i was at the vet the other day with all three of the knuckleheads, for their yearly check-ups. my vet happens to be a friend of mine, which is a good thing. i highly recommend that you befriend a vet if you have animals. anyway, as the vet was doing black lab selah's exam, she asked what "selah" means and how selah got her name.
now, anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that i love word etymologies. i gave the vet the short answer right then and there, but later i went home, did a little bit of research and emailed her a big, long answer. because that's how i am.
so, back to selah and her name. first off, it's pronounced "SAY-luh." and second off, i didn't name her. selah came into my world about 3 years ago, when her then-owner decided to move to hawai'i. at the time, hawai'i didn't have rabies on any of the islands and therefore had a six-month quarantine for all visiting animals. selah's owner decided not to put her through that, and a friend of a friend mentioned that selah needed a good home. so that's how i got her.
her previous owner is some combination of an old testament scholar and a yoga master. "selah" is a word that appears in the old testatment a lot, and it appears to indicate a pause or stillness. that's the short answer i gave the vet.
the longer answer is that "selah" ("celah") comes from the hebrew word "calah," which means "to hang," and implies hanging a weight for measure, like in a balance. "selah" came to mean "weigh," as in "weigh someone's words," or, basically, that we should measure or value what has been said. that's why so many old testament verses end with it: "Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah." (Psalms 4:4).
i'm no biblical scholar, but i find this pretty fascinating.
it's a great name for a great dog -- unusual, meaningful, and, in selah's case, fitting.
so, how'd you decide on a name for your dog(s) or cat(s)?
