Читать книгу The Origin of Names, Words and Everything in Between - Patrick Foote - Страница 12

Countries are important and everything, but what would they really be without cities, towns, and all other kinds of settlements for the human race to excel in? The places we live can take all sorts of forms, from humble sleepy villages to huge metropolitan sprawls. Like with the countries, let’s ditch any sort of logical order and tour the planet, its cities, and their names!

LONDON

While a lot of people would just consider London as the center of the city where Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the London Eye reside, the whole Greater London area actually covers over 1,500 kilometers square!

There are a few ideas as to where the name London comes from, and even some ideas about what the city was called before it was the city we know today. Some believe that before the Romans got their hands on Britain, the land was called Plowonida from the pre-Celtic words plew and nejd which means a wide flowing river, that river being the Thames.

Some historians also believe that the city was once called Troia Nova, meaning New Troy, as it’s believed a Trojan exile named Brutus once claimed the land! As awesome a name as that is, New Troy didn’t stick around. The first recorded name we have that sounds anything like London is what the Romans called it. They named their settlement by the Thames Londinium in 43 AD.

This name is thought to come from a variety of places. One argument is that the city was named after a mythological pre-Roman King of Britain, King Lud. Yet others feel the name London has roots in the aforementioned Plowonida, with this name evolving into Lowonidonjon, eventually evolving in to the Roman name Londinium and, of course, the name we have today, London.

NEW YORK CITY

Someone once called it the “concrete jungle where dreams are made of,” but for now, we will stick with the name New York City. The land that contains NYC has been owned by a variety of people over its history, giving the settlement a variety of names. The land was originally New Angoulême, named by Italian explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano. The explorer named it after the French King Francis who had been Count of the commune of Angoulême.

When the Dutch settled, after purchasing it from the native tribe, and sent families to live and work on the land, they named it in honor of their capital city back home, New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam fell in 1664 when the British Empire seized and took control of the city, renaming the city New York after the Duke of York at the time, who would later go on to become King James II of England! When the United States finally claimed independence from the British, however, they kept the name New York. I guess they had nowhere old to make New York the “new” version of.

NYC, of course, has a couple of nicknames too: “the city that never sleeps,” “the melting pot,” and the most notable today, “the Big Apple.” Now, I am no expert, but I have never seen any huge apples growing in the city of New York, so where does this nickname come from? The name was brought into popularity by New York City-based newspaper sports journalist Jon Fitz Gerald. He had heard of stable boys in New Orleans calling New York the Big Apple. He liked the name so much, he started to use it himself in his articles, and the name caught on.

There doesn’t seem to be any explanation as to why the stable hand called NYC the Big Apple, but from my guess, it’s because New York’s race tracks were considered the “big time” tracks in the States. Horses love apples, so these big races would be the “big apple” to them, though this is only my hypothesis.

ROME

The city of Rome is perhaps one of the most important cities still standing on the face of the planet because it was the home of the Roman Empire! The name of this city actually has roots in an ancient legend with the story of Romulus and Remus.

The story of these twin brothers goes that, as babies, they were abandoned by their parents and placed in a basket to float upon the River Tiber. The twins were eventually found and cared for by the mythical she-wolf. The image of the she-wolf feeding the twins can still be seen across the city of Rome to this day in artwork and sculptures.

When they grew older, the brothers decided to found a city for the she-wolf that looked after them. The brothers argued over where the city should be founded, leading to Romulus killing his brother! Yup, that escalated quickly. Without Remus, Romulus was able to be sole founder and first king of the city he founded, which he named after himself: Roma, or as we call it in English, Rome.

While this is just a legend, Rome was really founded due to the growth of settlements on the city’s seven hills. It was close to the Tiber which helped the civilization thrive. Yet while we now know the more realistic reason as to how the city was founded, Rome’s etymology still lives in the world of myths!

TOKYO AND KYOTO

Yep. Here we have a two-in-one because the names and histories of these two cities are so linked. Tokyo is the capital city of Japan, but this was not always the case. Japan is a country that is characterized by two overall qualities: one is this technologically advanced, fast moving, anime-and-video-game-loving power house, which is best represented in the city of Tokyo. The other is linked with an image of tranquility, rising suns, samurais, and ancient wooden buildings with sliding paper doors, which can be best seen in the city of Kyoto. It was this latter city of Kyoto that was once the country’s capital.

