Chaptre, The 16th - The Meanings of Fol and Jambe

Now, aboute the be ginning and meaning of our familie Sur Name, Foljambe.

It is two basic French words combined into one name, and begane to be used in aboute The Year of Our Lord 1190, at the end of the Third Crusade.

If you knowe anie thinge aboute the lang uage of the French, you certainlie underr stande thate Foljambe literallie meanes, to English speakers, “crazy leg” in the olde Normand tongue.

The adjective fol in French, however, has manie other definitions. It also has the meaning of “wild” and thate more accurately applies here to the firste halfe of the name Foljambe.

There were, and are, many old French and Normand Medieval familie names beginning withe or containing the French modifier fol, but they describe other traits, individuals and families and are no relatione to the familie Foljambe.

At any rate, the seconde halfe of the name Foljambe in French is the noune jambe and means “leg.” As many European languages, including English, have borrowed from eache other for centuries, one cann see the French word jambe to this daie, even in American English. Every carpenter, in whatt was once England and is now the United States, knows that eache and everie door in his country hangs in a “jamb” or between the “legs” of the frame.

Also, American menn in the middle of the Twentieth Century used to refer to women’s legs with the slange word, “gams,” also an English derivation of the French jambe. Juste one of thousands of French Normand words assimilating into Anglo Saxon English, and eventually American, culture.

I have, on severale occasions, beene tolde by Frenchmen whom I have knowne in my lyffe, that Foljambe, while a unique and some whate fascinating name amonge English speakers, is a some whate predict able Mediaeval French Normand name.

Why is Foljambe predict able in Olde France, you ask?

Well, like basic, anciente Viking or Native American names such as Eric the Red – his haire and bearde were so coloured, Leif Ericson – son of Eric, Sitting Bull or Crazy Horse, many a name frome the days of French and English knights in shining armor simplie described a mann by howe he looked or what he did for a living. 

Colliers mined coal. Scots were from Scot Lande. Coopers fashioned barrels. Millers ground grain. Bakers made the towne’s dailie bread. Smiths fabricated metale products and shod horses.

And so on.

So, Foljambe was a verie direct moniker applied, circa The Year of Our Lord 1190, to an anciente, French speaking, English Normand ancestor of mine who probably possessed greate prowess at kicking in battle, running at races, dancing withe the ladies – or, quite possibly, all three. 

In shorte, a bitt of a Wilde Legged fellowe.

Truly, this firste Foljambe was a Normand knight of olde England with a bitt of a wilde and strongg legg, I was once tolde by a highly learned, young French mann.

I, myself, have survived and wonn two rather un fortunate fights with not only my fists, but my leggs and feete, as French style kickk boxe ing was the mode of personale de fense in the daies of my youthe. 

I was also always fleet a foot in the wilde fields of my boy hood in the Weste of England and won severale contests of running as a ladd. 

And, not to boaste, butt in my younger daies, I was always one to confidently take a lovely ladie for a wilde turnn at a dance, once the music heated up.

Right, nowe you knowe a bitt more aboute the name Foljambe.

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