Scrabble’s Two Letter Words – My, Na & Ne
My
Belongs to me.
Also, oddly, the word ‘my’ is the only two-letter swear in the dictionary. Bet you didn’t see that one coming. When a person says ‘My, what a lovely hat’, they are technically using an old method of self-censoring, since what they are inferring is ‘my Lord’ or ‘my God’. Even the expression ‘my word’, which seems harmless in and of itself, is making a reference to the book of John, chapter one, verse one.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Hence, ‘My word’ means ‘My God’. And even if you’re using an oath that masks another oath, taking the Lord’s name in vain is still a sin. Though I’m unsure the Elizabethans understood that concept, since they worked very hard to create new words to mask when they were swearing. A few of our most fun old-timey oaths feature sacrilegious intent.
‘Zounds!’, for example, is a shortened way of saying ‘God’s Wounds!’, which references the wounds Jesus received while on the cross. ‘Gadzooks!’ is a slurring of ‘God’s Hooks!’ which refers to the nails that were driven through the hands of Jesus… again, on the cross. I guess people were a little obsessed with that image. ‘Lands sake!’ is a twisting of ‘For the Lord’s sake!’. ‘For Pete’s sake!’ doesn’t need any remixing since it already sounds innocent. But whatever stupid thing you just did, you evidently did it for the benefit of Saint Peter.
But it’s not like we don’t still use minced oaths. ‘Cheese and rice!’ intentionally sounds like the always popular, Jesus Christ. I’ll let you look up ‘Shut the front door!’ on urbandictionary.com if you don’t recognize it.
Veiling swears has never been out of vogue. As long as there’s been language, there’s been dangerous words. And humans being humans, we create ways to avoid saying those dangerous words. The Israelites, for example, knew they would invite disaster if they were so audacious as to call God by his name. So they referred to him as ‘Yahweh’, which approximately translates into ‘He brings into existence whatever exists.’ Similarly, the ancient Greeks knew better than to talk about the Furies, the goddesses of vengeance. Like a person you’d rather not meet at a party, it’s best if you don’t say their name out loud, in case you’re unlucky and happen to catch their attention. Instead, the Greeks would ironically refer to them as Eumenides, or ‘the gracious ones’.
While many people hold back on swearing, it might be doing them more harm than good. One reason is comradery. Since swearing is taboo, there’s a certain trust we put in our friends when we swear. People respond to that trust, and if they also swear, a bond is formed by two friends that are doing something a little wrong together.
But swearing is also both a stress reducer and a pain reliever. Richard Stevens, a behavioral psychologist working out of Keele University, performed a study where he took 67 test subjects and directed them to shove their hands into ice cold water. Strange hobby, but I don’t judge. He then randomly directed half of them to commit to swearing, while the other half used more neutral words to express their frustration. On average, the group that swore were able to hold their hands in the water 50% longer than the group who could only say things like “Oh, fiddle dee dee, it feels as if my hand is being stabbed by a thousand tiny knives. Golly, I wonder when this living agony will abide. Mother of pearl!”
Na
An informal way to say ‘No’. See No.
Ne
Borrowed from French, and often spelled with an accent mark, né is an indicator for the former name of a man.
We’re more used to seeing the feminine version of this word, née, since it commonly indicates a woman’s surname before she was married. For example: “Jessica Timberlake, née Jessica Biel, says that she won the jackpot of names when she married Justin Timberlake. But it didn’t hurt that she could distance herself from the box office bomb, ‘Playing for Keeps’.”
Men occasionally change their name when they marry too. But neither née nor né need refer to pre/post-matrimony. The French word ‘né’ means ‘born’. So it can refer to any given name a person was born into. For example: “Before he became a rock star, Freddie Mercury né Farrokh Bulsara, spent his younger years with his family in the UK territory of Tanzania. His mustache was born in England.”
There are, of course, any number of reasons why a person might want to change their name. They might want to better fit into their adopted culture. Or sometimes a child’s surname is changed following a divorce. Or a trans person might desire a name that better expresses their gender. All totally normal answers.
And then there are the fun answers. King Arthur Uther Pendragon, né John Rothwell, was once a biker who became a neo-drudic leader and considers himself to be the living reincarnation of King Arthur.
Adam West, né Adam Armstrong, otherwise known as TV’s original Batman, once found his flight booked under the wrong name when he was 19. Since the fine to correct this mistake was an outrageous £220, Adam legally changed his name and his passport, and walked onto the plane newly christened as the Adam West the airline company preferred him to be.
Santa Claus, né Frank Pascuzzi, wanted to turn his seasonal job into a year long career. Now when children ask if he’s the real Santa Claus, he can pull out his driver’s license and show them.
And sometimes you work with what you got. Some time after a night of heavy drinking, Big Crazy Lester, né Joel Whittle, discovered he legally changed his name while blacked out. Instead of going through the process of changing it back, he leaned into it. Sometimes your name changes without your awareness in the middle of one crazy night. Sometimes you roll with it.
Are you a logophile eager to learn more? Why not head on over to the Scrabble’s Two Letter Words Page?
