medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
As Rob admits, the non-English surnames of his Desiderios and of the one
Didier on his list who is certainly a Didier make these questionable as
specimens of English-language usage.
If one restricts oneself to English-language name-giving, the online
catalogues of major libraries provide evidence for English-language
adoption of the form 'Desiderius'. E.g.,
Dery, Desiderius George, 1867-
Under the Big Dipper / by D. George Dery.
New York : Brentano's, 1916.
and
Szilagyi, Desiderius Emerick, 1910- [from old catalog]
Peripheral arterial occlusive disease; reconstructive surgical treatment
[Chicago, Year Book Medical Publishers, 1965]
and
Docking, Gil, 1919-
Desiderius Orban, his life and art / text by Gil Docking.
North Ryde : Methuen Australia, 1983.
143 p. : col. ill. ; 32 cm.
Now 'Orban' is an Hungarian surname, as is also 'Szilagyi'. it is
conceivable that D. Orban (about whose life I know nothing) may have
been named in a Hungarian linguistic context. But the 'Emerick' part of
Dr. Szilagyi's name suggests rather strongly that he was named in
English and that the form 'Desiderius' is in this instance a loan word
in English, just as it is in English-language writing about Desiderius
Erasmus (whom we accept into English as such, whereas in French he's
styled 'Didier Erasme') and Desiderius the last king of the Lombards and
Desiderius II, the famous abbot of Montecassino, and Desiderius the
companion in martyrdom of Januarius of Benevento and of Naples.
English accepts and employs name-forms whose linguistic origin and
spelling are originally non-English but whose pronunciation has been
adapted to English usage. If English for 'Caesar' [kai'zar] is 'Caesar'
[see'zer; same or almost the same as English 'sees 'er'] and English for
'Cicero' [kee'kero] is 'Cicero' [sis'ero], there is surely no reason not
to say that English for 'Desiderius' [daysiday'rioos] is 'Desiderius'
[dezider'eus, desider'eus].
Best again,
John Dillon
(regretting our e-mail servers' inability to read and replicate symbols
from the International Phonetic Alphabet)
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