Published Book By Dr S E Maturin

[alltoseek]

From the film's deleted scenes, chapter "Shipboard Life":

Bonden reads out the title, we are shown the subtitle and authorship:

DISEASES
MOST USUAL AMONG
SEAMEN
====================================================

AN Examination of Existing Conditions with particular
attention given to the Pervasive Corrupting Influence
of the GROG ration.

====================================================

BY DR. S. E. M A T U R I N.
Of TRINITY COLLEGE, Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY
====================================================

FIRST EDITION

If anyone has a screencap I would be happy to add it!

Comments

[alltoseek]

Why does 'John' abbreviate to 'Jno'?

That is the oddest thing...

I think that's why I kept thinking he was Jonathon. Because why even bother with an abbreviation for 'John'? Seems plenty short already.

[heather_mist]

It is very odd and not one that I would ever think of using myself - but according to a British Geneology forumthat I looked up,
"Jno. is an abbreviation of the Latin Johannes. In medieval Latin this could be written as Jhohannes, abbreviated Jho. It has been suggested that the second letter (h) lost its ascender over the years, and came to be written as n. So the abbreviation became Jno."

I have no idea whether this is right or not - but it is an explanation of sorts I suppose.
*shrugs nonplussed*
(I wonder if anyone ever shrugs plussed?!)

[alltoseek]

So he's Johannes Aubrey! *g*


plussed - there's another one, alright.

[feroxargentea]

I had thought it was Johannes to Jns - and then if you write the s in that circular sort of way that people often do, it mutates into Jno. I probably just made that up, though.

Medieval scribes must have got pretty tired of writing it, since every other man was called John (or else had some barbaric Welsh name for which any civilised scribe would substitute "John")

[sharpiefan]

Because Jon is short for Jonathan, my plum. And you cannot sign a formal document, such as a report, as 'Jack', for all love.

[alltoseek]

you cannot sign a formal document, such as a report, as 'Jack'

Well, duh, but you can sign it as 'John' :P

So what's short for 'Johnathon'?


And if John can shorten to Jno I don't see why either Jonathon or Johnathon can't also shorten to Jno. English is weird.

[feroxargentea]

Why would you put an "h" in Jonathan? Does anyone do that? *puzzled*

Jon or Jonny as a diminutive, but I guess it's not a common enough name to need a formal abbreviation. If it did, would it be Jno'n??

[alltoseek]

Why would you put an "h" in Jonathan? Does anyone do that? *puzzled*

In 2011 "Johnathan" ranked #240 in name popularity, and "Jonathan" ranked #31. There are several other sort-of commonish variants, like "Jonathon" with (#820) and without an 'h' (#612), and even less common variants.

So yeah, no-h beats with-h, but both are actually relatively common.

I expect the 'h' is in there sometimes for the same reason it is in "John" (#27). "Jon" (#687) without the h is much less common.

Maybe the UK is stricter with name spellings, but in the US variations are very common. For example, in 2011, "Stephen" ranked #229 and "Steven" #124.

[feroxargentea]

Let me look. In England, John is #99, Jack is #3 (although it would be bumped to #4 by Mohammed if you added up the spelling variants of the latter), and no variant of Jonathan or Stephen makes the top 100 (which is all the Office of National Statistics is giving).

[heather_mist]

Because Jon is short for Jonathan, my plum.
Jon might be but Jonathan doesn't shorten to 'Jack', (being a name with a different root and eytmology) and John does. So Jack is John, written Jno...

Yeah, makes no sense to me either, but that's the English language for you!

[sharpiefan]

I love my language, its illogical nature notwithstanding. :D