Lexpert magazine features articles and columns on developments in legal practice management, deals and lawsuits of interest in Canada, the law and business issues of interest to legal professionals and businesses that purchase legal services.
Issue link: https://digital.carswellmedia.com/i/964314
LEXPERT MAGAZINE | MAY 2018 67 WORDS | DETOURS | Howard Richler's latest book is Wordplay: Arranged and Deranged Wit. Names that colourfully describe their bearers enjoyed a big comeback with the Harry Potter series of novels WHAT DO THE DICKENSIAN charac- ter Ebenezer Scrooge, the Shakespearean character Mistress Quickly, and Richard Sheridan's character Mrs. Malaprop all have in common? e answer is, they are all aptronyms. e Oxford Companion to the English Lan- guage defines an aptronym as a "name that matches its owner's occupation or charac- ter, oen in a humorous or ironic way, such as William Rumhole, a London taverner." e word was coined in 1938 by American newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams. He rearranged the first two letters of the word "patronym" (a name derived from the given name of a father or male ancestor), and arrived at the word "aptronym," mean- ing an "apt" name. English literature has brought us some memorable aptronyms. Shakespeare pro- vides several, including Shallow, Quickly, Bottom, Falstaff and Toby Belch; Henry Fielding, in Tom Jones, presents us with righteous Squire Allworthy and in Joseph Andrews with Lady Booby; Paul Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress gave us the pair of Mr. Talkative and Mr. Worldly Wiseman. Nineteenth-century writers in par- ticular seemed to have enjoyed creating aptronymic characters. omas Hardy, in Return of the Native, named a character Damon Wildeve; R. S. Surtees named a character Leather in Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour; and Anthony Trollope created the (pre-Kevorkian) Dr. Fillgrave character for his novel Doctor orne. What's in a literary surname? Crete in which to imprison the Minotaur. Later, Daedalus builds wings for human flight, leading to the death of his son Ica- rus. In Ulysses, Dedalus, too, seems to want to fly away from the constraints that pol- itics and religion places on an artist. Literary aptronyms returned with a vengeance in J. K. Rowling's hugely popu- lar Harry Potter series. Harry's nemesis is the evil Draco Malfoy: Draco is Latin for "dragon," and was also the name of the seventh-century B.C. Athenian lawmaker who lent his name to the word "draconian." Mal foi is French for "bad faith." Draco Malfoy belongs to the Hogwarts School of Witchcra and Wizardry's Slytherin House, named for its founderr, Salazar Slytherin, who speaks the language of ser- pents; "Slytherin" includes the words "sly" and (phonetically) "slithering." Harry's su- preme foe is Lord Voldemort, whose name does double duty: vol de mort in French means "flight of death" or "flight from death," and a vole is a small rodent. Indeed, most of Harry's teachers have evocative names. Quirinus Quirrell is both quarrelsome and squirrelly, while Severus Snape is severe, and a cross between a snipe and a snake. And their areas of expertise match their names: Vindictus Viridian teaches a class on curses, while Pomona Sprout's field is herbology. Remus Lupin has taught the course "Defense Against the Dark Arts," and those familiar with classic- al mythology may not be surprised to learn this character is a werewolf. In Roman myth, Remus (who co-founded the city of Rome) was suckled by a wolf in infancy, while lupus is the Latin word for "wolf." anks to J. K. Rowling's magical aptro- nymic characters, literary aptronyms may be making a comeback. Charles Dickens in particular was a mas- ter of the literary aptronym. In A Christ- mas Carol, we find Scrooge, described as squeezing, grasping, and as hard and sharp as flint, and Mr. Fezziwig, who sports a large Welsh wig. Oliver Twist gives us the trio of the fussy, official parish beadle, Mr. Bumble; Mr. Grimwig; and the bur- glar, Toby Crackit. In Hard Times we meet the austere Mr. Gradgrind, and Mr. M'Choakumchild, who teaches in Grad- grind's school. A Tale of Two Cities presents the Crunchers, a family of grave-robbers; and in David Copperfield we meet the vil- lainous Murdstone, whose name suggests "murder," and something hard and cold. In the post-Dickensian era, the practice of naming literary characters based on their personalities was not hugely popular. ere were exceptions, such as Oscar Wilde's Jack Worthing in e Importance of Being Earn- est, and Shaw's Candida, his comedy's titu- lar heroine. Later, J. R. R. Tolkien, in Lord of the Rings, named Bilbo Baggins' mother Belladonna and presented the reader with the riddle of whether the name referenced her beauty or her poisonous nature. James Joyce used aptronyms sublimely. His selection of the name Leopold Bloom for his protagonist in Ulysses is a study in contrasts. e Germanic "Leopold" means "bold people," while a "bloom" is a fragile flower. en we have Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man who also appears in Ulys- ses. e name Stephen is derived from the Greek word meaning "wreath" or "crown," and Stephen is the crown of his family, with the burden of making a name for himself in Dublin society (Saint Stephen is venerated as the first Christian martyr). His surname, Dedalus, derives from Daedalus in Greek mythology, a cray architect who built an elaborate labyrinth for King Minos of PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK