this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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Funny

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Wait until you learn about Torpenhow Hill.

  • Tor, from Old English torr, meaning hill.
  • Pen, from Celtic *penn, meaning hill.
  • How, from Danish hoh, meaning hill.
  • Hill, from English hill, meaning hill.

^Unfortunately,^ ^it's^ ^not^ ^actually^ ^a^ ^real^ ^official^ ^name^ ^for^ ^a^ ^hill,^ ^though^ ^it^ ^could^ ^be...^

[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 months ago

Hill, from English hill, meaning hill.

Fucking love it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There is a neighborhood in Cartagena, Spain, that is called Nueva Cartagena, which basically means new new new city

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Naming cities like boomers name their documents

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

You gotta remove the ^ behind each word

^unfortunately vs ^unfortunately^

Edit nvm it's Infinity's fault apparently

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

I don't know what client you're using, but this displays correctly on lemmy-ui and Jerboa, and it matches the Lemmy markdown syntaxt as documented. I'd suggest requesting your client fix its renderer.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Clients seem to interpret the markdown differently. It displays correctly on the main desktop site.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They asked several people what it was and wrote down all the answers

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

That basically is exactly how this sort of thing comes about, only spread out over time.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Or Naan bread. Or Chai tea.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

or iwo jima Island or Mount midoriyama

jima is Island, yama is mountain... midori is green, so midoriyama could be translated as green mountain.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Midori is green

Holy shit, now this makes sense

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I've never actually heard anyone say "naan bread" except as in this joke.

Do people also say "tortilla bread" wherever they're saying "naan bread"? Haha

[–] [email protected] 42 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The forest of Skund was indeed enchanted, which was nothing unusual on the Disc, and was also the only forest in the whole universe to be called -- in the local language -- Your Finger You Fool, which was the literal meaning of the word Skund.

The reason for this is regrettably all too common. When the first explorers from the warm lands around the Circle Sea travelled into the chilly hinterland they filled in the blank spaces on their maps by grabbing the nearest native, pointing at some distant landmark, speaking very clearly in a loud voice, and writing down whatever the bemused man told them. Thus were immortalised in generations of atlases such geographical oddities as Just A Mountain, I Don't Know, What? and, of course, Your Finger You Fool.

Rainclouds clustered around the bald heights of Mt. Oolskunrahod ('Who is this Fool who does Not Know what a Mountain is') and the Luggage settled itself more comfortably under a dripping tree, which tried unsuccessfully to strike up a conversation.

Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I have to read Terry Pratchet! He seems to write like Douglas Adams

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

He's very similar.

The first couple of books are quite heavy going, but it settles into a rhythm soon enough.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 months ago

Reminds me of the Disney movie Brave:

The royal castle is called Castle Dunbroch (Castle Castlecastle) and it also prominently features Eurasian Brown Bears, whose species name is Ursus arctos arctos (Bear bear bear)

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I feel like the wojaks should be swapped since this makes the Romans look dumb.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Romans got to determine the terminology that people would use for thousands of years.

Celts got their culture disrespected and forgotten.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Idk. Feels like splitting hairs.

On one hand you're right about the culture thing. On the other hand imagine a translation mistake lasting thousands of years.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If anything, it's a little based of the Romans. They didn't come in and rename them all Claudius Flavius or Biggus Dickus or whatever, they just asked the locals for their names, wrote them down, and left them as what the locals called them.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Don't forget the imperial timekeeper, Favious Flav. Yeeeaaah, boyyy!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

With a big sundial around his neck

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah but how many times can you hear the same name be given and not go "Wait I think we might be doing this wrong.."

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I respect your consideration of the wojaks involved.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

This is why the entire country of Canada is called Canada.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

The modern Turkish name İstanbul (pronounced [isˈtanbuɫ]) (Ottoman Turkish: استانبول) is attested (in a range of variants) since the 10th century, at first in Armenian and Arabic (without the initial İ-) and then in Ottoman sources. It probably comes from the Greek phrase "στὴν Πόλι" [stimˈboli], meaning "in the city", reinterpreted as a single word; a similar case is Stimboli, Crete. It is thus based on the common Greek usage of referring to Constantinople simply as The City.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

This is what I came looking for.

Sometimes I wonder if the government should buy unskipable YouTube ads and just run these so future generations can experience it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Reminds me of "*DN" meaning river as well near the black sea.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Or "*RN" meaning river in western continental europe. That's why we got Rhone and Rhein.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

About like the “Mississippi River” or the “Rio Grande River”

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It’s just called the Rio Grande.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Twisting through a dusty land

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

And when she shines, she really shows you all she can.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Also, the Yarra River in Melbourne, named by settlers after the Wurundjeri word for river or rapids. Their actual name for that particular river was Birrarung.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I live near a Hillhill on the Hill.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Aren't those Picts in the drawing?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Picts or it didn't happen

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The Picts are a kind of Celt.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I am no expert, but I thought Picts were distinct from Celts and eventually assimilated with the scots

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Come see the famous The The River River in Iowa!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago