What's in a name? Faculty of Arts & Science alumna Wendy Cecil can tell you that when it comes to her grandchildren, the answer to that question is in the Dictionary of Old English (DOE), an epic project at U of T exploring the roots of the language.
Cecil has been supporting the DOE for years, most recently through its Adopt-A-Word fundraising campaign. She has adopted words for three grandchildren and is planning a fourth adoption in the near future. Each word matches the meaning of the grandchild’s name, or as close a word as the DOE can provide.
“Some people might think it’s a weird gift to give a child for Christmas, but my family loves words,” says Cecil, who earned her bachelor of arts in 1971 as a member of Victoria College and received an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2005 from U of T.
Cecil was the chancellor of Victoria College from 2010 to 2017 and is a former vice-president of Brascan Ltd. (now Brookfield Asset Management). She teaches a course on corporate ethics at Victoria College.
“I’ve got a dictionary in every room in my house, including the kitchen. When my own children were little and they asked me the meaning of a word, I didn’t baby talk them,” says Cecil. “We’d look up the word in the dictionary together so they could learn.”
The age of internet searches may have distracted from such teaching moments, but the painstaking research at the heart of the DOE makes it a treasure trove of reliable information on the Old English era (600 to 1150 CE).
With a minimum donation of $1,000, anyone can adopt a word in the DOE, either in their name or as a tribute to a friend, loved one or special occasion.
“I started with the first two grandchildren, Felix and Henry. Felix was an easy one because his name means ‘happy,’” says Cecil.
“Henry was a little more complicated because his name doesn’t really mean anything, but it makes you think of ‘prince’ or ‘king,’ so we found a word for that.”
In Old English, “Felix” translates to “blīþe,” meaning “joyful” or “merry.” For Henry, his father Malcolm settled on “æþeling,” the DOE word for “prince.”
For her third grandchild, Florence, Cecil adopted the word “blostma,” which means “blossom” or “flower.” Rhodes, Cecil’s fourth grandchild, will likely have a word for “spearhead” adopted for her, if it’s available.
Malcolm chose “spearhead” because of the many ancient spearheads found on the Island of Rhodes, which is also sometimes referred to as “the spearhead island” because of its shape.
The rich legacy behind the DOE is one of the reasons Cecil feels so passionate about supporting the project, now in its 50th year. She once hosted a medieval-themed banquet at her home to raise funds for the project while she was chair of U of T’s Governing Council in the 1990s.
“I am not a scholar in this field by any means but those of us who care about the Dictionary of Old English want to see it finished at U of T,” says Cecil.
“Many other universities would love to take it over if we can't fund it. It needs to stay here.”