I noticed this a few days ago, but Ephemerous and Emeritus are not names.
Emeritus is an honorary title given to retired professors who have been with schools for obscene amounts of time; the closest thing I could find to Ephemerous was the word "ephemeris," which is an annual table of data (mainly astronomical) that depend on the time.
So...(and now we get to the crazy theorizing/fangasming) does this mean something in particular for the two Tycho Brahe's with those middle names? T. Emeritus
was a well-regarded professor at the Old Academy prior to his (for lack of a better term) interment to Cloying Odor and most likely
would have gotten the emeritus title had he retired. Does this mean T. Ephemerous may have been connected to astronomy as well as Apocalyptics?
As for Erasmus, that means "beloved". However, Tycho's middle name comes from T. Emeritus' brother, so that may just have been out of respect. Plus, Tycho Erasmus Brahe just sounds catchy, doesn't it?
Anyhoo, I guess this qualifies as a discussion thread. So...yeah. Discuss?
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I'd say it has a lot to do with it given his namesake.
Tycho Brahe was the most comprehensive astronomer of his generation, his assistant was Johannes Kepler who used Tycho's observations to formulate his laws of planetary motion (which led to Newton unifying them with his own theories to prove his theory of gravitation...PHYSICS!).
Does this mean T. Ephemerous didn't live long, do you think? It honestly doesn't surprise me; something tells me the Brahe clan doesn't have the longest life-expectancy.
Interesting fact: My English teacher brought up Erasmus in class, so I googled him. I'm fairly certain he was talking about Desiderius Erasmus, who was a humanist scholar who spoke out against the Catholic church. This may have lead to the naming of Tycho's uncle, and thus his own middle name.
However, there's also Erasmus Darwin--physician, poet, and grandfather of Charles, and Erasmus Reinhold--a 16th century German astronomer and mathematician (much like Tycho Brahe's namesake).
Oh, plus there was Erasmus the Wizard in the Quest for Glory games. Knowing the basis of Penny Arcade, that really would not surprise me, either.