[amphibian]

This rightly belongs in a Misc thread, but I couldn't find one. Would a mod mind helping out?

The word "kalam" in Arabic means a method of persuasion, or reasoning.

Fits the character perfectly, as an assassin and in his discussions with Quick Ben.

Are there any other names out there with subtle meanings?

[Dolorous Menhir]

Cotillion is apparently a kind of dance.

Tremorlor is Trellish for "life" (an in-book reference, I know).

Icarium is close to Icarus, of Greek mythology.

Crokus is similar to the flower in spelling.

Nothing else is springing to mind.

[amphibian]

In the American South, cotillion is more of a social event for debutantes and young men from families with money; it's designed to teach them "good manners" and how to deal with and/or recognize each other.

No wonder Crokus wanted a name change.

[fortyseven]

Duiker is either named for an American historian or several species of African antelope

[GardenGnome]

Dassem means revenge in Latin, someone here said once. And now he carries the sword Vengeance...

[fortyseven]

Google found a post by Called-by-the Voices on this board where he says that Ultor means Avenger.

Dassem is a Latin word but I don't know what it means.

[GardenGnome]

Ahh, maybe I mixed them up.

[wishbone]

"Tiam" is probably taken from Tiamat - the queen of evil dragons in D&D lore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiamat_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)

or the Mesopotamian Goddess
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiamat

[Dragnipurake]

kalam means pen in hindi/urdu.
".....pur" the last part of such words, ie -pur denotes town or city in India.
and Hissar is the name of a place in India
thats for now.

[amphibian]

My English translation of "pen" is Kahlum.

The Arabic Kalam fits better, but -pur is right on. They may be related in Erikson's reading/usage of Mughal history.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

I've been working on this translation for days. It was tricky, but i think I have it figured out. Dujek Onearm means "Dujek, who only has one arm." I am a master scholar.

[GardenGnome]

What language is that?

[Called-by-the-Voices]

fortyseven;123365 said:

Google found a post by Called-by-the Voices on this board where he says that Ultor means Avenger.

Dassem is a Latin word but I don't know what it means.

yeah, that's right... Ultor ,means Avenger and is closely associated to the greco-roman God of War Ares/Mars...

Today, there are remnants in Rome of the temple of Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger) built by the first roman emperor Augustus, after he avenged the deah of his uncle, Julius Ceasar...

And the thing with Dassem now wielding Vengeance is... well, curious...

[killakan]

Mallik is the most prestigious title that an organization of assasins who worked out of Persia could attain, bears a striking resemblance to Mallick...

[MottIrregular]

Samar and Dev are *very* common first and last names in India respectively! Though Samar is a man's name, not a woman's as in TBH.

Pran (as in Chole) means life, in Hindi. He is also the father (?) of silverfox.

I had a whole list of these which SE may or may not have taken from Hindi, but I can't remember any now.... maybe a re-read is in order! Am currently through a fourth round of GotM...

oh, just remembered - Daru (pronounced Daaru) means Liquor in Hindi!

[bwgan]

I think I have posted before that Seren means star in Welsh...not sure what it proves though :confused:

[Xaspian]

Someone (possibly T'lan Imass - Is it Silverfox?) calls Whiskeyjack 'Bird that Steals'. That and Dancer = Cotillion (a dance) seem extremely likely to be intended.

Can anyone work out:
-Shadowthrone?
-Fear?
-Sorry?
-Pearl?

Mael is linked to the word Maelstrom...
T'amber has Amber eyes...

Nil is latinish for Nothing/Zero
Nether means 'below'/'underneath'

[bwgan]

Felixcrow;141881 said:

Well, whiskeyjack is a good way to order a shot of Rye in a pub, an Orlong is a big paddle, Kallor is what children do with krayons, Icarium is what you would say if you were gonna help an old lady with her groceries, Karsa are made by Generala Motorsa and competitors. Lether is what my chaps are made of, Letheras is what my chaps don't have, Oponn is the opposite of closed, A Kartool is something used to fix Karsa that have broken down, and Pan'potsun is usually followed by "assorted kitchen implements" when used properly by street hawkers all over the Malazan empire.

Any questions? Oh, a whiskeyjack is actually a "bird that steals" according to the dictionary, and a cotillion is a formal ball given for debutantes. I think we can assume that any relation to real words from names in the malazan novels is purely by coincidence.

Oh don't be such a spoilsport SE is far too clever for there not to be hidden meanings

[Dolorous Menhir]

Iarwain Ben-Adar;142032 said:

Can anyone work out:
-Shadowthrone?
-Fear?
-Sorry?
-Pearl?

Mael is linked to the word Maelstrom...
T'amber has Amber eyes...

Nil is latinish for Nothing/Zero
Nether means 'below'/'underneath'

Shadowthrone and Sorry are named for reasons in the story - Shadowthrone because he, well, sits on a Throne of Shadow, it's not his real name (which is Ammanas, I would be interested hear any real world meaning for that). Sorry I think was called that as some measure of apology for what went into creating her (the massacre of the peasants of the area) or just because it's a striking name.

Don't think there is any deeper meaning to Pearl.

Don't know about Fear, beyond the obvious.

What we really need is someone with expertise in a lot of different languages, they could probably reveal volumes about the different character names.

It's been speculated that Kilmandaros is derived from (Mount) Kilimanjaro.