Over at an Ohio campaign rally for John McCain, we just saw something that could set the tone for the general election. Talk radio host Bill Cunningham warmed up the crowd by repeatedly emphasizing Obama's middle name, "Hussein."
Hussein is Obama's middle name, but talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times as he addressed the crowd before the likely Republican nominee's appearance.
"Now we have a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician who is picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you, all you're going to have in your pocket is change," Cunningham said as the audience roared.
The time will come, Cunningham added, when the media will "peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama" and tell the truth about his relationship with indicted fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko and how Obama got "sweetheart deals" in Chicago.
MSNBC asked the campaign about Cunningham and they pleaded dumb: They invite local radio hosts onstage all the time! They couldn't have known that Cunningham's shtick is... well, it's calling Obama "Barack Hussein Obama," hitting that middle name like a slow-moving whack-a-mole.
[A]fter the so-called "white voters" in Iowa and New Hampshire weighed in heavily, especially in Iowa, for Barack Hussein Obama and then in New Hampshire, Hillary kind of made a little bit of a comeback. There has been a conscious effort by Bubba Clinton to smear and to slime Barack Hussein Obama on the race issue... The Clintons know what they are doing, and I'm afraid Barack Hussein Obama does not.
This is what Cunningham says on TV. On the radio he sheds the "I'm jes' sayin' his name" pretention and calls Obama "Barack Mohammad Hussein Obama." And prior to this he's gotten well known in southwestern Ohio for hurling dung at Democrats. In 2006 he and Jerome Corsi (of "Swift Boat" fame) pushed the rumor that now-Gov. Ted Strickland was a closeted gay who took his "boy toy" on a trip to Italy. Cunningham and Corsi convinced Republican candidate Ken Blackwell to try and attack Strickland on that front, and it was hilarious.
What I take away from today's story, though, is this:
McCain apologized three separate times for Cunningham's remarks. He said he takes "responsibility" for him being here but says he has no idea who chose him and says he doesn't know him and didn't hear the comments when they were uttered but was told about them before he came on stage.
Yes, conservative talk radio has patched up relations with McCain temporarily over the NYT story. But George W. Bush seemed a bit more comfortable with letting allies lob grenades than McCain does. So did Mitt Romney, and so, probably, would have Fred Thompson. I wonder how much trouble McCain will have keeping the activist right in line if he keeps blubbering and apologizing when they say what they want to say. I just don't get the feeling it's a well-oiled machine; I think McCain will keep caving on this stuff.
They're not attacking him on race, per se. You can't hate on blacks anymore. But its still kosher to hate on Muslims and "foreigners", which is what they will try to paint Obama as.
Funny, I don't seem to remember MSNBC objecting over Keith Olbermann's repeated references to George Felix Allen. Don't seem to remember this site getting to upset over it either.
Don't seem to remember this site getting to upset over it either.
I, like millions of proud Americans, spend my weeknights not watching Olbermann. So I missed that. But is it 100% clear he's hating on Allen's Jewishness? He could have just been saying "Felix! What a nerd! And this asshole wears cowboy boots and chews tobacco?"
Funny, I don't seem to remember MSNBC objecting over Keith Olbermann's repeated references to George Felix Allen.
B, that was funny because George Allen tried to paint himself as some all-American, southern fried redneck from the Real World of Virginia, when in reality his mother was not only French, but also Jewish (which he denied and then admitted)
His background didn't exactly mesh well with his fabricated public persona.
Gee, B, and with all the horrible racism that Romans face in our society! *rolls eyes* Yes, that's totally the same thing.
Cesar,
They're not attacking him on race, per se
Per se! Per se!
I guess it evens out. You can't call Arabs "anti-semitic," because Arabs are Semites, too. But then, you can attack them (and those with Arab-derived names) with impunity, as "Arab isn't a race."
It's like ethno-semiotic karma. It all evens out in the end.
I don't get it. Is there something sacred about his middle name that should discourage us from saying it? Barack Hussein Obama, that is his name right? It's hateful to call someone by their given name now?
If I were running a smear campaign against the Illinois senator, I'd refer to him simply as Obama bin Laden and keep wondering, sotto voce, why he hadn't been arrested yet.
