Bertha

Bertha is a female Germanic name, from Old High German berhta meaning "bright one".

The name occurs as a theonym, surviving as Berchta, a figure in Alpine folklore connected to the Wild Hunt, probably an epithet of *Frijjō in origin.

Bertha appears as a Frankish given name from as early as the 6th century. The monothematic Bertha as a given name may however not originate with the theonym but rather as a short form of dithematic given names including the "bright" element. This is notably the case with the mother of Charlemagne, Bertrada (properly berht-rada "bright counsel") called "Bertha Broadfoot". Carolingian uses of the name Bertha, as in the case of Bertha, daughter of Charlemagne and Bertha, daughter of Lothair II, are in this tradition.

In modern times, the name is associated with machines that are abnormally large, and many large machines are nicknamed Bertha. This is largely because of the World-War I howitzer known as Big Bertha.

Women named Bertha include:

Bertha (TV series)

Bertha is a British stop motion-animated children's television series about a factory machine of that name, comprising 13 episodes that aired from 1985 to 1986. Other major characters in the series were Mr Willmake (factory owner), Mr Sprott (Bertha's chief designer) and Tracy (Mr Sprott's young assistant). All the characters were designed by Ivor Wood, and the series was produced by his company, Woodland Animations. It was broadcast on BBC Television.

A series of six storybooks based on Bertha was published by André Deutsch at the same time as the series was broadcast. They were adapted by Eric Charles and illustrated by Steve Augarde, who was also responsible for the artwork and music in the children's series Bump.

Plot

The series is set in an industrial estate occupied by the Spottiswood & Company factory, a small manufacturing plant producing a wide range of goods ranging from cuckoo clocks to windmill money boxes. Each episode focuses on a machine called Bertha that can produce any item requested of her. In each episode the factory experiences a crisis affecting its daily production schedule, which Bertha invariably solves with the help of her factory worker friends.

Bertha (drag boat)

Bertha is a steam powered boat built in 1844 to remove silt from the Port of Bridgwater in Somerset, England. It is the oldest operational steam vessel in Britain, and possibly in the world. It is part of the National Historic Fleet.

The boat was built, of riveted iron, in Bristol by Lunnel, G & Co copying a design, by John McLean, developed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to deal with silt in the Floating Harbour. It is a Bed leveler or plough dredger, with a large metal blade, which could be lowered at the stern of the boat, below the water similar to a bulldozer on land.

Bertha is 50 feet (15 m) long and 15.5 feet (4.7 m) wide, with a tonnage of 60 tons. The power is from a coal fired single cylinder steam engine providing steam at 40 pounds per square inch (280 kPa). A large flywheel and drive shaft drove a single-reduction spur wheel drive. It moved by being pulled along chains anchored on the quay.

Bertha worked in Bridgwater Docks, after the connection of the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal to the River Parrett, from 1844 until 1969. The vessel was initially owned by the Great Western Railway and then British Railways. She was then taken to the Exeter Maritime Museum. In 1997 it moved to the World of Boats at Eyemouth where it is being restored.

Butt

Butt may refer to:

See also

Bhat

Bhat (Hindustani: भट (Devanagari), بھٹ (Nastaleeq)), also spelled as Butt (Pahari: بٹ), both of which are a shortened rendition of Bhatta, also spelled Bhatt, (Hindustani: भट्ट (Devanagari), بھٹٹ (Nastaleeq)), is a common surname in India and Pakistan.

Etymology

Historians state the surname is a distorted form of Bhatta, which originates from Sanskrit (भटट), meaning "scholar" according o the Brāhmaṇa. While the original shortened rendition of "Bhatta" was "Bhat" or "Bhatt," many of the migrants to the Punjab region started spelling their surname as "But" or "Butt" which is the spelling of the clan used in the Pahari language.

Origin

The earliest reference of Bhatt can be found in Chandragupta Maurya's empire. In Mudrarakshasa, while describing different divisions in Chandragupta's army, a reference can be found to Bhatt-Bala. Here Bala means a division, hence Bhatt-Bala would mean a division composed of Bhatt.

People named Bhat or Butt were said to be a clan of Brahmin descendants of intellectual Vedic and Dardic saints that inhabited the banks of the Saraswati River, which ran dry around 2000 BC. This forced the community to migrate to the Kashmir region of the Indian subcontinent in search of "ultimate truth".

Butt (name)

Butt is a German and an English surname whose origins lie in the South West peninsula region of England.

Etymology

The surname Butt or Butts is mistakenly said to be derived from the French word "but" which is a verb meaning "aim" or "target". The English name is derived from the Middle English word "but", a noun meaning a mark for archery, a target or goal. The name may derive from butt, a strip of ploughland shorter than the average length of one furlong.

History

Anglo-Norman names are characterised by a multitude of spelling variations. When the Normans became the ruling people of England in the 11th century, they introduced a new language into a society where the main languages of Old and later Middle English had no definite spelling rules. These languages were more often spoken than written, so they blended freely with one another. Contributing to this mixing of tongues was the fact that medieval scribes spelled words according to sound, ensuring that a person's name would appear differently in nearly every document in which it was recorded. The name has been spelled Butt, But, Butte and others.