![\"Herter_Brothers_Ottoman,_1881-2,_High_Museum\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Herter_Brothers_Ottoman_1881-2_High_Museum.jpg\")
Herter Brothers Ottoman, High Museum of Art, by Wmpearl via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
At one time, a person\u2019s surname was part of his identity \u2026 more than just a family name, it might tell where he lived, what he did for a livelihood, or even describe a physical or personality trait. Think Miss London or Mr. Fisherman or Miss Smiley.<\/p>\n
Apparently, they didn\u2019t know about toponyms in Scandinavia, where until fairly modern times (the late 1800s), surnames were almost always patronyms (your father\u2019s first name plus a suffix meaning son or daughter) like Anderson (son of Anders) or Andersdotter (daughter of Anders). Papa Anders could have been an Anders Johnson or Anders Anderson, didn\u2019t matter\u2014the name that was passed on was always his first name. But the Scandinavians were more modern than you might think: When a woman married, she didn\u2019t adopt her husband\u2019s name, since she could never be called someone\u2019s son. She instead kept her birth name.<\/p>\n
But I digress. Back to our original toponym: stellenbosch. And what did it mean that Becca was stellenbosched?<\/p>\n
Our word comes from Stellenbosch, South Africa, near Cape Town. During the Second Boer War of 1899-1902 (between the British Empire and the Dutch settlers of South Africa), Stellenbosch was a British military base.<\/p>\n
![\"1904_worlds_fair_boer_war_program\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/1904_worlds_fair_boer_war_program.jpg\")
<\/a>1904 World’s Fair Boer War Pprogram, Frank Mills via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
Officers who hadn’t done well\u00a0on the battlefield were often sent to Stellenbosch to do menial tasks, like looking after the war horses stabled there. The officers\u00a0usually kept their rank, but the reassignment to Stellenbosch was considered a demotion, and the term came to mean reassigning someone to a position of minimal responsibility where they would do no harm.<\/p>\n
Hmmmm, think I\u2019ll stellenbosch my farmhand, Johnny Johnson, who pulled out all the baby lettuces when weeding \u2026 to that nice big patch of thistles at the top of the garden.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today, I ran across the word \u201cstellenbosch\u201d (ste-len-bosh). Of course, I\u2019m a sucker for anything that sounds like Stella, my adorable 7-year-old grandgirl, so this word nearly jumped off the page at me: \u201cWhat happened?\u201d Todd whispered to Ariel. \u201cI … Continue reading