Funny, I don't seem to remember MSNBC objecting over Keith Olbermann's repeated references to George Felix Allen. Don't seem to remember this site getting to upset over it either.
I'd rather have Michael J. Fox shave my pubes with a strait razor than watch Olberman's show...
It's hateful to call someone by their given name now?
No. Which is why the GOP swift boaters will do it with impunity.
Its not bad (again per se) to keep saying his middle name, but it does happen to go well with the meme of him being a Muslim Manchurian candidate, doesn't it? Republicans will say it with a nudge and a wink the whole campaign.
So here's a pretty good rule of thumb; when you get an email that sounds like right-wing talk radio, and it makes points that are the same as those being made by right-wing talk radio, it probably originated with right-wingers. Even if they pretend it didn't.
Swift Boat what now? | February 26, 2008, 3:17pm | #
Can anyone please point me to where the Swift Boat guys attacks on Kerry were thoroughly debunked? Because the word "swiftboating" has now come to mean any kind of unfounded smear, and I don't think that fits.
Kerry's gonna sign his Form 180 and prove them all to be liars, Real Soon Now.
Joe,
The whole Felix thing (btw, means 'lucky' not 'happy'), wasn't to puncture his all American image as much as to paint him as a scary jew. Frankly, that part of the campaign against him was nothing less than creepy.
If McCain supporters try and hang Saddam Hussein around Obama's neck, it'll be creepy too.
Votes are counted not weighed. So Joe's vote is offset by some dirtbag who hates Muslims.
And John's is offset by some Islamofascist symp who hates all things American. And since votes are counted and not weighed, each side trys to pile up as many as possible using whatever deceitful tactics work. And no I don't have a solution other than to personally try not to dishonestly attack the politicians whose views I don't approve.
Can anyone please point me to where the Swift Boat guys attacks on Kerry were thoroughly debunked?
I don't recall any that were conclusively refuted. I do recall a number that the evidence wasn't terribly strong. And I do recall some that held up pretty well, to the point where Kerry had to back down on a few things that had supposedly been seared into his memory.
Yeah, we're all waiting on him to release his records. And to produce that hat.
Who cares? his name sounds muslim and foreign because it is muslim and foreign, and most americans have a problem with muslim foreigners and with "Hussein" in particular. get over it. Obama cultists have such thin skin. "OMG, they're saying his name! The nerve!"
I'll tell you who cares, people who are too PC sensitive and people who judge a book by it's cover. If you're not one or the other this is a really dumb issue. Hussein, see i said it. Hussein, oh, there i go again.
I don't get it. Is there something sacred about his middle name that should discourage us from saying it? Barack Hussein Obama, that is his name right? It's hateful to call someone by their given name now?
Hopefully you're just trolling, but here it goes:
Our brains often associate words with various emotions. Two of these emotions are hate and fear. Assholes repeatedly use these words to evoke those feelings in citizens and associate them with people and ideas that they do not like (Such as me using the word asshole to refer to assholes). Obama was unfortunate enough to have a middle and last name that remind people of bad things.
I fully expect Fox News to start calling him Barack Hussein Obama pretty soon. The next step will be to have commentators and captions accidently say "Barack Hussein Osama" every once and a while as well. I wouldn't be suprised if I hear the occasional "...Bin Laden, err, I mean Obama..." either.
Felix means happy, not lucky. I just confirmed it in Random House. All the "felicitious/felicity" derivations list "felix" as "happy."
The whole Felix thing (btw, means 'lucky' not 'happy'), wasn't to puncture his all American image as much as to paint him as a scary jew. That's a nice unfounded accusation, but it's nonsense.
The Webb campaign was trying to "paint" Allen as a cracker-assed redneck right wing hillbilly, with a Confederate flag on his lapel and a history of calling people "niggers." "Trying to paint him as a scary Jew" would have completely undermined this effort.
As opposed to what the Right is trying to do with Obama, which actually is to paint him as Soft on Muslims and Terrorists, and anti-American.
Jimmy Hitler Oswald | February 26, 2008, 3:30pm | #
This type of dirty campaigning is what prevents me from running for public office.
