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Fred's Words have touched on a variety of topics, so we devided the "words" into manageable categories. Click a text link below to peruse:
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(NOTE: Fred did this one in January of 1997 -- the names covered are the surnames of the early members of the Word Club at IFT in Phoenix. Tom)
Thought I would do your names---I don’t know the nee names for those that are married, so I will do them just as listed in E-Mail.
McAndrews---comes from German Andreas—means strength—Andr—means male. "Mc" of course is from the "Clan of Andrew". St. Andrews is a very famous golf course in Scotland, but the name is found both in Ireland and Scotland—in Scotland it would be "Mac". The Mac prefix originally came from the Ural Mountains over in Russia.
There are still "Mac" sounding prefixes for names in small Russian villages in the Urals—goes back many centuries—maybe 2900 years ago when some folks migrated out of what is now Russia and headed west. They were called Veekings (not to be confused with Vikings—not the same folks).
Funny thing—the Viking Tribe of Rus came down the Volga River from the north and colonized Russia along the river banks—hence the name "Rusland"—a Scandinavian word. That is why you see a few blue eyed, red or blond haired Russians. [Around 500 AD ++ this happened].
Steinberger---comes from German. Stein is stone and berg is a mountain. The "er" means he is "from"---so the ancestor of Amy’s husband lived near the area of, or came from the slopes of a stony mountain.
Miller---Latin—molinum or molere—German Mueller---Spanish Molina---the ancestor was named after the occupation--he ran a gristmill. (The U in Muller is really an umlaut).
Mason—from French macon---the "C" has a little tail on it at the bottom and I forget what you call that---pronounced as a soft "S". Means to lay bricks or do cement work etc. Romans invented cement in late BC times. Some of the Roman aqueducts are still in use.
Abbott—Roman abbatia—"the abbey" was ruled by an abbott—in Greek it is Abbas "father"--the "head" of an Abbey. An Abbey is a convent for Nuns or could even be for males a few centuries back, but not often. (Sometimes spelled abby in very old literature). Fatti or Fathee is also old Greek and/or Sanskrit for Father.
MacDonald—Scot—"not to harm". "Don" has a subtle meaning of "to lead". The "ald" has to do with "older" from the Saxon-Jutes. So perhaps the old leader will see that there is no harm to his clan. Two or three centuries ago the head of the Clan was referred to as "The Donald". He would also be a member of Parliament—a Laird. [Related to the Spanish "Don" meaning knighthood].
The Mc was carried over from Ireland when some of the Scotti tribe immigrated to Scotland in late BC times. It became "Mac". They were fierce and the Romans built Hadrian’s Wall to protect themselves from the Scotti and Picts to the north. Drove the Romans nuts for over 200 years. Mc and Mac can also mean the "son of". The "O" in Irish means "from" ---O’Hara—from the clan of Hara’s. Roger’s name starts with an "O", but his ancestor’s came from Bosnia---not too far from the Urals.
Barber—Latin tonsor---Latin Barbaar—a beard. Barberos in Spanish. --barba--
In the old days in England and Scotland, barbers would also do minor operations and leeching. The Barber Shoppe symbol of red and white wrapped around the pole was a stylized depiction of "bloody rags" drying in the Sun. They had no concept of how germs were spread and just sort of rinsed out the bandages and hung them up.
My family came from Edinburgh in about 1680? Three branches of my family fought in the Revolutionary War. Actually the fourth one did too—he was a Private in the British Army (Owen—my mother’s nee name). He and his brother had been drafted into the army in England--the brother was sent to Australia--so we have "shirttail" relatives down-under.
I saved Virgina’s for last—I am not sure she wants to know.
Geile means "lewd" in German. Now it has got to have an older meaning.
The German language had many dialectical shifts before Father Martin Luther codified the language. He and about forty helpers translated the Vulgate Bible into German using the most common German words they could find. Fifty-six German dialects were researched before coming up with the current German Bible. It took them sixteen years to complete.
Contrary to common belief, Martin Luther just wanted the Church to act like they were supposed to act according to the Bible. (He was talking about the Pope and the leaders). They would not listen so he left the Church. They "kicked" him out after the fact.
Catholic means Universal in Latin. Pope is the English rendition of "Il Papa" meaning "The Father" in Italian.