Noa-name

A noa-name is a word that replaces a taboo word, generally out of fear that the true name would summon the thing. The term derives from the Polynesian concept of noa, which is the antonym of tapu (from which derives the word taboo) and serves to lift the tapu from a person or object.

A cape and a beach seen from above.
Portuguese mariner Bartolomeu Dias named the Cabo das Tormentas ("cape of the storms") in southern Africa but the king John II of Portugal renamed it Cabo de Boa Esperança ("cape of good hope").

A noa-name is sometimes described as a euphemism,[1] though the meaning is more specific; a noa-name is a non-taboo synonym used to avoid bad luck,[1] and replaces a name considered dangerous.[2] The noa-name may be innocuous or flattering, or it may be more accusatory.[3]

Examples
  • In the Germanic languages, the word for 'bear' was replaced with a noa-name meaning 'brown': Proto-Germanic *berô, with descendants including Swedish björn, English bear, German Bär and Dutch beer.[3]
  • In Swedish, the word ulv ('wolf') was replaced by varg ('stranger').[3] The spirits of the hearth, tomte (corresponding to the Scottish brownie, or the Cornish pixie), were known as nisse, 'dear little relatives'.
  • In English, the Devil has been referred to by a variety of names (e.g. 'Old Nick', 'Mr. Scratch') to avoid attracting his attention through his name.
  • In Irish folklore, Fairies are referred to as 'the little people' or 'the good people'.
  • In Greek legend, the Erinyes (the Furies, the spirits of revenge) were commonly known as the Eumenides ('the benevolent ones').[4] Additionally, Hades, god of the underworld, was usually referred to with euphemisms like Ploútōn ('the wealthy one') in order to avoid attracting his attention.
  • In Jewish culture, it is forbidden to speak the name of God (represented as YHWH) and the noa-name adonai, 'my lord', or HaShem, 'the Name', is used instead.
  • In Finnish, there are several noa-names for karhu (bear), used instead of calling the animal by its name and inadvertently attracting its attention. The word karhu itself is a noa-name, to avoid using the original (and now relatively uncommon) words otso or ohto. (See Finnish mythology.)
  • To avoid the negative connotations of the left side and left-handedness, most Romance languages created noa-names to avoid Latin sinister: see French gauche, Spanish izquierdo, Romanian stângă. Also Greek created ἀριστερός (aristeros), a derivation from ἄριστος (aristos, "best") to avoid λαιός (laios).[5]

See also
  • Mokita, a Trobriand term that translates as 'the truth we all know but agree not to talk about'
  • Avoidance speech, a sociolinguistic phenomenon found in some aboriginal languages
  • The evil wizard Lord Voldemort, typically referred to in the Harry Potter series as "He Who Must Not Be Named" or "You-Know-Who"
  • The name of the William Shakespeare play Macbeth is, by longstanding theatrical custom, not to be mentioned in order to avoid bad luck; reference is instead made, for instance, to "the Scottish play"
  • Apotropaic names are negative words applied to ward off evil.
  • Heiti
  • Kenning

References
  1. Noaord at glosbe.com (Swedish)
  2. Noaord at SAOB (Swedish)
  3. Gillis Herlitz & Per Peterson (2011) Vargen : hatobjekt och kramdjur. Liber AB. ISBN 978-91-47-09625-1.
  4. Suda. Ἄλλα δ' ἀλλαχοῦ καλά· παρόσον τὰς Εὐμενίδας ἄλλοι ἄλλως καλοῦσιν. ἄλλα οὖν ὀνόματα παρ' ἄλλοις καλὰ νομίζονται, παρ' ἡμῖν δὲ ταῦτα, τὸ ὀνομάζειν αὐτὰς Εὐμενίδας κατ' εὐφημισμόν, τὰς Ἐριννύας. [Inasmuch as different men call the Eumenides by different names. So other names are judged good by other people, but we prefer to call them Eumenides [Favoring Ones] by euphemism instead of Erinnyes [Furies].]
  5. Schiefenhövel, Wulf (June 2013). "Biased semantics for right and left in 50 Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages: Biased semantics for right and left in 50 languages". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1288 (1): 135–152. doi:10.1111/nyas.12124. PMID 23742684. S2CID 3421618. the words for left, usually never positively biased, were turned into euphemisms in three language groups (Scandinavian, Greek, and Avestan).
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