Joe, Allen wanted to paint himself as a cracker-assed redneck wearing a Confederate flag lapel pin.
In reality he was a SoCal carpetbagger with a French mother pretending to be a cracker-assed southern redneck wearing a Confederate flag lapel pin. His middle name re-enforced that meme.
Joe, Allen wanted to paint himself as a cracker-assed redneck wearing a Confederate flag lapel pin.
Yes, he did. It's funny, and probably very indicative of what's going on in Virginia politically, that BOTH SIDES tried to work the "Allen is a redneck" line, with the Democrats concentrating on racism and other unappealing aspects, and the Republicans concentrating on their "Red America is Real America" line of argument.
Yes, the Democrats focused on the "phoney, California" bit, but that's because it drew attention to the fact that Allen's "redneckness" is not about the "pride in my upbringing" side of the image, but just a sympathy for the anti-civil-rights politics that the Confederate flag represented when Allen was a youth.
Thank you for confirming that you will be deliberately dishonest with us, Shane, if it suits your political purposes. But we already knew that.
explain please. I don't have a problem with his name, i'm not saying anything that isn't true, and as long as that is his name we all have a right to call him by it. whatever some ignorant or bigoted person might infer from the man's name depends on that ignorant or bigoted person. I'm not responsble for that person's prejudices, his name is Barack Hussein Obama and until he changes it to something else i see no problem with calling him that, do you? Do you have an issue with people named "Hussein" or just the people named "Hussein" who run for office, or maybe just the people who call the people named "Hussein".. well... "Hussein"?
"To me, "Swift boating" means turning an opponents greatest strength into their greatest weakness."
In the case of Kerry, his supposed Vietnam "war hero" status was never his greatest strength to begin with - seeing as how he had been undercutting it himself for years with his stunts like throwing his medals away (or rather pretendeing to throw them away) at a war protest, etc.
First you wrote: I don't get it. Is there something sacred about his middle name that should discourage us from saying it? Barack Hussein Obama, that is his name right? as if you were confused about why anyone could object to repeatedly pounding away at his middle name, and then you wrote:
his name sounds muslim and foreign because it is muslim and foreign, and most americans have a problem with muslim foreigners and with "Hussein" in particular.
It was really, really obvious that you were dishonestly playing dumb, and admitted it as soon as I called you on it.
If you dudes think saying "Hussein" a lot is as nasty as it's gonna get, you might want to get the popcorn and just wait for the next thing, from either side.
Pick up a Latin dictionary, joe, not an English thesaurus.
Felix means:
"lucky, fortunate, happy."
But the secondary definition of "happy" clearly means in the senses I described above, which is why it's the root for felicity and not for contentment.
"Smith" is just as foreign a name to these shores as "Hussein".
You got me there, maybe i should have clarified. "Smith" while being initially foreign to these shores, is fairly common among it's current native inhabitants, while "Hussein" though just as foriegn is not, being mostly common outside of our borders. seems a technicality but still, if a man were to tell me his name is Ogunda Mbaken it wouldn't be outlandish for an average english/spanish speaking american native to assume that the man and/or his name might have a greater probabilty of originating from a foreign land than being of native origins. Culturally it's foreign.
I seem to remember Dondero coming in here and using the same way to refer to Obama as well. How much of a nuckle-dragging politico to stoop to that level of discourse? Wait, what the hell am I talking about?! This is America!
That's why it's the root word - from the Latin meaning "happy" for felicitic, felicitate, felicitation, felicitious, and felicity. All of which are derived from the Latin "felix," all of which list "felix" as "happy," and all of which refer to happiness.
You want to say it also means "lucky?" OK. It also means lucky.
When I went to the republican caucus here at the beginning of the month, one guy got up to speak and tell us all what's at stake. He mentioned the thought of "Hussein Osama" as president and said that's why he'd support whatever nominee came out of the GOP.
That's why someone would object to his middle name being said by his warmongering opponent, shane.
joe, that is an English dictionary, not a Latin dictionary.
...and Felix in the name George Felix Allen is an English-language name.
And what's more, the English dictionaries I have list derivations, which include "felic, happy" next to each and every one of the words derived from "felix."