The name Kyoto in Japanese is this 京都 which simply means capital city, with the first character in English being kyo, meaning “capital” and the second character meaning “city.” Historically, Kyoto was the capital of Japan as it’s where the royal family of Japan lived. At the same time, however, we have the city of Tokyo. Tokyo back then was called Edo, meaning estuary, a wide part of a river which joins the sea, referencing Tokyo’s position. Edo was flourishing, being the key point of trade between Japan and the west, leaving Kyoto somewhat behind the times. This came to a head around 1868 when the young Emperor Meiji and his oligarchs wished to move the royal family from Kyoto to Edo as that is where the power of trade and access to the west was situated.

With this change of city for the royal family came a change of name for Edo. The city was renamed Tokyo, in Kanji looking like this: 東京. The name Tokyo means “east capital” as it is to the east of the country’s old capital of Kyoto. This is why the “kyo” part of the names meaning “capital” is at the start of Kyoto’s name (Capital City) while it is at the end of Tokyo’s names (East Capital).

CHICAGO

Chicago is often called “the Windy City.” It might need some of that wind to blow away it’s rather smelly etymology, as Chicago is thought to be named after onions.

The most popular theory pinpoints the naming to onions anyway, but there are other theories about how the city got its name. All these ideas suggest various Native American words. One is that the city was named after a Native Chief named Chicagou, who drowned in the river, now also called the Chicago River, while others believe that the name comes from the Native word shecaugo, meaning “playful waters” or even chocago, meaning “destitute.”

As I mentioned earlier, the most popular theory (and the one I like best) comes from those vegetables that make you cry—onions. The Natives had this wonderful way of naming places after what grew there. This was for practicality too, so they could remember where their food grew. There was a stream in Chicago and along its banks grew leeks, or as they were thought to be at the time “smelly onions.”

This led to the city being called by the Natives shikaakwa meaning “smelly onions” and when the French explored the land and heard this name, they changed it in their own tongue to Chicago. With French explorer Robert de la Salle being credited as the first person to write this name, however, he wrote it as “Checagou,” but the name we all know it as today evolved from that.

LIVERPOOL

Liverpool is the birthplace of four of the most famous names in history: John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Some would argue that it was the Fab Four that put Liverpool’s name on the map, but where did that name come from to begin with?

Though not directly named after it, Liverpool’s name comes from the River Mersey that runs through it, with the pool part meaning simply that, a pool of water. So, what does the liver part mean? Luckily, the name doesn’t mean a pool of livers. That would honestly be a horrid thing to not only see, but to name a city after.

The liver in Liverpool comes from one of two Old English words. The name was originally recorded as Liuerpul meaning “Pool with Muddy Water,” as the Mersey can get less than pleasant at times. The former part of this name comes from the Old English lifer meaning “thick, clotted water,” which actually isn’t much more pleasant than the idea of a pool of organs.

The second idea for the origin of the city’s name comes from the name elverpool meaning “Pool of Eels,” referencing the large amount of eels that are found in the Mersey. The name of the city inspired the name of the city’s avian symbol, the Liver Bird (pronounced lie-ver in this case, however) which can be seen throughout the city, on its football team’s emblem, and atop of one of the cities famous landmarks, the Liver Building.

The legend goes that if the Liver Birds atop the Liver Building were to fly away, then the city would cease to exist. Luckily, however, they’re made of copper and are secured to the building, so I don’t think they’ll be flying away anytime soon.

SYDNEY

When I look at Sydney’s name, I immediately think to myself “Did someone forget how to spell Sidney?” But of course, there is far more to it than that. The city is named after someone, even though they weren’t even called Sydney!

Thomas Townshend was the British Secretary of State in 1783, and he was the one who recommended that the British establish a colony in Australia. The city was founded in 1788 when the first ship from England carrying over 700 people came to the land. It was Thomas Townshend that Sydney was named after as his full title was: Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney. How Thomas got that title is where the confusion kicks in.

Thomas Townshend was a member of British Parliament for twenty-nine years, and upon retiring, was entered into the House of Lords, earning himself the title of baron. He chose to be Thomas Townshend, Baron of Sidney. While he may have been Baron of Sydney, this wasn’t referring to anywhere called Sydney. Thomas just liked the name and it was also the surname of a distant family member, Algernon Sidney. He was, however, worried that the original Sidney family may have wanted to use the name in the future, so he changed the I to a Y and became Baron of Sydney, later working his way up the British peerage system to become Viscount of Sydney. This brings us back to his being Viscount of Sydney when he decided to settle in Australia, which went rather well, as we can see today!

