In this post at HirHurim, R' Gil Student referred to a Rishon with the name "R. Samuel b. Qalonymus he-Hasid of Spires." I had always assumed it was a Yiddish name, since I only know the name because of R' Klonymous Kalaman Shapira of Piaseczna. Does anyone out there know the meaning/language/origin of this name?
-Dixie Yid
13 comments:
Klonymus is an ancient greek name. It is mentioned in Aristophines' (sp?) "The Clouds".
i think it means "good name".
Maybe it means "LIttle mouse." Like "kleineh mouse..." Just kidding.
At any rate, thank you anonymous and Steg. So to put it together, it means "Good name" in Greek? If you happen to check these comments again, how do the two words that make up the name get broken down? What are the two root words that make up the name Klonymous? Yasher koach!
-Dixie Yid
Good name in Greek. See here:
http://www.isragen.org.il/NROS/BIB/SHD/Bonnet/AndresBonet-E.pdf
From the article: "Gerald Murray makes the same point when he says that the translation of Shem-Tov into Greek is Kalonymos, and that this name is etymologically of Greek origin: “kalon” signifying “nice” or “good,” and “onymos” meaning “name.”"
yeah the name definitely sounds greek.. glad someone else explained it first..
Moshe David Tokayer, thank you very much for that source! Great explanation. Thank you!
-Dixie Yid
Interesting. "Kalon" = nice. In Hebrew, "Kalon," has quite a negative connotation - an "os kalon" is a mark of shame. Greek is usually quite related to Hebrew: [aleph - alpha, etc].
Onymos = name. That's sounds right. The "nym" became "name," and is also found in many suffixes in English: synonym, antonym, and the blogger's favorite: ano-nym-ous.
BTW, the Piaseczno was named for the Ma'or V'Shemesh, Rebbe Klonymous Kalman of Krakow, from whom he's descended.
Yitz,
When I was thinking of the origin of the name in Hebrew and trying to break it down, I knew it couldn't be right because of the same thing you noticed about the meaning of the Hebrew word, "kalon." R' Moshe David and Steg on the comments here though.
-Dixie Yid
But does anyone know why the Yiddish form is Kalman?
(Ala: Shlomo=Zalman, Yehoshua=Heshel, Tzvi=Hirsh, Arye=Leib, Yehuda=Loeb, Dov=Ber, etc)
It's not kalon. It's kallos, or callas, that means beautiful, and nymos that means name. Kalo nymos, beautiful name.
From: http://www.jhom.com/topics/firsts/names.html
"Some given names express good luck and fortune, either in Hebrew or in foreign equivalents that have been accepted as traditional Jewish names. In Hebrew we have the feminine name Mazal (luck), and the masculine names Gad (luck) and Shem Tov (good name). From foreign languages we have: Kalonymus, or in its shortened form Kalman, derived from the Greek for "good name"; Simha Bunim, derived from the French for "good name" (bon nom); Fortuna is another example among Sephardi women."
And from, http://www.weddingvendors.com/baby-names/meaning/kalman/ :
Kalman is Hungarian for Strong and manly.
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