Re: About the name Rasputin...

Heidi Graw wrote:

"Harlan Messinger" <hmessinger.removethis@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:526qubF1mco4bU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Heidi Graw wrote:
My own fancy:

Considering Rasputin believed himself to be a mystic and a healer...a man of god,

"Like many spiritually minded Russians, Rasputin spoke of salvation as depending less on the clergy and the church than on seeking the spirit of God within. He also maintained that sin and repentance were interdependent and necessary to salvation."

and he considered himself a mystic healer, I'm wondering if the name Rasputin came from a completely different language...ie. Amharic or some other Semitic language:

"Ras" meaning head, prince, in Amharic

I couldn't find anything regarding the rest of the word "putin." However, in German the word "putin" pertains to the colour purple or crimson.

Rasputin: Prince-purple...purple being a royal colour. Jesus was also reported to wear a red robe.

Any other ideas?

Harlan wrote:
Yes, my idea is that it's highly doubtful that he was playing some kind of hybrid cross-language word game like this, and I'd be astonished if he had any knowledge of Amharic or that particular term, Rastafarians not being so well known in his day.

Might he have been familiar with another Semitic language, though?
I didn't mean to imply that he created a name using two languages
to form that hybrid. I did mention that I could only find a meaning for
"Ras"...head, prince in the Amharic language. Yet, I couldn't find
anything to indicate what the "putin" might mean, except for what I
found in German. Perhaps that "putin" was derived from a Semitic
language of one kind or another.

And since Rasputin thought so highly of himself, I doubt he would
have chosen a derogatory name. It is entirely possible he
thought himself a royal prince of a religious kind. And since
he did travel to the Holy Land and moved among the
Semites, I think it might be an idea to investiget the
Semitic languages for the etymology of the name
"Rasputin."

This all leads me to wonder how you came up with the surname "Graw".
.

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