Name meanings: Arabella Figg

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 44092

(I sent this off at the time stated at the end, but for technical reasons, 
it never got through to Yahoo. I don't have the strength or will-power to 
re-edit, or indeed to check whether anyone else has dealt with the matters 
at hand)

At 21:45 16/09/02 -0500, Richelle Votaw wrote:

>Okay, perhaps I am a complete idiot, and perhaps incapable of reading a
>Latin dictionary properly but here is what my dictionary tells me:
>
>bellatrix (which I don't like using, as the a is a long a sound, not short):
>female warrior
>bello: wage war
>bellum: war; combat; fight
>belli: at the wars

So? The first, second and fourth are all derived from the third, and of 
themselves prove nothing, and add nothing. I am, however, extremely 
surprised that you chose to ignore the entry which (in my Latin dictionary, 
at least) immediately follows "bellum" and is not directly related thereto. 
More on that in a moment.

>No apostrophes in sight.

Of course not. I have no idea how much you know about inflected languages 
and I prefer not to presume so I won't expand on the subject much, but I 
feel the need to point out a few things which aren't obvious in English, 
but are of vital importance in inflected languages such as Latin:

All dictionaries give noun headings in the nominative singular 
case.  Dictionaries only include separate entries for female adjectives if 
they aren't immediately derived from their male counterparts; there is 
usually a female sub-entry under the male adjective, which is in the 
nominative singular case. Latin-English dictionaries give verb headings in 
the first person singular form. Most other  modern languages' Latin 
dictionaries give verb entries in the infinitive form.

All of that having been said, let's get back to the case in point.

"bella" as a word in its own right does not have an entry in Latin-English 
dictionaries, because as a noun, the word is not a nominative singular. As 
an adjective, it is feminine.

As for the noun, look up the specifics of the entry for "bellum" in your 
Latin-English dictionary and cross-reference it against any Latin grammar 
you may have (2nd declension neuter). In connection with "ara" (female 
nominative singular) it quite simply doesn't make sense.

As for the adjective, look up "bellus" in your Latin-English dictionary, 
which should have a female sub-entry. I wrote my previous post without 
reference to any dictionary; I don't know what dictionary you have, so I 
can only make an educated guess at which English words it might offer as a 
translation. Extrapolate as necessary. This makes a lot more sense.

I have always found it interesting that the Romans managed to use the same 
word root for "war" and "pretty"/"beautiful". I've never really looked into 
Latin semantics and internal etymologies but this one case has always 
intrigued me.

The formulation "ara bella" therefore requires a lot more finesse and 
attention to the detail of Latin than that which can be gleaned from a 
browse through a Latin-English dictionary by someone who does not know the 
language... When attempting etymologies from this Latin stem, it is 
therefore imperative to consider any other factors. Such as grammatical 
formulation, for starters.

Incidentally, if the "bell" word stem is always to mean "war", how would 
you explain words like
belladonna (plant, aka deadly nightshade);
Bella Pasta (restaurant chain);
"Che Bella!" (a line which appears inter alia in all Italian gangster 
films, exclaimed by some lascivious bloke when a pretty girl enters a room 
- are they meant to be saying "this means war!"?) :-)

>Besides, my emphasis was more on "Figg" that could come from "figulus" which
>means Potter.  A while back I had a wild notion that Arabella Figg was
>related to Harry, not by blood, but as an inlaw, based on the meaning of
>"figulus."  I've changed my mind, as I think it reads better as an entire
>statement, which I will not dare to repeat as I've been yelled at once
>already.

I wasn't yelling at you personally; it was a cry of utter despair and 
frustration because right now, incorrect etymologies appear to be coming at 
me from all directions and I am particularly touchy about the subject (my 
other posts tonight probably make that crystal clear). :-) I really do 
apologise for over-reacting.

As for "figulus", you might notice that I didn't take issue with you. This 
is simply because I agree with you. You were welcome to draw conclusions, 
which I spell out as follows.

For "figulus" to have any meaning in conjunction with "ara bella", it would 
need some grammatical transformation. "Ara bella figulorum" would mean "the 
potters' beautiful refuge" (or "... figuli" for a single potter).

Strictly etymologically, there are too many syllables in the Latin, more of 
which would have come through for me to approve of this etymology 
wholeheartedly. However, a serious hint is there, and anyway, there is no 
real reason why JKR would spell it out so completely and linguistically 
correctly (besides, she's admitted before that her Latin isn't up to scratch).

My sole issue with your proposed etymology (and meaning) is that there is 
no hint whatsoever of "war" in Arabella's name. Insisting otherwise 
regrettably has the effect not of sounding erudite, but of sounding like 
one doesn't know what one is talking about, thus perhaps undermining the 
whole rationale of the etymology, some elements of which have merits, as 
outlined above...

--
GulPlum, AKA Richard, who is off to bed at long last (at 6.30am!)