What are the moons named?

Maxgoof · Post by **Maxgoof** » Wed May 17, 2006 7:17 am

Okay, siriusly....uh...I mean seriously...

We don't even know where the name moon came from.

The origin of the names of the moons is likely lost in obscurity.

Elder sister and younger sister, for instance, with the sun being referred to as the brother. After centuries, it could become:

broth, elsis, yungsis

Tom Mazanec · Post by **Tom Mazanec** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:00 am

I once used that "sirius" pun on my astronomy professor. He asked if I wanted a failing grade, pointing out that only he can make bad puns.

Acolyte · Post by **Acolyte** » Wed May 17, 2006 12:08 pm

maxgoof wrote:We don't even know where the name moon came from.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=moon

Madmoonie · Post by **Madmoonie** » Wed May 17, 2006 12:48 pm

Acolyte wrote:
maxgoof wrote:We don't even know where the name moon came from.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=moon

Just cause I know you are all curious....that IS my name (well, my last one.)

Maxgoof · Post by **Maxgoof** » Wed May 17, 2006 2:40 pm

Acolyte wrote:
maxgoof wrote:We don't even know where the name moon came from.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=moon

Which really tells us nothing. All the words go back to meaning moon or month or the measurement of a month.

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Wed May 17, 2006 3:04 pm

Its always very dificult to track the exact roots of a word or meening, as you can only look back as far as records were kept. Without writen evidence, they very well may have called the moon "The grate chease crumpit" in times before schollars and litracy were common amoungst the 'civilised' world.
However, if the name 'moon' is surquential to the word for 'month', then most likely it was simply adoped by a difrent culture through miss traslation, or ease of speach (probably picked up by the Brits or Gauls in Roman times) much like many of the words we have now are dirived from some other meaning in lattin or similour language. The actual name for the moon would differ from civilisation to civilisation, and hence it would be imposible to determin the 'real' name at all.

Maxgoof · Post by **Maxgoof** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:22 pm

Hence my suggestion of Elsis and Yungsis.

Acolyte · Post by **Acolyte** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:44 pm

maxgoof wrote:
Acolyte wrote:http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=moon
Which really tells us nothing. All the words go back to meaning moon or month or the measurement of a month.

By that standard, we don't know where the names for anything "came from". I think tracing it back to PIE is reasonably thorough.

Maxgoof · Post by **Maxgoof** » Thu May 18, 2006 6:11 am

The point is that the two words of moon and month seem to have grown together, where the moon is what determines the month, and the month is how long it takes the moon to do its cycle.

In other words, "moon" means "moon" and "month" means "month".

The point of discussion was to try and figure out what the names of the TWO moons of Quentyn's world are named.

That's more complicated. They may be interchanging moons, where they share two similar orbits, and switch orbits when they get close, much like the shepherd moons of Saturn.

Such a pattern would be noticed, of course, but would not produce the months that we know.

Maxgoof · Post by **Maxgoof** » Thu May 18, 2006 6:15 am

Oh, and PIE refers to an early form of English, not to a fruit filled pastry.

Shyal_malkes · Post by **Shyal_malkes** » Thu May 18, 2006 6:46 am

Pi and radius?

Tom Mazanec · Post by **Tom Mazanec** » Thu May 18, 2006 8:53 am

Actually, it refers to a language that was an early form of such languages as Russian, English, Spanish, Hindi, and many others. There are non-PIE languages, however (Swahili, Chinese, Japanese, Iroquois, etc.). Anyone know if they have the moon/month parallel?

Acolyte · Post by **Acolyte** » Thu May 18, 2006 3:41 pm

maxgoof wrote:Oh, and PIE refers to an early form of English, not to a fruit filled pastry.

No, it's "Proto-Indo-Eurpoean", the theoretical ancestor to a huge family of languages from Sanskrit to Icelandic, as Tom pointed out.

To answer Tom's question, the words for "month" and "moon" are cognate or identical in many languages, IE and otherwise. It's not an unusual development at all. To take a couple of your examples of non-IE languages: In Chinese they're both "yuè". In Japanese "moon" and "month" are both "tsuki". In Swahili they're both "mwezi". (Which sounds like a loanword actually. Swahili has lots of them.)

I suppose the question is on the floor because Ralph hasn't yet said. The names may well depend on how the moons work into the Rac Conan calendar. It would be almost inconceivable for two so prominent astronomical bodies to not affect the calendar somehow. They might be named for the cycles they govern -- or vice versa, just like in RL. Perhaps one of them tracks much more closely to the solar year than the other; it might be given pre-eminence even if it's apparently the smaller.

The JAM · Post by **The JAM** » Thu May 18, 2006 7:23 pm

But can a terrestial planet have two moons in a stable orbit?

Acolyte · Post by **Acolyte** » Thu May 18, 2006 7:51 pm

Two is possible, if they're smaller. Mars has two. The reason more than one natural satellite is excluded in Earth's case is that the one we have is so large. But note that we currently have lots and lots of relatively very small artificial satellites in stable orbits.

Wanderwolf · Post by **Wanderwolf** » Thu May 18, 2006 9:23 pm

Hm, names for moons...

Thought and Memory

Youth and Age

Hermes and Tortoise (okay, that was silly)

Want and Need

Love and Hate

Joy and Sorrow

Now and Then

Light and Dark

And that's before we define names based on color, relative size, occultation, orbital mechanics...

Yours truly,

The overachieving,

Wanderer

RHJunior · Post by **RHJunior** » Fri May 19, 2006 2:15 am

One of the names for the two moons is "Abhall" and "Caashey".... or "the apple" and "the cheese." (the small one is the apple.) Based on a children's poem about how the the man in the moon sails the night sky in either a boat made of cheese and apple, or with an apple and a wheel of cheese for provisions (depending on the version.) And that he would sail every night, eating a little more of the apple and the cheese, till he finally ran out-- and then his wife in the sun would pick him a new apple and make him a new wheel of cheese, so he could go sailing again.

Tbolt · Post by **Tbolt** » Fri May 19, 2006 2:32 am

"Apple and Cheese"

Now that is a slick little bit of children's mythology! I like it!

The Lurking Dragon · Post by **The Lurking Dragon** » Fri May 19, 2006 6:31 am

Hugin and Munin have been said but they sound so much cooler than boring Thought and Memory. =p
Also, Winken Blinken and Nod? (Star, moons)
Yesterday and Tomorrow (opening up Abbot and Costello type routines.)

Squeaky Bunny · Post by **Squeaky Bunny** » Fri May 19, 2006 7:03 am

If you add a third one they could be Uha, Buha, and Huha, but that would be too Hoki (sp)