Scituate: an Irish mossing town in New England got its name by spell-changing the Native American word of a local brook

Satuit Brook widening along its flow into Scituate Harbor

The seacoast town of Scituate in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, is known for its once booming mossing industry [1]. Scituate started as a permanent settlement around 1628 when English emigrants arrived [2]—long before Irish immigrants launched the mossing business in the middle of the nineteenth century. The early settlers from Plymouth and the County of Kent in England named their new homesite after a local brook. On your Scituate Harborwalk you will find a historic marker (see picture) at the bridge over Satuit Brook summarizing the naming history. A nearby panel describes in more detail how Satuit became Scituate:

The name Scituate is derived from an Indian word which early settlers understood as Satuit, which means Cold Brook, and referred to the small stream flowing into the harbor: this they spelled in various ways as Sityate, Cituate, Seteat, etc. It was not until about 1640 that the name came to be universally spelled in its present form.

References and more to explore

[1] Emily Toomey: The Most Irish Town in America Was Built on Seaweed. Smithsonian Magazine, July 22, 2019. URL: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/most-irish-town-america-built-seaweed-180972701/.

[2] An Introduction to Scituate History, taken from text by Wilmot M Brown (1961). URL: https://www.scituatema.gov/about/pages/a-historical-overview.

Why we have Guppies and not Peters

Wilhelm Karl Hartwig Peters (1815-1883) was a German naturalist and explorer, who, in 1859, described fish he discovered in Venezuela, which are now known as guppies [1,2]. Seven years later, the lawyer and naturalist Robert John Lechmere Guppy (1836-1916) spotted these colorful, tiny fish in Trinidad. The German-born Brirtish ichthyologist, herpetologist and taxonomist Albert Karl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther (1830-1914), who received specimens sent by Guppy from Trinidad, named the to him new fish species Girardinus guppii to honor Mr. Guppy—not knowing that the scientific name Poecilia reticulata was already given to the species Peters had found in Venezuela [3]. The name Guppy became very common in many languages around the world.

Helen Scales summarizes the guppy naming history as follows [4]:

They were named after an Englishman, Robert Guppy. He came across the species 150 years ago, although he wasn't in fact the first person to find them. A few years earlier they'd been spotted by German explorer Wilhelm Peters. But it was Mr Guppy who brought these little fish to the attention of the English-speaking world, which is why we now have Guppies and not Peters.

In a footnote, Helen Scales explains [4]:

The Guppy's scientific name has shifted over the years, with various synonyms rejected in favour of Poecilia reticuata.

Guppies are also referred to by using other common names including millionfish and rainbow fish.

Note: The English plural form for the word “guppy” is “guppies,” as used above. In German, the plural form “Guppys” is used (Singular: “der Guppy”, Plural: “die Guppys”).

 

Keywords: zoology, ichthyology, history.

References and more to explore

[1] J. Wei. Guppy History. December 28, 2016. Website: http://www.fancyguppy.net/guppy-history/.

[2]  Aqualog: Plauderei über Guppys. January 27, 2020. Website: https://www.aqualog.de/blog/plauderei-ueber-guppys/.

[3] Guppy, Robert John Lechmere. Biography of R. Guppy. Website: https://www.conchology.be/?t=9001&id=19981.

[4] Helen Scales. Eye of the Shoal. Bloomsbury Sigma, 50 Bedford Square, London, UK, 2020; page 108.

Original name of the BU Bridge: Cottage Farm Bridge

Boston University Bridge seen from BU Sailing Pavilion (Early March, 2020)

BU Bridge is short for Boston University Bridge. The Boston University Bridge connects Boston University on the south side of the Charles River with Cambridgeport on the north side.

Built in 1928, the bridge's original name was Cottage Farm Bridge, referring to a nearby neighborhood in Brookline. The steel through arch bridge was designed by Desmond & Lord; then replacing a drawbridge from the 1850s, which was called—not surprisingly—Brookline Bridge [1-4].

As shown in the picture below, the BU bridge is not only crossing the Charles River, but also the now rusty Grand Junction Railroad Bridge.

The rusty Grand Junction Railroad Bridge with the BU Bridge above, the Charles River Esplanade walk & bike trail underneath and the Boston skyline in the background (Early March, 2020)

Keywords: geography, bridge naming, bridge hunting, Boston, Massachusetts.

References and more to explore

[1] Boston University Alumni Association: The BU Bridge. Link: https://www.bu.edu/backtoschool/location/the-bu-bridge.
[2] BridgeHunter: Boston University Bridge. Link: https://bridgehunter.com/ma/suffolk/boston-university.
[3] MIT Museum: Cottage Farm Bridge. Links: https://webmuseum.mit.edu/detail.php?module=objects&type=related&kv=170086 and https://webmuseum.mit.edu/detail.php?module=sites&type=related&kv=3059.
[4] Historic New England: Cottage Farm Bridge. Link: https://www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/capobject/?refd=GC002.01.MA.3700.001.

