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My username
Since someone on my friends list mentioned JUST figuring out what relationship my username has to my default user icon, I thought I'd tell a story about my username, and the one person ever who knew what it meant. (Okay, I assume that, for instance, classics_cat could figure it out instantly, but I've never met her in person, so I can still tell this story that way.)
I suppose it was about a decade ago or so. I was probably about eighteen, my little sister was probably about thirteen or so. We had gone out to see a play with my family, and with some friends of the family. It was an ASL version of "Treasure Island", voice-interpreted for the signing impaired, which meant that all the actors were Deaf, and the entire thing was presented in ASL, but that there was an interpreter at the side of the stage that was voice interpreting for the signing impaired..
Anyway, one of the people we were with was a three-year-old named Jacob. After the play, we were in an ice cream shop, and he mentioned to me that his name, Jacob, was from the Hebrew, Yaakov, which meant "sneaky". Which is right. Then he asked me what MY name meant.
I told him that my name, Ian, was a form of John, which was a form of some other stuff, and it had rather mutated from some other names, but I did have a DIFFERENT name which actually DID mean something directly. He said, "Oh," and asked me what my other name was.
I said, "Xiphias."
His face lit up. "Xiphias!" he cried. "Xiphias Gladius! That means 'swordfish'! It starts with 'X'!"
Each clause was pronounced with rising excitement, as if he'd started with the least important facts, and went on to the most. Such that the fact that "xiphias" was followed by "gladius" was interesting, sure, but the absolute COOLEST thing about my name was that it started with "X". And, frankly, I don't disagree with his assesment.
My sister was duly impressed. "Wow!" she said, "Are you omniscient?"
"What's that mean?"
"Guess not," said my sister.
He was confused. "No, what does it mean?"
"It means you know everything," I told him.
"Oh," he said, and paused, considering. "I'm half-niscient."
I suppose it was about a decade ago or so. I was probably about eighteen, my little sister was probably about thirteen or so. We had gone out to see a play with my family, and with some friends of the family. It was an ASL version of "Treasure Island", voice-interpreted for the signing impaired, which meant that all the actors were Deaf, and the entire thing was presented in ASL, but that there was an interpreter at the side of the stage that was voice interpreting for the signing impaired..
Anyway, one of the people we were with was a three-year-old named Jacob. After the play, we were in an ice cream shop, and he mentioned to me that his name, Jacob, was from the Hebrew, Yaakov, which meant "sneaky". Which is right. Then he asked me what MY name meant.
I told him that my name, Ian, was a form of John, which was a form of some other stuff, and it had rather mutated from some other names, but I did have a DIFFERENT name which actually DID mean something directly. He said, "Oh," and asked me what my other name was.
I said, "Xiphias."
His face lit up. "Xiphias!" he cried. "Xiphias Gladius! That means 'swordfish'! It starts with 'X'!"
Each clause was pronounced with rising excitement, as if he'd started with the least important facts, and went on to the most. Such that the fact that "xiphias" was followed by "gladius" was interesting, sure, but the absolute COOLEST thing about my name was that it started with "X". And, frankly, I don't disagree with his assesment.
My sister was duly impressed. "Wow!" she said, "Are you omniscient?"
"What's that mean?"
"Guess not," said my sister.
He was confused. "No, what does it mean?"
"It means you know everything," I told him.
"Oh," he said, and paused, considering. "I'm half-niscient."
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That's adorable. :)
You rock, by the way. Even when you're being annoyingly pragmatic about things that I'm panicking about. Suddenly I understand why I annoy some of my friends. :)
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So thank you. :)
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I knew that your username means swordfish. (In fact, despite the fact that I knew you before LJ, I think of you as "Mr. Swordfish" sometimes.) However, I still was surprised when I was looking at a list of Kosher and non-kosher fish and saw "Xiphius Gladius" next to Swordfish. Hmm...
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Another thought: I've only been Goljerp for a bit less than 12 years.
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Nifty story, too. Neat kid. Do you still keep in touch with him?
tee hee hee
I remember when I was assigned to review your lj a while back, i actually took off some points because I thought that your default icon had nothing to do with your username....until some randon lj user pointed it out to me what xiphias meant. goddess, did I feel dumb!!!
Re: tee hee hee
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