The really silly thing about all this, however, is that they named the settlement of Sydney after someone who LITERALLY has the word town in their name! They wanted to name a town after someone called TOWNshend, but instead chose to use his title and a name that wasn’t even his. Very silly indeed.

BUDAPEST

While it may seem to be rich in history, having one of the oldest zoos and subway lines in Europe, the actual city of Budapest is fairly new. In fact, the city as we know it today was “created” in 1873. That’s less than two hundred years ago! Yet parts of it are much older, like the aforementioned zoo. The zoo opened in 1865, eight years before the city was formed. How is Budapest Zoo older than Budapest? And of course, where did the name Budapest come from?

The name Budapest, and in fact the city itself, comes from the fact that originally Budapest was three smaller cities that came together to form one city. These three cities were called Buda, Óbuda (which simply means Old Buda) and Pest. And when these cities came together to become one, instead of creating a whole new name for the city, they simply put Buda and Pest together to form the name. Though at one point, Pestbuda was considered, which…doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely.

“Óbuda” is very much part of Buda, hence, why it didn’t get a clearer reference in the city’s name (Óbudabudapest doesn’t sound as nice). So, let’s look more closely at the former cities of Buda and Pest. The Danube river runs through the center of Budapest. To the west of the river lies Buda, and to the east of the river lies Pest. While they are now one city, Buda and Pest still pride themselves on their unique identities. Buda is home to some of the city’s more historic landmarks, beautiful hills and nature, and more peace and quiet. Pest on the other hand is much more modern, bustling, and is the hub of the city’s nightlife.

So, we know about Buda and Pest, and we know that the name Budapest simply comes from putting Buda and Pest together, so (if you haven’t guessed by now what I am going to say have you even been reading?), where do the names Buda and Pest come from? The origins of both these names aren’t clear to us. Buda is thought to have been someone’s actual name (perhaps someone who was of importance in the city’s ancient history) while Pest is thought to come from what Greek writer Ptolemy called the city in his writings, Pession.

While we may not know where the names of Buda and Pest came from, we know for sure where the name Budapest came from! And really isn’t that what we are here for?

LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH

Nope, I didn’t fall asleep on my keyboard. Llanfair-pwllgwyngyll-gogery-chwyrn-drobwll-llan-tysilio-gogo-goch is the longest place name for a human settlement on Earth, the only place name longer is a hill in New Zealand called Taumatawhakatangi-hangakoauauotamatea-turipukakapikimaunga-horonukupokaiwhen-uakitanatahu. I choose to talk about Llanfair-pwllgwyngyll-gogery-chwyrn-drobwll-llan-tysilio-gogo-goch here in the book as opposed to the YouTube channel so that I wouldn’t have to pronounce it. That’s something I’ll leave up to you.

The village of Llanfairpwll is in Wales, which explains to us the complexity of the village’s name as the country is also home to the villages of Ysbyty Ystwyth and Plwmp. While these might look alien to an English speaker, you must remember that in Welsh W and Y are vowels. The name of Llanfair-pwllgwyngyll-gogery-chwyrn-drobwll-llan-tysilio-gogo-goch is of course in Welsh, and that name actually translates into English rather neatly as “Saint Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave.”

What’s interesting about this ridiculously long name is that it isn’t a relic of an ancient past that has persisted in modern times. Not only was this not always the village’s name, but the village’s people went out of their way to deliberately give it a long, silly name in the nineteenth century! Initially called just “Llanfairpwll,” clever marketing gurus of the 1880s decided to add a crazy amount of extra letters to the end of its name to attract more tourists and attention to the village. It evidently has worked since we wouldn’t be talking about the village today if it weren’t for their outrageous name!

From a ridiculously long name to an adorably short name, we have Å, a village in Norway. There are actually a couple villages in Norway called Å, as the name simply comes from the Old Norse word “small river”; however, the most popular one is near the south tip of one of the Lofoten islands. This is this Å that get the most visits during the summer months and the one with the comical “Å” sign as you come into the village. Unsurprisingly, this sign has been stolen a fair few times.