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Church director called at 10 this morning to ask if I'd sing a funeral at 2:30. I did indeed do it. And encountered a singer who was a freshman at PVA when I was a senior. I thought he looked familiar. He remembered me from my madrigal costume, of all things (not that I was wearing it).
I like buttermilk a lot.
I was thinking as I sat through the inevitable dogma that accompanies an Episcopalian funeral, about the etymology of "alleluia". Al-El is the big guy in Hebrew, right? Maybe it's Aramaic too. I bet it's "praise the lord". Let me look it up. NOPE. Etymonline says I'm wrong in my original etymologizing, with the same result. It is Hebrew, though:
hallelujah:
also halleluiah, 1530s, from Hebrew hallalu-yah "praise ye Jehovah," from hallalu, plural imperative of hallel "to praise" also "song of praise," from hillel "he praised," of imitative origin, with primary sense being "to trill." Second element is yah, shortened form of Yahweh, name of God. Replaced variant formation alleluia (12c.).
What's Amen, again? So Mote It Be, as the Wiccans say? Let me look it up. NOPE. Just means "yeah," or "that's true." Hilariously, it's a legit word of Old English, from Greek from Hebrew.
amen
O.E., from L.L. amen, from Ecclesiastical Gk. amen, from Hebrew amen "truth," used adverbially as an expression of agreement (e.g. Deut. xxvii.26, I Kings i.36; cf. Mod.Eng. verily, surely, absolutely in the same sense), from Sem. root a-m-n "to be trustworthy, confirm, support." Used in O.E. only at the end of Gospels, otherwise translated as Soðlic! or Swa hit ys, or Sy! As an expression of concurrence after prayers, it is recorded from early 13c.
I once resolved to use "soðlice" as my expression of concurrence, and I have been sadly remiss in doing so lately.
I like buttermilk a lot.
I was thinking as I sat through the inevitable dogma that accompanies an Episcopalian funeral, about the etymology of "alleluia". Al-El is the big guy in Hebrew, right? Maybe it's Aramaic too. I bet it's "praise the lord". Let me look it up. NOPE. Etymonline says I'm wrong in my original etymologizing, with the same result. It is Hebrew, though:
hallelujah:
also halleluiah, 1530s, from Hebrew hallalu-yah "praise ye Jehovah," from hallalu, plural imperative of hallel "to praise" also "song of praise," from hillel "he praised," of imitative origin, with primary sense being "to trill." Second element is yah, shortened form of Yahweh, name of God. Replaced variant formation alleluia (12c.).
What's Amen, again? So Mote It Be, as the Wiccans say? Let me look it up. NOPE. Just means "yeah," or "that's true." Hilariously, it's a legit word of Old English, from Greek from Hebrew.
amen
O.E., from L.L. amen, from Ecclesiastical Gk. amen, from Hebrew amen "truth," used adverbially as an expression of agreement (e.g. Deut. xxvii.26, I Kings i.36; cf. Mod.Eng. verily, surely, absolutely in the same sense), from Sem. root a-m-n "to be trustworthy, confirm, support." Used in O.E. only at the end of Gospels, otherwise translated as Soðlic! or Swa hit ys, or Sy! As an expression of concurrence after prayers, it is recorded from early 13c.
I once resolved to use "soðlice" as my expression of concurrence, and I have been sadly remiss in doing so lately.