Arthur is a common male name, meaning "bear-like," believed to possibly be descended from the Roman surname Artorius ("plowman") or the Celtic bear-goddess Artio or more probably from the Celtic word artos ("bear"). Other Celtic languages have similar first names, such as Old Irish Art, Artúur, Welsh Arth - which may also be the source for the modern name. Art is also a diminutive form of the common name Arthur. In many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages the name is spelled as Artur. The Finnish version is Arttu.
Etymology
The origin of the name Arthur remains a matter of debate. Some suggest it is derived from the Latin family name Artorius, of obscure and contested etymology.[2] Others propose a derivation from Welsh arth (earlier art), meaning "bear", suggesting art-ur, "bear-man", (earlier *Arto-uiros) is the original form, although there are difficulties with this theory.[3] It may be relevant to this debate that the legendary King Arthur's name appears as Arthur, or Arturus, in early Latin Arthurian texts, never as Artorius. However, this may not say anything about the origin of the name Arthur, as Artorius would regularly become Art(h)ur when borrowed into Welsh.[4] An alternative theory links the name Arthur to Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, near Ursa Major or the Great Bear. Classical Latin Arcturus would also have become Art(h)ur when borrowed into Welsh, and its brightness and position in the sky led people to regard it as the "guardian of the bear" and the "leader" of the other stars in Boötes.[5]
People, characters and animals with the given name Arthur
People
- King Arthur, the legendary British ruler.
- Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (1187–1203)
- Arthur, Prince of Wales (1486–1502)
- Arthur Ashe (1943–1993), American athlete and author
- Arthur Askey, CBE (1900–1982), English comedian
- Arthur Balfour (1848–1930), British Foreign Secretary
- Blessed Arthur Bell, 17th century Catholic martyr
- Arthur Burns (born 1954), American discus thrower
- Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008), British author
- Arthur Cravan (1887–1918?), British boxer, poet and pre-Dadaist
- Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), British writer, and creator of the character Sherlock Holmes
- Arthur Davis (disambiguation), various
- Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944), British astrophysicist
- Arthur Fiedler (1894–1979), long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra
- Arthur Freeman, Russian Jewish writer
- Art Garfunkel (born 1941), American musician and actor
- Arthur Golden (born 1956), American author
- Arthur Griffith (1872–1922), founder and first leader of the Irish political movement Sinn Féin
- Arthur Koestler (1905–1983), Hungarian polymath
- Arthur Kornberg (born 1918), American biochemist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1959
- Arthur Lowe (1915–1982), English actor
- Arthur Mafokate, South African kwaito musician and producer
- Arthur Miller (1915–2005), American playwright, essayist and author
- Arthur C. Miller (1895–1970), American cinematographer
- Arthur Rackham (1867–1939), British book illustrator
- (Jean Nicolas) Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891), French poet
- Arthur Rowe (athlete) (1936-2003), English shot putter
- Arthur Rubin (born 1956), American mathematician
- Arthur Scargill (born 1938), former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers and current leader of the Socialist Labour Party
- Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), German philosopher
- Arthur Shawcross (born 1945), American serial killer
- Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), English composer best known for his operatic collaborations with librettist W. S. Gilbert
- Arthur Treacher (1894–1975), English actor
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), Irish-born British soldier and statesman
Animals
Fictional characters
- Arthur the Artificial Intelligence, a fictional character from the Journeyman Project computer games
- Arthur Bach, a character played by Dudley Moore in the movie Arthur (film)
- Arthur the chimpanzee, from Lillian Hoban's children's books
- Arthur Curry, the DC Comics superhero known as Aquaman
- Arthur Daley, lead character played by George Cole in the British comedy-drama Minder (TV series)
- Arthur Dent, a "mild-mannered Earthman" whose planet is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Arthur Fancy, NYPD Lieutenant on NYPD Blue.
- Arthur Holland, LAPD Deputy Chief on Dark Blue.
- Arthur Penhaligon, main character in The Keys to the Kingdom series
- Arthur (plant), a running gag in MAD Magazine
- Arthur Read, the aardvark from the Arthur children's books by Marc Brown and the PBS television series Arthur
- Arthur (Soul Calibur), a minor character in Soul Calibur, as a replacement for Mitsurugi in nations where it is forbidden to feature samurai in games
- Arthur Spooner, a character on the television sitcom The King of Queens played by Jerry Stiller
- Arthur (Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends), a character in Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
- Arthur (The Tick), sidekick of superhero The Tick
- Arthur Trine from Gundam Seed Destiny
- Arthur Weasley, from the Harry Potter books
- Sergeant Arthur Wilson, character played by John Le Mesurier in the British sitcom Dad's Army
Tropical cyclones
- Tropical Storm Arthur (a disambiguation page): Arthur is the name of several tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic and Fiji cyclone naming areas.
See also
Notes
- ^ Barber 1986, p. 141
- ^ Malone 1925
- ^ See Higham 2002, p. 74.
- ^ Koch 1996, p. 253
- ^ Anderson 2004, pp. 28–29; Green 2007b, pp. 191–4.
References
- Anderson, Graham (2004), King Arthur in Antiquity, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0415317146 .
- Barber, Richard (1986), King Arthur: Hero and Legend, Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, ISBN 0851152546 .
- Green, Thomas (August, 2007), "Tom Thumb and Jack the Giant Killer: Two Arthurian Fairytales?", Folklore 118(2): 123-40, <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=25902140&site=ehost-live> . (EBSCO subscription required for online access.)
- Green, Thomas (2007b), Concepts of Arthur, Stroud: Tempus, ISBN 978-0752444611, <http://www.arthuriana.co.uk/concepts> .
- Higham, N. J. (2002), King Arthur, Myth-Making and History, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0415213059 .
- Koch, John T. (1996), "The Celtic Lands", in Lacy, Norris J., Medieval Arthurian Literature: A Guide to Recent Research, New York: Garland, pp. 239–322, ISBN 978-0815321606 .
- Koch, John T. & Carey, John (1994), The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe and Early Ireland and Wales, Malden, MA: Celtic Studies Publications, ISBN 978-0964244627 .
- Malone, Kemp (May, 1925), "Artorius", Modern Philology 22(4): 367-74, <http://www.jstor.org/stable/433555> . (JSTOR subscription required for online access.)
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