There's nothing wrong with the name "Hussein", there's nothing wrong with calling a man "Hussein" if that is his name, but your fear is that if a prejudiced and bigoted person heard it enough it would discourage them from voting for the man named "Hussein"?
I still think it's dumb, anyone who is so prejudiced and bigoted that they will refuse to vote for a man simply because his name is "Hussein" most likely wasn't going to vote for a black man named "Barack" or "Hussein" or "Obama" in the first place, right?
i don't understand why you would object to them saying his middle name.
Well, you see, deliberately playing on racism for your political purposes is frowned on in decent society.
Which you also know. Which is why you felt the need to pretend not to understand why people would object as you attempted to play on people's prejudices for your political purposes.
To be sure, "Felix" as an agnomen did, in fact, mean "lucky". Whether that holds today is another question. Similarly, "Africanus", which meant "dude who kicked ass in 'Africa'", is problematic today, since "Africa" only referred to Mediterranean Africa back then, not the whole continent.
And I'm going back to "you're not fooling anyone, Shane."
If you thought so, you wouldn't feel the need to say so. Maybe the issue comes too close to your own personal bigotry?
I have no problem voting for Barack Hussein Obama and if it was my name i'd be proud to bear it, it'd be all over my campaign.
Like i said, who cares, chances are that anyone who refuses to vote for a "Hussein", is not going to vote for an "Obama" or a "Barack" either.
A man should be proud of his name.
The fact that he seems to take offense at people calling him by his name really makes me question whether he has the thick skin it takes to lead the free world. I was leaning toward voting for Barack Hussein Obama, but i don't know that i will now that i know how insecure the man and his followers are.
I always thought anytime you did the three names thing, you're trying to make it sound sinister - regardless of the name itself.
Because it's the same construction as:
John Wilkes Booth
James Earl Ray
Lee Harvey Oswald
John Hinckley Junior
etc.
Felix means happy, not lucky. I just confirmed it in Random House. All the "felicitious/felicity" derivations list "felix" as "happy."
Fluffy | February 26, 2008, 3:47pm | #
http://arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/Latin/
Pick up a Latin dictionary, joe, not an English thesaurus.
Felix means:
"lucky, fortunate, happy."
But the secondary definition of "happy" clearly means in the senses I described above, which is why it's the root for felicity and not for contentment.
Sometimes you are a slow learner joe - you tend to insist you are always right, (and sometimes you are) but this time you are not. It can mean, or suggest happy, but it is not a confirmed it is only a probable.
Felix felicis: Latin for fortunate, lucky, but also the biological name for a cat. Felix is the nominative singular, and felicis is the genitive singular. (The way I see it cats may be happy, but that is because they are lucky - i.e. nine lives, etc.)
Felix was sometimes used as a kind of nickname by the Romans, eg the dictator Sully was known as “Felix” (around 100 BC) because he was believed to be lucky. Gradually it began to be given to boys as a name, often because it was thought that it might bring them good luck. It was especially popular among the early Christians.
# FELIS: Medieval English form of Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
# FELIU: Catalan form of Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
# FÉLIX: French form of Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
# FELIX: Latin name meaning "lucky."
# FELICE: Italian form of Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
# FELICIANO: Italian, Portuguese and Spanish form of Roman Felicianus, meaning "lucky."
# FELICIANUS: Roman name derived from Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
# FELICIEN: French form of Roman Felicianus, meaning "lucky."
# FELICITE (Félicité): French form of Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
# FELICJAN: Polish form of Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
# FELIKS: Polish and Russian form of Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
joe | February 26, 2008, 3:58pm | #
In Latin, felix means lucky.
In Latin, felix means happy as well as lucky.
That's why it's the root word - from the Latin meaning "happy" for felicitic, felicitate, felicitation, felicitious, and felicity. All of which are derived from the Latin "felix," all of which list "felix" as "happy," and all of which refer to happiness.
except those that don't re above...
You want to say it also means "lucky?" OK. It also means lucky.
I don't get the sense that it "also" means lucky, it just plain means lucky - and lucky people tend to be happy... so luck results in happiness, not luck equals happiness. Anyway, thanks joe, for grudgingly allowing that it could "also" mean lucky, yet continuing to insist you are right no matter what... it is what is expected of you.
