meaning of the name 'The Heptite Guild'

[Sniff]

Hello everybody!
I'm Russian, and now I'm reading a great trilogy 'Crystal Singer' by Anne McCaffrey. The first book of the trilogy, 'Crystal Singer', has been translated in Russian, so I've read it in my own language. But other two books haven't been translated yet, so I'm trying to read them in English now.
I'm little confused with name of the singers' guild: 'The Heptite Guild', and Google hasn't been able to help me. In a translation of the first book it has been named 'The 7th Guild' (in Russian), but I'm not sure it's a correct translation.
Could anyone tell me, has this name a sence, or, maybe, it's a nonsence word? Maybe it has a hidden meaning, play on words, that obvious for any native speaker? Can it be translated in Russian? Or just transcripted?

P.S. Sorry for my English, I'm not very good at it.

[Brenda]

I think it's just a name - just like Ballybran and Fuerte and Killashandra.

[Hans]

I alwasy though it had to do with the heptagon shape.

[Sniff]

Originally Posted by Hans

I alwasy though it had to do with the heptagon shape.

I've thought about it, but then I've figured out, that the symbol of Heptite Guild is dodecahedron, which has twelve flat faces, each of which is the pentagon. So I've suggested there are no connection with the heptagon...

[Cheryl]

It's clearly been way too long since I read the Crystal books, but were there perhaps 7 colors of crystal? Hmm, white, pink, blue, green, black. Was there yellow? Still one short even with yellow.

Were there 7 founders perhaps? I remember there was one main guy that discovered crystal and figured out how to mine it, but to make a guild you need multiple members.

At any rate, 'hept' would seem to refer to seven of something. The 'ite' ending I think is just to reference crystals as many mineral names end in 'ite.'


Oh, and welcome to MoM, Sniff!

[Kath]

Originally Posted by Cheryl

It's clearly been way too long since I read the Crystal books, but were there perhaps 7 colors of crystal? Hmm, white, pink, blue, green, black. Was there yellow? Still one short even with yellow.

Were there 7 founders perhaps? I remember there was one main guy that discovered crystal and figured out how to mine it, but to make a guild you need multiple members.

At any rate, 'hept' would seem to refer to seven of something. The 'ite' ending I think is just to reference crystals as many mineral names end in 'ite.'


Oh, and welcome to MoM, Sniff!

Cheryl beat me to it - I was going to suggest '7 founders' + 'mineral-sounding ending'

[Sniff]

Originally Posted by Cheryl

At any rate, 'hept' would seem to refer to seven of something. The 'ite' ending I think is just to reference crystals as many mineral names end in 'ite.'

Originally Posted by Kath

Cheryl beat me to it - I was going to suggest '7 founders' + 'mineral-sounding ending'

I've thought about a mineral name. I've suggested it can be an official name of crystals that singers mine. I've tried to find the word 'heptite' anywhere but in the name of the guild, and I haven't found anything. So I've decided I was wrong.
But you're right! It can be a name of an imaginary mineral, which is connected to number seven, which is connected to the history of the guild!
It's a very good suggestion. I think I can transcribe the word 'Heptite' in Russian as an imaginary word 'Гепталит', which is developed by same rules (the word 'Гептит' in Russian means an heptatomic alcohol, so I can't use it this way, and 'Гепталит' just sounds better ).
Thank you all!

Originally Posted by Cheryl

Oh, and welcome to MoM, Sniff!

Thank you! Btw, 'A Meeting of Minds' is a very good name for a forum. I like it

[Brenda]

I've always pronounced it to rhyme with "petite", rather than "uptight"... I never even noticed!

[Hans]

Originally Posted by Sniff

Thank you! Btw, 'A Meeting of Minds' is a very good name for a forum. I like it

It's the name of an Anne McCaffrey short story, Sniff

[Sniff]

Originally Posted by Hans

It's the name of an Anne McCaffrey short story, Sniff

I didn't know it. But anyway it's a good name for the forum too

[Hans]

Yesl, it is. The combination of both things is probably the reason why Cheryl chose it

[Lady Maelin]

Greetings and WELCOME, to our new memeber from RUSSIA...how wonderful to have you here.

