A noa-name is a word that replaces a
taboo
A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
word, generally out of fear that the
true name
A true name is a name of a thing or being that expresses, or is somehow identical to, its true nature. The notion that language, or some specific sacred language, refers to things by their true names has been central to philosophical study as wel ...
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 noa-name is sometimes described as a
euphemism
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...
,
[ ''Noaord'']
at glosbe.com (Swedish) though the meaning is more specific; a noa-name is a non-taboo synonym used to avoid bad luck,
[ and replaces a name considered dangerous. The noa-name may be innocuous or flattering, or it may be more accusatory.][Gillis Herlitz & Per Peterson (2011) ''Vargen : hatobjekt och kramdjur''. Liber AB. .]
Examples
Examples of noa-names are:
*In Swedish, the word ('wolf') was replaced by ('stranger'), while the word for bear, (, along with its Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bra ...
ancestor ''*berô'' and cognates such as 'bear', German and Dutch ) is a noa-name meaning 'brown'. The spirits of the hearth, , (corresponding to the Scottish brownie, or the Cornish pixie
A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas a ...
) were known as , ('dear little relatives') .
*In English, the Devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
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 Erinyes ( ; sing. Erinys ; grc, Ἐρινύες, pl. of ), also known as the Furies, and the Eumenides, were female chthonic deities of vengeance in ancient Greek religion and mythology. A formulaic oath in the '' Iliad'' invokes t ...
(the Furies, the spirits of revenge) were commonly known as the ''Eumenides'' ('the benevolent ones').
*In Jewish culture, it is forbidden to speak the name of God (represented as YHWH
The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', '' waw'', and ' ...
) and the noa-name ''adonai
Judaism considers some names of God so holy that, once written, they should not be erased: YHWH, Adonai, El ("God"), Elohim ("God," a plural noun), Shaddai ("Almighty"), and Tzevaot (" fHosts"); some also include Ehyeh ("I Will Be").This is ...
'', 'my lord', or ''HaShem
HaShem ( Hebrew: ''hšm'', literally "''the name''"; often abbreviated to 'h′'' is a title used in Judaism to refer to God. It is also a given name and surname.
Religious usage
* In Judaism, '' HaShem'' (lit. 'the Name') is used to refer ...
'', 'the Name', is used instead.
*In Finnish, there are several noa-names for (bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nort ...
), used instead of calling the animal by its name and inadvertently attracting its attention. The word itself is a noa-name, to avoid using the original (and now relatively uncommon) words or . (See Finnish mythology
Finnish mythology is a commonly applied description of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many features shared with Estonian and other Finnic mythologies, ...
.)
*To avoid the negative connotations of the left side and left-handedness, most Romance languages created noa-names to avoid Latin : see French , Spanish , Romanian . Also Greek created (), a derivation from (, "best") to avoid ().
*The legacy French word for "fox" was from Latin . As a euphemism, it was replaced by , after Reynard the Fox, a famous trickster in medieval stories.
See also
* Mokita, a Trobriand term that translates as 'the truth we all know but agree not to talk about'
*Avoidance speech
Avoidance speech is a group of sociolinguistic phenomena in which a special restricted speech style must be used in the presence of or in reference to certain relatives. Avoidance speech is found in many Australian Aboriginal languages and Austr ...
, a sociolinguistic phenomenon found in some aboriginal languages
*The evil wizard Lord Voldemort
Lord Voldemort ( , in the films) is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of ''Harry Potter'' novels. The character first appeared in '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Ston ...
, typically referred to in the Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at H ...
series as "He Who Must Not Be Named" or "You-Know-Who"
*The name of the William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
play ''Macbeth
''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those ...
'' 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.
References
{{reflist
English-language idioms
Etiquette
Euphemisms
Taboo