Here's what you said at 4:05 pm. Take note of the word "derive". Nobody's saying it ain't a derivation, just that it ain't the meaning like you stated at 3:30 pm
And what's more, the English dictionaries I have list derivations, which include "felic, happy" next to each and every one of the words derived from "felix."
Happy. Right there in black white. ".. derived..."
Cunningham sounds like half the Ron Paul "supporters" on the internet.
You know
" Don't vote for CFR Barak Hussein Osama, the militant Muslim whose wife "is CFR" He wants to merge the CFR with the IRS and Trilateral commission. And Hussein Obama ( who is a coke snorting gay male prostitute) supports the Amero with a deadline of 2010. The Texas Trans Corrdor NAFTA Highway will allow Hussein Obama and his racist churches to smuggle millions of illegal Muslims from Mexico to Canada. He and his uncle Dick Cheney will then take on their lizard form and swallow your children. Ron Paul. ROn Paul. Ron Paul. Ron Paul will be the next president because john McCain is a foreigner. He will be denied the nomination. Huckabee is a gay CFR socialist who works for The new republic and hangs out with Dave Weigel. Once this news breaks he will drop and pledge all his delegates to Ron Paul. It will be ROn Paul our only hope against Hussein Obama!"
Bhh | February 26, 2008, 3:38pm | #
Unusually fixated on teh gays, even for a winger. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten caught blowing truckers somewhere."
David Lee Roth
Sarah Jessica Parker
James Earl Jones
Richard Milhous Nixon
John Wayne Gacy
Bachman Turner Overdrive
I think it's pretty clear that being publically known with a middle name can have its advantages to differentiate from common names. I personally know 4 Kevin Smiths, none of whom are famous and need to differentiate themselves from each other, but would do so if they are looking to have their name remembered like an actor, singer or politician would want. Barack Obama is unusual enough, and moreover the candidate does not refer to himself in that fashion, so those that do, though technically correct, clearly have an agenda for guilt by association.
Doing online research for my family name, I saw it spelled both ways as late as the 19th century in Irish records. Can't say exactly when my family settled on Mc, but it probably ocurred when my ancester stepped off the boat in the US in the late 1800's.
Now, joe, perhaps you can thrill us with an etymological discussion of the word "agape," and how it originally meant "affectionate approval of the gods" until its modern usage as "love," in the broadest sense.
Please footnote and include discussion of the word's subtle differences with "philia" and "eros."
Or just STFU and admit you're wrong. You're a bull-headed, stubborn fuck most of the time. Give us all a rest.
And don't fuck with me. I speak Greek, bitch.
Don't be. There are a number of regulars who have a hard-on for me, and are so desperately eager to prove me wrong on something, anything, that any subject that yields even the slightest possibly of doing so generates this sort of silliness.
Joe, your best bet about five posts ago would have been just to say that the shades of meaning of the word "happy" led you wrong, and let it go.
Because the only reason the word "happy" comes up is because, as dictionary.com points out, the word "happy" itself means:
1. delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing: to be happy to see a person.
2. characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy: a happy mood; a happy frame of mind.
3. favored by fortune; fortunate or lucky: a happy, fruitful land.
4. apt or felicitous, as actions, utterances, or ideas.
5. obsessed by or quick to use the item indicated (usually used in combination): a trigger-happy gangster. Everybody is gadget-happy these days.
So, sure, "felix" means "happy" - but only at such times as "happy" is employed in the subordinate, alternate sense of "lucky". "Felix" does not mean "delighted, pleased, or glad", so it does not mean "happy" in the sense you thought it did. You may as well try to point to #4 and argue that "felix" means "apt".
Doesn't anybody remember that in 1988, Dan Rather insisted on referring to then-VP candidate Dan Quayle as "J. Danforth Quayle"? It generated a few complaints from the right, I recall. This is an exact equivalent--an attempt to score political points by referring to a political opponent by something other than their preferred name.
You'd probably get the example of people who won't admit that "felix" translates into both "lucky" and "happy" because they took a position in an argument and won't back down.
I think "mule-headed" or "stubborn" would be a better term, but that's what's so great about English.