[Sniff]

Thank you, Lady. Nice to meet you too!

[kindan]

I've read the Crystal Singer series more than any other series of books period, and I don't remember any explanation of the name being given. I'll probably read them again in the next few months and check back.

Welcome, Sniff!

[Sniff]

There aren't any explanation. I haven't read all the books yet, but I've searched them for the word 'heptite', and I haven't found any explanation. Although, I still think this name must have a sense.

Nice to meet you, kindan!

[Hans]

Damn, we can't ask Anne any more...

[Lady Maelin]

I have always thought that the name had to do with the minerals the crystals were made out of...something like was mentioned above.

Sniff...you really need to try and keep reading the *Crystal* series...it's all wonderful. Then if I may suggest, give the *The Ship Who Sang* and the rest of the *Ship* series a read. The Ship Who Sang was Anne's favorite book...and mine too.

[Sniff]

Originally Posted by Hans

Damn, we can't ask Anne any more...

Yes, it's a sorrow

Originally Posted by Lady Maelin

Sniff...

I'm not going to stop reading My English isn't very good, but I can read fast enough, if I just catch the sense of sentences. Although, I think the book of one of my favorite autors is worth to be translated carefully, word by word, so I'll be able to understand all the shades of the sense. So it takes a lot of time, and unfortunately I'm translating the book very very slow. After all, I'm a professional software developer, not a translator

I've already read 'The Ship Who Sang' and I've found it exciting! But I haven't read yet other books in the series (it's a shame, I know ). I'm going to do it some time in the future.

[P'ter]

I 'assumed' that it refered to a seven-sided ring molecule, rather than the six-sided ones we tend to get on earth.

[Cria]

Originally Posted by Brenda

I've always pronounced it to rhyme with "petite", rather than "uptight"... I never even noticed!

And I've always pronounced it to rhyme with "uptight" and never thought of alternate pronunciations...

I always assumed it just had something to do with seven and sounding crystal-like, too. Like they needed some kind of crystal-sounding name, and "Heptite" just came to them or something.

[Bruce]

I always pronounced it to rhyme with "uptight" myself. I always thought it funny when you talk to someone else and find they have a different pronoucation. In our mind's eye we just have our own interperatation.

[ghost8772]

Originally Posted by P'ter

I 'assumed' that it refered to a seven-sided ring molecule, rather than the six-sided ones we tend to get on earth.

I was going to suggest that. Since Anne seemed to have a reason behind every name she seemed to have put out Fuerte translates into "Duty" - appropriate at the time. from one of the romantic languages. So it could have been a seven molecule carbon crystal lattice, instead of the six we get on Earth.

[Angry Plecostomus]

Originally Posted by ghost8772

I was going to suggest that. Since Anne seemed to have a reason behind every name she seemed to have put out Fuerte translates into "Duty" - appropriate at the time. from one of the romantic languages. So it could have been a seven molecule carbon crystal lattice, instead of the six we get on Earth.

Silicon or other interesting crystal structure rather than carbon.

We have heptane on earth. Along with several other -tanes that make up gasoline (or petrol, if you must). Hydrocarbons are amazing things!

[Cheryl]

I can't believe we didn't think of this before, but another obvious iteration of seven that relates to Ballybran crystal: 7 musical notes on the diatonic music scale, e.g. C–D–E–F–G–A–B. Given the musicality of crystal, this seems notable!

I've just finished a re-read, and there are definitely seven colors of crystal: white, yellow, green, blue, amethyst, and black.

There are also seven shapes that crystal is cut into: rectangular prism, tetrahedron or pyramid, pentagonal prism, octagonal prism, cone, cylinder, and dodecahedron.

My new pet theory is that the name Heptite was chosen because of all of these occurrences of seven as related to crystal, in addition to a speculated seven founding members.

[Likely names of those founders, as taken from Ballybran geography: Barry Milekey, Brerreton, Buland, Hoyland, Joslin, Ballinteer, Ghanghe, and Tortugal.]

[ghost8772]

Nice arguments there. could have been.