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From: "febo@delenda.net" <febo@delenda.net>
Subject: Re: 'Antani'
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Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:13:56 GMT
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In le message del Mon, 04 Jul 2005 22:43:06 GMT, Cgao Coma ha scripte:
> Hi
>
> I recently jumped into this ancient english term, ANTANI,
> I don't know the meaning, neither the origin.
> It should concern the tuscan city of Florence (X-posted), but not for sure.
>
> Can anybody help, and explain, thanks.
There are many theories regarding the origin of this strange word, which is
indeed vernacularly used in the city of Florence.
- "Antani" is a family name or patronimic often used in Hindi and
Urdu-speaking populations. It's a well known fact that Florence was visited
by a young indian prince in the XIX century. The prince died suddenly in
town, and was cremated in the Cascine park. A century later a new bridge on
the river Arno, the Indiano bridge, was dedicated to his memory.
- "Antanus" is a name widely used in Lithuania. It's thought that some
Litvich Jews escaping a zarist pogrom sought asylum in the Florentine
Ghetto about 170 years ago. The classically trained civil servants of the
time mistakenly took "Antanus" for a Latin second declination word in -us,
and therefore assigned the surname "Antani" to the sons of a rabbi called
Antanus. In the Italian language many surnames have been created out of the
genitive of the father's name. E.g. Fabio Guglielmi, Fabio son of
Guglielmus.
- Cantanos or Cantania (greek name Kantanos) is a small village in Crete.
It's thought that one the many Greek immigrants inhabiting the world famous
Borgo de' Greci during the Middle Ages was born in that village. As you
probably know the tuscan dialect spoken in Florence has a tendency to
pronounce the initial hard C of a word as a aspirated H (casa = hasa, this
is actually a phonetic substrate stemming directly from ancient Etruscan).
This way the legendary merchant Stavros Cantanos became Stavros Hantanos
and finally after three or four generations his lineage bore the family
name Antani.
- References to the dreaded Hanta virus which you may come up with are to
be disregarded. Word's usage has been well attested year before the
discovery of the Hanta strain!
- The word was popularized exactly 30 years ago in the seminal comedy film
about friendship and repressed homosexuality "Amici Miei" directed by
Monicelli and written by Pietro Germi. "Antani" is one the more remarkable
words used in the ramblings of the dyslexic count Raffaello Mascetti. It
has no particular meaning in the movie, it's simply the effect of Afasol, a
powerful popper drug surreptitiously administrated by Mascetti's physician
friend, Professor Sassaroli, a drug known to induce aphasia. It's possible
that Mascetti, Germi that is, was simply remembering one of his old high
school friends named Antani.
The lines from the movie have re-entered the popular language in Florence
and elsewhere in Italy: this ancient word full of mistery is now used to
evocate the times of glory of an ancient, noble past which will probably
never return. "Come fosse Antani", "It's as if Antani were still with us!"
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