What's great about babynames dot com is that, if you want to find the derivation of a name, you can enter it into a search feature, or you can just scroll through each letter alphabetically.
So here's what you get when you enter "happy" into the Latin dictionary link Fluffy provided:
Results for query "happy":
felix felicis : lucky, fortunate, happy. felix : happy, fortunate.
fortunatus : fortunate, lucky, happy.
fortuno : to make happy, to bless, to prosper.
gauisus : (< gaudeo) rejoicing, joyous, glad, happy.
infortunatus : unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky.
nobis : (abl.) us /there'll be no one as happy as US.
That's why it's the root word - from the Latin meaning "happy" for felicitic, felicitate, felicitation, felicitious, and felicity. All of which are derived from the Latin "felix," all of which list "felix" as "happy," and all of which refer to happiness.
You want to say it also means "lucky?" OK. It also means lucky.
See I'm one those people who can't admit he's wrong, when I'm not wrong, and is also so bull-headed that I...er...hm, this sentence makes less and less sense the further it goes on.
Joe, you are showing a weaselly side which is not very becoming.
You specifically said "felix means happy, NOT lucky". [Emphasis mine.]
That to me is a specification that your claim was that felix meant one of the meanings of the word "happy" which is NOT "lucky".
You also advanced the absurd claim that Felix Sulla was "Happy Sulla". And you started telling people who said it meant "lucky" to get a dictionary.
Sulla was Sulla the Fortunate, not Sulla the Happy. The Latin word for "happy" in the conventional sense of "glad" or "pleased" was gauisus.
When people pointed these things out, you hid behind a secondary and somewhat archaic meaning of the word "happy". And claimed that you were being stalked or persecuted or something. That's kind of lame. And you continue to structure your answers as "happy" is the primary meaning, "but it also means lucky" - when this is pretty much almost the exact opposite of what is true.
I would have let it go if it weren't for the Sulla thing.
Yes, me with my weaselly use of evidence, and the sources other people provide.
You specifically said "felix means happy, NOT lucky".
And then very shortly after that, said that it means happy and lucky.
And then proceded to demonstrate that point using mulitple sources.
When people pointed these things out, you hid behind a secondary and somewhat archaic meaning of the word "happy". It doesn't appear to be a "secondary or somewhat archaic" meaning. In fact, the link you provided produced "felix" as the second translation of "happy," defining it as "happy or lucky." In that order.
Were you thinking of "felix felicis?" Because that appears to suggest "fortunate" more than "happy." But, then, we weren't talking about the definition of "felix felicis." We were talking about the definition of "felix."
I am no longer sure. I recall seeing it translated as "Happy Sulla" in Will and Ariel Durant's "Ceasar and Christ" volume of their History of Man series. Lemme google that.
"Tired of war, power, glory - tired perhaps of men - he surrounded himself with singers, dancers, actors, and actresses. He wrote his Commentqariees, hunted and fished, ate and drank his fill. His men called him Sulla Felix, because he had won every battle, known every pleasure, reached every power, and now lived without fear or regret."
I guess that can be read both ways, though it looks like the description of a happy life more than a lucky one.
Shane means "willfully ignorant"? "just trolling"? or "likes to fuck with joe"?
Naw, can't be the last one, unless half the names here mean that too.
joe,
I think this is one of those threads where people are just trying to get a rise out of you. I must be honest - I get why they do that. There is some entertainment value. (In my mind's eye, at times steam shoots out of your ears.) I can't tell you just to walk away, but if you have high blood pressure or any other health problems, keep in my mind that any prizes you've been promised are purely imaginary.
I wonder where the nameless troll got all of those name-meanings, because I literally cannot find a single source that lists "Felix" as meaning "Lucky" without "Happy." I've found a few that list "Happy" without "Lucky," but most seem to show both.
Probably made up. Goes to show you how much you can rely on people who won't even use the same screen name.
I don't think this was about getting a rise out of me. People like Kelly and Episiarch seem to live for "proving" me wrong, and it's fun to throw it back in their faces.
Joe, you are being deliberately obtuse. The "secondary or archaic definition" I referred to is the use of the word "happy" in the sense of "a happy coincidence". Everyone knows what such an expression means, but that is also not the primary or conventional use of the word "happy".
