Hello and Happy New Year,
Despite my best efforts, I missed a few posts here during December. However it’s a new year and here’s a new start on weekly posts.
This week’s word is oliphaunt (pronounced ol-ee-fant).
According to Merriam Webster online dictionary this means elephant or ivory. Apparently it can be a surname too, which is a fun one. I wonder is there an Oliver Oliphaunt about somewhere?
But my interest in the word begins with the mention of oliphaunts in “The Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien where they are the name Sam Gamgee uses for the war-elephant-like mumakil animals from Harad. He longs to see one and when he does is amazed by them in much the same way elephants astound young children. There’s an excellent article on Wikipedia about all the fantastic creatures in LOTR, if you’re feeling curious.
Since then I’ve discovered its use elsewhere. Did you know that there was a prolific Scottish novelist and essayist called Mrs Oliphant (1828-1897) who wrote more than 120 books during her lifetime?
Oliphaunts even turn up in Chaucer, again in human form “His name was Sir Oliphaunt, a perilous man of deede.”
It may just be an ancient form of the word for elephant, but I like its quirkiness. I hope you do too.
I won Nano 2011
For those of you wondering how my NaNoWriMo 2011 went – I made it to the 50,000 words on the second last day of November.
Which makes 2011 my third Nano “win” in a row.
Until next time, happy reading, writing, and fooling with words,
Grace
