• rtxn@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Probably the same guy who named the River Avon.

    English: *points at river* “What is this?”
    Celtic native: “it’s a river, bro”
    English: “Then we shall call it the River River.” *points at ground* “What is this?”
    Native: “it’s the ground, dirt, EARTH.”
    English: “Well golly fucking gosh, I have the perfect name”

    • Lvxferre
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      6 months ago

      I’ve seen worse.

      Like. There’s a Spanish city called Cartagena. And a neighbourhood in that city called Nueva Cartagena.

      What’s Spanish “Nueva”? New.

      What’s “Cartagena”? It was inherited from Latin “Carthago Nova”, then univerbated. That Latin “nova” is the same as Spanish “nueva”, new.

      Where did “Carthago” come from? Ultimately from Phoenician, 𐤒𐤓𐤕-𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕/qrt-ḥdšt. That 𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕/ḥdšt means city, and the 𐤒𐤓𐤕/qrt means new.

      The neighbourhood name is literally “new new new city”.