Quotation
Tea! That's all I needed! Good cup of tea! Super-heated infusion of free-radicals and tannin, just the thing for healing the synapses.
— Russell T. Davies
“You're like a lighthouse shining beside the sea of humanity, motionless: all you can see is your own reflection in the water. You're alone, so you think it's a vast, magnificent panorama. You haven't sounded the depths. You simply believe in the beauty of God's creation. But I have spent all this time in the water, diving deep into the howling ocean of life, deeper than anyone. While you were admiring the surface, I saw the shipwrecks, the drowned bodies, the monsters of the deep”
— Alfred De Musset
Reflection
What does the following list of letter/number groupings mean: TheBarkKnight; axlbeau260; Domagoj83; Shanghai Sigh; FreeRangeRange; AydansLair; FD-148; Katrina666; promar1963; fabian985; Madmax16117; Mommylittle; The Rusty Banana; Dream Sequence; ChopNutz; Loose Tannin.
Kind of bizarre, right? Can you find a pattern or some common theme in the list above, or is it just a chaotic, jumbled list of senseless gibberish?
Give up? Would you believe the list is taken from names people have chosen for their avatar in an online game? Because I find the names so bizarre and interesting, I started researching the word meanings and origins of the names people have chosen, to see how the names they have chosen correlate with their style of play and the character they display in chat threads.
For instance, what if the player, Loose Tannin, comes across as a negative, insensitive, dominating, rude, overly critical, narcissistic, sarcastic, vindictive, toxic person while playing the game.
So, what can we glean from the name Loose Tannin and does this information give us any clue, why that person acts the way they do?
The word loose has many meanings: not firmly held or fastened in place; not tightly controlled or exact; having low morals, sexually free; to speak or express emotions very freely especially in an uncontrolled way. Hmmmm…it would seem, the last two meanings of loose may apply to the person, Loose Tannin, I have described.
I found the etymology of the word tannin very interesting! In my research, the word tannin has three meanings.
First, the scientific definition of tannin is a phenolic-based natural product, found mostly in the bark of pine, the wattle of mimosa and hemlock, in the wood of certain trees such as oak, quebracho and sumach, and grape skins/seeds/stems. Tannins are made up of two classes of phenols, flavonoids, and non-flavonoids. Tannins bind with proteins and precipitate them from solutions, creating compounds that are insoluble in liquid such as your saliva (responsible for the characteristic taste of wines, especially red wines), important for the wine’s longevity, and the liquids used in tanning hide. Okay, chemistry class is over!
Second, in Ancestry.com, tannin is listed as a surname, found in the USA, Canada, and Scotland, between 1841 and 1920. The most Tannin families were found in the USA in 1880. In 1880 there were six Tannin families living in Pennsylvania. This was about 75% of all the recorded Tannin's in the USA. Hmmm…Loose Tannin? Could that be the reason the name was chosen, a pickup line for the person choosing this name, having low morals or sexually free?
Third, the most interesting and the most applicable to this blog, is the word derivation I found which in general means “monster”. The word tannin is of Hebrew, Syriac, and Akkadian derivation, meaning a sea monster in Canaanite and Hebrew faith, often used as a symbol of chaos and evil.
Tannin is used in the Hebrew Bible fourteen times, in the book of Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Job, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, explicitly listed as the creatures created by God on the fifth day of the Genesis creation and in other ways in the remaining books.
Tannin is listed in the apocalypse of Isaiah as among the beasts to be slain by Yahweh on that day, translated as the dragon in the King James version. Tannin is conflated with the related sea monsters Leviathan and Rahab by Christians. Tannin is also a name applied to ancient Egypt after the Exodus to Canaan. Aaron’s staff becomes Tannin, a snake, in the book of Exodus and meaning the “snake” in the book of Deuteronomy and Psalms. The word represents Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah, Pharaoh in Ezekiel, and in the book of Job, the protagonist questions God, “Am I the sea or the sea dragon that you have set guard over me”. Another interesting fact, the name Tannin has been given to the three submarines in the modern-day Israeli Navy. In modern Hebrew usage the word tannin means crocodile. Hmmm…it would seem, at least in antiquity, the word tannin has a mostly negative meaning!
Finally, when I researched the name Loose Tannin, used as a character name in an online game, the avatar chosen by that player was the avatar of Medusa. What, you couldn’t make this up, right!
The following description of Medusa is taken encyclopedia Britannica:
“Medusa, in Greek mythology, the most famous of the monster figures known as Gorgons. She was usually represented as a winged female creature having a head of hair consisting of snakes; unlike the Gorgons, she was sometimes represented as very beautiful. Medusa was the only Gorgon who was mortal; hence her slayer, Perseus, was able to kill her by cutting off her head. From the blood that spurted from her neck sprang Chrysaor and Pegasus, her two sons by Poseidon. The severed head, which had the power of turning into stone all who looked upon it, was given to Athena, who placed it in her shield; according to another account, Perseus buried it in the marketplace of Argos.
Heracles (Hercules) is said to have obtained a lock of Medusa’s hair (which possessed the same powers as the head) from Athena and given it to Sterope, the daughter of Cepheus, as a protection for the town of Tegea against attack; when exposed to view, the lock was supposed to bring on a storm, which put the enemy to flight.”
I don’t know about you, but what I found out about the name is kind of scary!
Petition:
Creator God, help me recognize the toxic people in this world so I can stay away from them before their character flaws affect me in a negative way! Instead, help me find the “good” people in this world I can associate with, to make this journey more pleasurable for the short time I’m here on this Earth!
Music
Medusa by Kailee Morgue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoxuYDvHbqs
Barry
LYRICS
There's blood in the waterAnd they're coming to bring me downWhat's hope with no saviorYeah, there's no one in this ghost town
She looked right through meAnd I turned to stoneMedusa, Medusa, I've been here alone
And I crumbled to piecesMy body, my weakness is on the floorAnd the wind will blow and blowAnd I won't be here no more
My wishing well has run dryStars are dying in the skySo I'll shed my blood and tearsI'll show no fear just to survive
She looked right through meAnd I turned to stoneOh Medusa, Medusa, I've been here aloneAhh, ahhAhhhh
She says, mortal one you've been chosenYou're beautiful, but you're brokenSo hold on to this momentAnd fight until you're hopeless
There's secrets and riddlesThat live in these wallsThere's ghosts of past heroesAnd I hear them call my nameWe won't be tamed
Oh, she looked right through meAnd I turned to stoneMedusa, Medusa, I've been here alone
She looked right through meAnd I turned to stoneOh Medusa, Medusa, I've been here alone
Ahh, ahhAhhhh
Ahh, ahhAhhhh
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