How did 'your' country get it's name?

Discussion in 'Europe' started by dibblydowcus, Nov 27, 2004.

  1. Shadowplay

    Shadowplay Member

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    EDIT: I first wrote a long reply explaining some differences in terms, but then I realised I misunderstood you completely. You're absolutely right of course. "Kingdom" implies something very different, but I'm not sure "empire" is the right word either. I think of something much more 'external' with that term, but that might just be me. :) Rike and kungadöme are the same in modern Swedish (with rike being the more commonly used term), so it's a trap when translating into English.

    peace,
    -Pat
     
  2. wolf_at_door

    wolf_at_door Senior Member

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    Yes, I see your point.
    It's also funny to think about that Scandinavia once had a common language - danish tongue, but by time dialects developed into independent languages.
    History is a strong force.

    ) / ) (""") ) * ("" @@ ’_) ("") ("”") (’’)
    \/_( *)_( (_ */"" @@ (_) (_(* )_( .. )<, :)
     
  3. Lucy_In_The_Sky

    Lucy_In_The_Sky Member

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    Well, we have two names, Holland and the Netherlands ('Nederland'). 'Land' means country, 'neder' means low, since it lays so far under sea-level. Holland is an older name, 'hol' means wood, since there used to be lots of trees here centuries ago.
     
  4. BlackGuardXIII

    BlackGuardXIII fera festiva

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    Vespucci was a totally unremarkable mapmaker, and definitely not the origin of America.
    L'America,( repeated by Mr. mojo risin in one song) was the name given to a land of paradise that was said to exist across the western ocean, by middle eastern people thousands of years ago.

    Canada, from Kanata, the word for village in a Native American tongue, though I am not sure which First Nations language, nor the specific meaning.
     
  5. dangermoose

    dangermoose Is a daddy

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    Kanada was the word a certian tribe of indians used to say 'village' and the interpreters obviously misunderstood and canada was named after it
     
  6. crummyrummy

    crummyrummy Brew Your Own Beer Lifetime Supporter

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    Mine got its name by using the first 3 letters of its description, the United States of America, not counting of as a word. My continent was named america for some unrelated reason, then renamed north america for it's proximity to a southern continent attatched by a central isthimus.
     
  7. wolf_at_door

    wolf_at_door Senior Member

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    Remove the 5 photoes in between the young Jackson at the left, and the old Jackson at the right. Compare these two photoes.
    Isn't it scary? What has becomed of all his personality? Damn, he must be deeply skizophrenic. He has no firm identity. All his personality has been about being the expression of a moment, all through his childhood. moment to moment to moment means existensial loss.
     
  8. nanak

    nanak Member

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    Austria got its name from the old south german Ostarrichi (eastern realm), later it became Österreich, what is the english Austria.

    The english name Switzerland came from the canton of Schwyz (one of the three original cantons to form the first Swiss Confederation by signing the Federal Charta).

    Belgium was named after the celtic Belgae; France after the german Franks (who were later divided into three kingdoms, the westmost kingdom became France).
     
  9. carnelian

    carnelian Member

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    did you know "sverige" actually was the danish word for "svea rike"? so the danes named my country. :)
     
  10. hip_peace

    hip_peace Senior Member

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    well i donno how i'm gonna spell it but i'l try
    lebanon= in arabic (loubnan ) and lebanon is full by ( leben ) so they call it lebanon=liban=loubnan or (lebnen)
     
  11. BlackBillBlake

    BlackBillBlake resigned HipForums Supporter

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    The United Kingdom is so called because once there were independent kings of Scotland. Once the English monarchs had defeated them, they decided to call it 'united'.
     
  12. guest1234

    guest1234 Visitor

    Nederland is called Nederland, because it means low land. Were below sealevel, so geographically seen a low country.
     
  13. moose taffa

    moose taffa Member

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    My country is called Cheesesylvania. It means "Woodland of Cheese." Here cheese-bearing shrubs and toadstools abound.
     
  14. wolf_at_door

    wolf_at_door Senior Member

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    No, I didn't know that we actually named your country, but I know that we once owed all Scandinavia. Well, that's history, and now a day we're just a small country. 20 years ago backpackers were proud to wear the danish flag, sewed in their fjällräv. Nowadays the danish flag is not something to be proud of anylonger, and fewer backpackers are just as proud to admit, that they're from DK anylonger. But here's the flag, red & white, and its colours reminds us of the swastika (unless if you remove the white cross)...:

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Diogenes

    Diogenes Member

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    Finland's name, Suomi, used to mean just the south-west part of Finland, the part that had been conquered by some swedish, but as they conquered more lands the same name stuck and now the country is Finland. The area that originally was Suomi is today called Varsinais-Suomi(Actual-Finland). What the word means nobody knows. Finland comes probably from Tacitus' Germania or something, there the finns were named for the first time. in finnish finni means:

    acne


    comedo

    pimple

    pustule

    spot

     
  16. Sandu

    Sandu Member

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    Romania is called that way because of the ethnic name of the people here, Romanians. In Romanian actualy the word is "romani", with a being a vocal I don't have a sign in English, but it's like the sound a man produces when he's punched in the stomac. It came from the Latin "Romanus,-i". My coutry has this name since the 1866 Constitution, but it was Principality (1866-1881), Kingdom (1881-1947), People's Republic (1948-1965), Socialist Republic (1965-1989). Since 1990 it's simply Romania. Before this it was called The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (1859-1866).
     
  17. dibblydowcus

    dibblydowcus Member

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    Sure enough that's true, 'united' and all that.....but at the risj of sounding petty, I'd resist the word 'defeated'..after all James the 1st of England was already James the 6th of Scotland when he acceded to the English throne because Queen Elizabeth the 1st died without issue; and as Mary Queen of Scots was her cousin, the son of which (James VI) was the next in line. So he 'united' the crowns in 1601; I wouldn't call this a 'defeat'....( If anything, England belongs to Scotland!!!! Sorry couldn't resist!! )

    But hay-humm, we're all happy now.... ;)
     

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