Bleicheröde -> (Blicero) -> Blicker?

[jbor at bigpond.com]

>> Pynchon links "Bleicherode" <http://www.bleicherode.de/>, "Blicker", 
>> "Blicero" etc. to death, but his etymologies are highly dubious. 
>> "Blicker", "the nickname the early Germans gave to Death" might be 
>> his own invention. German "Blick", "bleich", "Blech" etc. all derive 
>> from a word meaning "brightly shining".

On 01/12/2005 Ghetta Life wrote:

> Maybe it is a Pynchon invention.  But in the world of GR, that's all 
> you need to know the message being conveyed...
>
> Again, from Hyperarts:  "Enzian's found the name Bleicheröde close 
> enough to "Blicker," the nickname the early Germans gave to Death. 
> They saw him white bleaching and blankness." (322); "the names of 
> death-towns unreel, and surely Bleicheröde or Blicero will be spoken 
> any minute now...." (695); "is he Blicker, Bleicheröde, Bleacher, 
> Blicero, extending, rarefying the Caucasian pallor to an abolition of 
> pigment, of melanin, of spectrum, of separateness from shade to shade" 
> (759)

Yes, it's very significant that it's Enzian who makes this etymological 
link, and that the word association is used to refer to Gottfried's 
apotheosis at novel's end. The German word for mortal is "sterblich" 
(mortality = "Sterblichkeit"), so I'd guess that's deriving from the 
Early German nickname Pynchon refers to.

best