New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesRe: Here's one I've been puzzling...
in reply to a message by Marc
As for the origin of the last name, Delagrammatikas is definitely a greek one, just like Grammatikas and Grammatikos.
Personally, I can't tell what Dela- means, but 'grammatikas' literally means 'grammar' (from greek 'gramma', 'letter' in english), so maybe such last names may refer to a 'grammarian', also in a more general sense of 'teacher (of letters)'.
Out of curiosity, some very similar last names are found in Italy too (for example Grammatica and Grammatico) and, in the history of Denmark, just think of Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 - c. 1220), a famous Danish medieval historian whose work also inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet (for more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxo_Grammaticus): as reported on Wikipedia, Saxo Grammaticus was not his real name, but just an appellation meaning 'Saxon teacher of letters' (literally 'Saxon grammarian').
Personally, I can't tell what Dela- means, but 'grammatikas' literally means 'grammar' (from greek 'gramma', 'letter' in english), so maybe such last names may refer to a 'grammarian', also in a more general sense of 'teacher (of letters)'.
Out of curiosity, some very similar last names are found in Italy too (for example Grammatica and Grammatico) and, in the history of Denmark, just think of Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 - c. 1220), a famous Danish medieval historian whose work also inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet (for more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxo_Grammaticus): as reported on Wikipedia, Saxo Grammaticus was not his real name, but just an appellation meaning 'Saxon teacher of letters' (literally 'Saxon grammarian').
1
Replies
About the prefix Dela-, I noticed this term is also found in another greek last name, which is Delapatridis. According to some internet sources, Delapatridis is a greek last name that comes from italian Della Patria, literally meaning 'of the homeland' - Della Patria is also an italian last name, though it is very rare in Italy today.
If Delagrammatikas came from Italy too, the prefix Dela- would then mean 'of the' - it is 'della' in italian ('di' + 'la').
If Delagrammatikas came from Italy too, the prefix Dela- would then mean 'of the' - it is 'della' in italian ('di' + 'la').
1