But you are relying on the fact that in somewhat obscure usages, "happy" means "fortunate" - and therefore comes up as a possible translation of the word "felix" - to cover for your initial mistake of asserting that "felix" means "happy" in an unequivocal sense.
I'd happily end this if you simply assert that it was always your intention to focus on the #3 meaning of "happy" from the definition I posted above. I don't think that was your intention at the time, but there's really no way to prove it either way and it would neatly end the argument.
I wonder where the nameless troll got all of those name-meanings, because I literally cannot find a single source that lists "Felix" as meaning "Lucky" without "Happy." I've found a few that list "Happy" without "Lucky," but most seem to show both.
1. From a Roman cognomen meaning "lucky, successful" in Latin. http://www.behindthename.com/name/felix
2. the lucky, the successful http://www.aboutnames.ch/HMF.htm
3.FELIS: Medieval English form of Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
FELIU: Catalan form of Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
FÉLIX: French form of Latin Felix, meaning "lucky."
FELIX: Latin name meaning "lucky." http://www.20000-names.com/male_f_names.htm
Well, I'm not trying to engage in conflict to annoy joe (I think he's wrong plenty of the time and feel no need to prove it this once :) ); I just recall that Sulla was "the Lucky". Also, I think the original meaning of felix/felic- was "fortunate". Although the definition I used above did say "happy" once, I suspect that Fluffy is right that it's the happy-as-lucky usage, not the happy-as-we-usually-mean-it one.
Whether George Allen is Lucky or Happy is his business. Maybe he'll be both if he marches on Rome. It looks to me like the meaning of the name Felix may very well be "happy" today, though I hesitate to rely on the web for such things.
We need smacky, noted Hit & Run classic language expert, to resolve this question.
. . .certainly, that famed cat, the first to be televised I note parenthetically, was more lucky than happy. I found Felix to be rather morose at times, if not suicidal. Unlike, say, Scratchy, who seems happy when not being mauled in some manner.
If you wish to end this, Fluffy, then just agree that, as the sources keep showing, "felix" meant "happy, fortunate" - both terms, neither one archaic or obscure - in Latin, and that the Latin-derived English name "Felix" means "happy."
To unlock the [nonexistent] mystery about Sulla's cognomen, I would refer everyone to GP Baker's excellent Sulla the Fortunate, which pretty much settles the issue in its title, but also specifies in Chapter XI, "The Dictatorship of Sulla", that the dictator requested the title "the Fortunate" from the prostate Senate in order to honor the gods, whose favor to him had brought him extraordinary luck.
He had been informally called this for years, largely as a result of the fact that his branch of the Cornelian gens had fallen into poverty, but he personally had become wealthy because people who named him in their wills had a knack for suddenly dying out of the blue. He had been called "lucky Sulla" as a sort of ironic joke, the way a dittohead might say Ted Kennedy was "lucky" that night at Chappaquiddick, and Sulla was the type of guy who would take your ironic joke and beat you in the face with it for a few years before he had you proscribed and murdered.
I literally cannot find a single source that lists "Felix" as meaning "Lucky" without "Happy.
4. Spanish (Félix), Portuguese, English, German, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from a medieval personal name (Latin Felix, genitive Felicis, meaning ‘lucky’, ‘fortunate’). This was a relatively common Roman family name, said to have been first adopted as a nickname by Sulla. It was very popular among early Christians and was borne by a large number of early saints.
Uh, no, Fluffy. I'm relying on the fact that the dictionaries and translators - even the one you provided - spew up "felix" when one enters "happy."
Clipping now, joe?
I attempted to educate you regarding the fact that the only reason that happens is because one meaning of the word "happy" is itself "lucky".
If the word "happy" has "lucky" as one of its meanings, if you plug it into a translator you will get the Latin word for "lucky" as one of the possibilities. This should not be this difficult for you to understand. You seem to be being led astray by your excessive fondness for using baby name directories as sources.
If "felix" actually meant "happy" in the way you're trying to use it, it should also come up if you plug the word "glad" into a translator. And it won't.
Touche, Pro Libertate. Touche. Sulla was too late in the Republic for the use of the term "cognomen" to be apt [or happy]. My bad.
