Language Log yesterday carried a very informative piece by Victor Mair about the origins of the name Abbottabad.
We can easily dispose of the Abbott bit, he said, as the name of the English colonial official who founded the town in 1853. There then follows a learned explanation of the origins of the abad part of the name.
Yes, but hold on, can we dispose so easily of Major Abbott who must, after all, have got his name from an ancestor who was an English abbot, the male head of a Christian abbey?
I am writing this at home on Friday night, with no internet access, just my trusty bedside Chambers Dictionary (1993 edition) for enlightenment.
From which I learn that abbot comes, via Latin, from the Aramaic word abba, or father (applied to God), & that Aramaic relates to the language of Aramaea – roughly, modern Syria.
And so last week’s event in Abbottabad adds just another twist to the complex intertwining of politics & religion, as revealed in language, which has connected us all for millennia
