Clever Analysis
The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.
…Henry Ward Beecher
 
Daffy-nition
Obstinacy: The strength of the weak.
 
From the Word Lab
The Armenian word for eggplant is smpoog. However, our parents and grandparents would often use the Turkish word patlijan, which is not surprising, considering the constraints placed upon their speaking the Armenian language. The Dikranagerdtsis use the word badinjan, which is what eggplant is called in Persian.
 
What’s in a Name?
Hajakian: (As told to Uncle Garabed by Yeghishe Hajakian)
Once there lived a man named Hagop who was a supervisor at the stable of the Padishah of the land. His jovial disposition and assiduous attitude for his work had earned him an unswerving trust of his employer, his master, his king. The people around him, the Turks, could not pronounce his Armenian name Hagop, instead they called him Akuh.
One bright day the Padishah receives a gift from some prince. It was a most ravishing, gorgeous looking, rare breed of an Arabian white horse. Akuh, the horse keeper, falls in love with this horse and decides to steal it and ride all the way to Jerusalem. He disappears for seven years never to be heard from.
The Padishah, realizing that Akuh was more valuable to him than just a horse, issues a firman (an edict) declaring that he has forgiven Akuh for his misdemeanor and that wherever this Akuh is, he should return to the court and resume his work at the stable.
Lo and behold, Akuh returns home with a big welcome to spend the rest of his life as a contrite employee and determined to make up for his mistake. The horse had passed away, but in Jerusalem he had become emblazoned with a cross tattooed on his wrist, thus becoming a Hadji. The Turks, therafter, call him Hadji Akuh.
Hadji Akuh was Yeghishe’s great, great, great, great, great grandfather.
Yeghishe was born in Lebanon as Hadjiakuian (son of Hadji Akuh). It was too long, so he shortened it to Hajakian.