The streets of my home town, Quiz #1

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Poll #18178

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What would you prescribe Tholozan for?

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According to The Streets of St. Louis, Tholozan Avenue was named for Adele Sanguinet Tholozan, wife of John Eli Tholozan. (In a genealogical source on the net, Adele is given as the daughter of Tholozan and Adelaide Sanguinet. The creoles may have been kinky, but not to that extant, I don't think.) I remember driving down it with Nuphy, bunj, and e. on the way to my sister's wedding reception and being highly amused. Turns out that, prior to moving into Casa Spookyrain, Mr Malaprop lived on Tholozan.

Now, an etymological excursus.

At first glance, the name is utterly baffling. Upon examination, a plausible explanation presents itself: Assume the name is French. (There was, in fact, a famous French physician named Joseph-Désiré Tholozan.) H is always silent in French (if not always "mute"; stupid French), so it's possible the h is unetymological. Take it out. Single s and z are pronounced identically between vowels in French. Assume z, which is rare in the language, is a corruption and replace it with s. Voilà, Tolosan.

So what? What we end up with, sibs, is, in fact, the Modern Occitan for "man from Toulouse" (in Occitan, Tolosa). A quick web search indicates that this name is found mostly in the south of France where we know a substantial number of the settlers to the Nouveau Monde came from. I admit, it's odd to find an Occitan spelling preserved and not Frenchified to Toulousain, but it's also not unheard of.

Comments

So...

[febrile.livejournal.com]

...it's not for anxiety disorders, then?

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

I love you.