One of the
interesting things about language (for a word wrestler, anyway) is
the origin of words. I find these particularly fascinating when it
comes to everyday words that we use without thinking about the
origins of their meaning – or even unaware of it.
For
example, the Finnish name for November, marraskuu. The name
contains the word marras (kuu
means ’moon’ or ’month’).
Not many people these days know the meaning of the word, but
it refers to death. Marras can actually mean various things
from a dead body to a dying person, from a spirit to an omen of
death, and it is of the same root as the English worda mortal and morbid.
The saying
“maa makaa martaana”, the ground/earth lies dead, reveals what
the word marras means in the name of November: it refers to
nature’s death. I find it a very fitting and even a hauntingly
beautiful, although a rather morbid, name.
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