replaced with the noa-name: Bear. The brown one. The original rtko/arktos/ursus never made it. Wolf works the same way in Swedish, the common word is "varg", which is a noa-name meaning cattle-killer. Ulv, derived from ulfr/wulf/vlk exists and means the same thing, but it's archaic.

portofcall 9y ago
I’ve never heard of a noa-name, and my attempts to Google frustratingly return only meanings of the name Noa. Do you have any good starting points for me to learn about this? It’s so very up my alley, and I’d love to learn more.
- scrumper 9y ago
  'Noa' is a Polynesian term apparently; basically it's the opposite of 'taboo' (also Polynesian.) It's not on the face of it a very confidence-inspiring source, but r/askhistorians is as good as Reddit gets, and the poster here wrote an actual book on the subject. Give it a read: https://thingsonreddit.com/things/13812/comments/ https://thingsonreddit.com/things/13812/comments/
  - portofcall 9y ago
    I love /r/askhistorians, they have fantastic contributions and moderation. Thanks very much for this.
- henrikschroder 9y ago
  Yeah, I tried a quick googling for it as well, and got buried in resources about the name Noah instead. I thought it would be more wide-spread, but there's wikipedia pages for it in Swedish, Norwegian and Iceland at least: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noaord https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noaord
  - portofcall 9y ago
    Fortunately Google translate does a good job with that, thanks very much. I really love learning about new quirks of language. I’ve read it now, and that’s so cool. It also cam with some good references I’m going to get into now. Thanks again. :)
Broken_Hippo 9y ago
"Ulv, derived from ulfr/wulf/vlk exists and means the same thing, but it's archaic." Though it might be archaic in Swedish, but it is also the Norwegian word for wolf. I'd guess that it is really easy to adapt the archaic Swedish word if the person has lived or spent a lot of time in Norway.
- henrikschroder 9y ago
  Yes, most Swedes will understand "ulv" as well, but it's associated with stories for children from long ago, if that makes sense. It exists in expressions and derived words, so "werewolf" is "varulv", and "a wolf in sheep's clothing" is "en ulv i fårakläder", for example. So the word is still there, it's not completely taboo like the original word for bear.
w0land 9y ago
Interesting. Albanian here, your examples in our language are: Bear: Ari Wolf: Ujk

portofcall 9y ago

I’ve never heard of a noa-name, and my attempts to Google frustratingly return only meanings of the name Noa. Do you have any good starting points for me to learn about this? It’s so very up my alley, and I’d love to learn more.

scrumper 9y ago
'Noa' is a Polynesian term apparently; basically it's the opposite of 'taboo' (also Polynesian.) It's not on the face of it a very confidence-inspiring source, but r/askhistorians is as good as Reddit gets, and the poster here wrote an actual book on the subject. Give it a read: https://thingsonreddit.com/things/13812/comments/ https://thingsonreddit.com/things/13812/comments/
- portofcall 9y ago
  I love /r/askhistorians, they have fantastic contributions and moderation. Thanks very much for this.
henrikschroder 9y ago
Yeah, I tried a quick googling for it as well, and got buried in resources about the name Noah instead. I thought it would be more wide-spread, but there's wikipedia pages for it in Swedish, Norwegian and Iceland at least: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noaord https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noaord
- portofcall 9y ago
  Fortunately Google translate does a good job with that, thanks very much. I really love learning about new quirks of language. I’ve read it now, and that’s so cool. It also cam with some good references I’m going to get into now. Thanks again. :)

Broken_Hippo 9y ago

"Ulv, derived from ulfr/wulf/vlk exists and means the same thing, but it's archaic." Though it might be archaic in Swedish, but it is also the Norwegian word for wolf. I'd guess that it is really easy to adapt the archaic Swedish word if the person has lived or spent a lot of time in Norway.

henrikschroder 9y ago
Yes, most Swedes will understand "ulv" as well, but it's associated with stories for children from long ago, if that makes sense. It exists in expressions and derived words, so "werewolf" is "varulv", and "a wolf in sheep's clothing" is "en ulv i fårakläder", for example. So the word is still there, it's not completely taboo like the original word for bear.

w0land 9y ago

Interesting. Albanian here, your examples in our language are: Bear: Ari Wolf: Ujk