The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #77798   Message #1394525
Posted By: Nerd
31-Jan-05 - 02:06 PM
Thread Name: What are jubal hounds?
Subject: RE: What are jubal hounds?
Yes, nutty, we've seen the biblical Jubal before. But it makes little sense in this context. It is a proper name, a noun, for one thing. Even though the name "Stephen" means "crowned," we would not expect someone to say that "Queen Elizabeth was stephen on a Sunday." In the same way, even if "Jubal" means "he who runs" we would not expect a footrace to be described as "jubal men" or a hunt to be described as "jubal hounds."

In any case the claim that the name "Jubal" means "he who runs" comes ONLY from that source, "Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary," which seems a bit dodgy in not agreeing with any other dictionaries. It's even dodgy in itself, since "he that runs" should strictly be either "he who runs" or "that which runs!"

When looking for an adjective, if I am confronted with a choice between an English adjective from the OED and an adjectivized form of the meaning of a biblical name given in a dictionary I've never heard of, I'd take the OED version.