From the Daily Mail:-
An unusual take on the world, the Atlas of True Names shows how global places came to be named. The etymological take on the world traces Great Britain to Great Land of the Tattooed. The combination of the Greek word ‘prettanoi’, meaning tattoed people, and the Celtic word, ‘brit’, meaning light coloured or speckled, is behind the modern name.
London is re-named as Hillfort, as one theory behind the name of the city’s origin is that the celtic words ‘lon’ and ‘dun’ mean fort on a hill. Birmingham is Bear Guard Home, York is Wild Boar Village and Liverpool and Edinburgh are Choked Pool and Slopecastle respectively. The Orkneys has one of the most fascinating origins. Labelled Isles of the Sea Monsters in the atlas, the word ‘orc’ means whale, or sea monster in Celtic.
Places outside of the UK have equally intriguing origins. Cameroon, for example, is Land of the Shrimps, coming from the Portugese word ‘camaroes’, meaning shrimps. Chicago and Moscow have been given the less romantic monikers of Stink Onion and Bog respectively - Chicago comes from the Native American word ‘checagou’, while Moscow is derived from ‘mosk’, the Slavic word for bog. Other strange names include the Russian city of Vladivostok as ‘Dominate the East!’, and the Indian city of Madras as ‘Realm of the God of the Underworld’.
Posted by vo on Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:29 | #
£ 4,99! Another cool “idea” for a Christmas gift!!! aaahhhgggg!!!
Regarding the quoted word, at school 1988 at I knew students of phenomonology who read Edmund Husserl. I simply was only impressed by the book title, “Ideas”, not being required to read it myself. Anyone can expound on his ideas? Thanks again GW, I dig this etymology stuff.