A cross-linguistic jellyfish vocabulary

Any language used by coastal and seafaring people can be expected to have one or more words for jellyfish, since jellies are found in oceanic waters around the globe—from surface waters to the deep. Jellyfish terms in other languages often reflect aspects of appearance, behavior or occurrence. Jellyfish enthusiast Juli Berwald has researched jellyfish and human-jelly-relationships in many countries. In her inspiring book with the title “Spineless” [1], I found my favorite description of cross-linguistic jellyfish names. Here is a passage from the chapter “Bloom” (chapter 22): 

In Spain, Italy, and France, a jellyfish is named for the misunderstood mythological Medusa. Similarly, Israel calls jellies meduzot. In Latin America, besides medusas, jellies are called malaguas or agua mala, meaning “bad water.” Sometimes they are called lagrimas de mar, which pulls at the heart with its meaning: “tears of the sea.” More encouragingly, in Portuguese, jellyfish are known as água-viva, or “living water.” I give the award for the most creative of the Romance-language names to aguacuajada, which means “curdled water” in Spanish. 
                                                                       Juli Berwald, 2017

Juli Berwald continues with other interesting terms or phrases used for jellies in various languages. Since she does not include Dutch and German nouns for jellyfish, I like to add these two related words here: kwal and Qualle, respectively. According to my German handbook of word origins [2], the lower German (Niederdeutsch) word Qualle is in use since at least the 16th century. The word is assumed to be related to the German verb “quellen” (to swell) and, thus, “eine Qualle” (a jellyfish) is “something swollen.”


Based on the words in Berwald's book [1] and the IDL jellyfish page [3], I am here putting together a short cross-linguistic jellyfish vocabulary, covering selected languages:

• Arabic: quanadil albahr
• Chinese: haizhe
• Danish: vandmand, meaning  “water man”
• Dutch: kwal  
• English: jellyfish, with jelly as short form; also sea jelly
• Farsi: arood darya-i, meaning  “sea bride”
• French: medusa
• German: Qualle
• Greek: médousa (μέδouσα)
• Hebrew: meduzot
• Icelandic: marglytta 
• Indonesian: ubur-ubur
• Italian: medusa
• Malayalam (tip of India): kadalchori
• Norwegian: manet
• Japanese: kurage 
• Spanish: medusa, aguacuajada
• Swedish: manet
• Turkish: deniz anası
• Vietnamese: sua
• Welsh (slang): psygod wibbly wobbly, meaning  “wiggle wiggle fish”

References and more to explore

[1] Juli Berwald: Spineless. Riverhead Books, New York, 2017.
[2] Duden Herkunftswörterbuch - Etymologie der deutschen Sprache. 3rd Edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim, 2001.
[3] IDL: How to Say Jellyfish in Different Languages. Link: https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/jellyfish. 

What are Lessepsian migrants?

Lessepsian migrants are invasive marine species that are “traveling” via the Suez Canal by water flow or maritime transport from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. When they succeed in colonizing their new environment, they impact marine ecosystems of the Mediterranean. In fact, they then have crossed a once natural land barrier between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, the ecological influence of Lessepsian migrants will reach beyond the Mediterranean. The blue-spotted cornet fish may become the first Red Sea species to reach Gibraltar and even move farther [1].

The anthropogenically caused Lessepsian migration is named after the French diplomat and administrator Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805 - 1905), who was inspired by Napoleon's abandoned plans for a canal through Egypt that would shortcut the long sea journey around the southern tip of Africa [2].

The blue-spotted cornet fish is just one example of a Lessepsian migrant. Tiger prawns, mackarel and poisonous pufferfish are further examples—affecting not only ecosystems but humans, beneficially and otherwise. In her book with the title “Spineless,“ Juli Berwald explores facts and secrets of jellyfish [1]. The nomadic jellyfish is thought to be a Lessepsian migrant. Massive blooms of nomadic jellyfish have been witnessed off the Mediterranean coast. Spineless or not, species continue invading the eastern Mediterranean. Juli Berwald describes Lessepsian migration as follows:

The number of new invasive species in the Mediterranean has doubled in the last two decades. Over four hundred species have traveled the Suez from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and established populations there. Together they have earned their own name, Lessepsian migrants, which recalls the Frenchman who envisioned and developed the Suez Canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps. Because of the flow pattern in the canal, only a few species have made the reverse passage from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.                                                                 Juli Berwald, 2017

Keywords: marine biology, non-native species, invasion, terminology.

References and more to explore

[1] Juli Berwald: Spineless. Riverhead Books, New York, 2017.
[2] BBC History: Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805 - 1894). Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/de_lesseps_ferdinand.shtml.