vendredi 9 juin 2017

June 6th, 2017

As odd as it may sound, there is a country named after a city in another country. Venezuela was originally Italian for 'Little Venice', after explorers found that stilt houses in the former reminded them of the latter. In fact, there is a second case. Madagascar was an attempt at transliterating Mogadishu, where Marco Polo erroneously thought he had docked. Wikipedia maintains a List of Country Name Etymologies for those who want to dig deeper.

Bonus:
Living rooms were once called 'Withdrawing Rooms', in that they offered a place to 'withdraw' for privacy. The expression has been lost in most English countries, but 'Drawing Room' is still used in India and Pakistan - a relic from colonial times.

-E

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