River River
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Istanbul is literally “to the city” or in a way just “the city”
The Nullarbor plain sounds like an Aboriginal word, but it’s just Latin and means “No trees” because there are no trees on it.
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Istanbul is literally “to the city” or in a way just “the city”
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
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If only I had the self-confidence of the guy who went to Australia and said “this place is called New South Wales now.”
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Oh and the Newtown.
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I grew up in a village whose name roughly translates to “Bob’s place by the stream.”
I lived for a bit in a place that meant “Big nose”.
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My d&d game tends to work better when I just name things like “The Nightmare Wood” and “The Old Hills”. The simplicity somehow lands harder.
Sometimes name it after a person, or some shit that went down there, especially if its not someplace important. Like its not the nightmare town, there’s nothing particular about it. So it’s susanstown, and attempts to discover local lore would find stories about the ancient founder that have been embellished over the years.
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If only I had the self-confidence of the guy who went to Australia and said “this place is called New South Wales now.”
Pffft, he was plagued with self doubt compared to Cecil Rhodes who went to Africa and said “this place is called Rhodesia now.”
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Istanbul is literally “to the city” or in a way just “the city”
Beijing is “northern capital”, Tokyo is “eastern capital”, and Kyoto is “capital capital”.
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Reminds me of
Torpenhow Hill is a hill in Cumbria, England. Its name consists of the Old English ‘Tor’, the Welsh ‘Pen’, and the Danish ‘How’ - all of which translate to modern English as ‘Hill’. Therefore, Torpenhow Hill would translate as hill-hill-hill hill
Here is a Tom Scott video about it:
https://youtu.be/NUyXiiIGDTo
https://invidious.f5.si/watch?v=NUyXiiIGDTo -
If only I had the self-confidence of the guy who went to Australia and said “this place is called New South Wales now.”
Australia is also just called South. And apparently someone proposed the name Borealia (North) for Canada.
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Oh and the Newtown.
Why they changed it …?
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Beijing is “northern capital”, Tokyo is “eastern capital”, and Kyoto is “capital capital”.
“capital_capital_final_thistime.jpg”
(Karl Marx’s revision history)
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Those are both from the same Mitchel and Webb sketch.
I’m sorry, who’s wearing the hat?
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Half the smaller villages in southern Germany are named “Ried” which comes from reed and roughly means “swampy place”. The other half uses some variation of the suffix “-höfen” which just means “this place consists of farms”

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Reminds me of
Torpenhow Hill is a hill in Cumbria, England. Its name consists of the Old English ‘Tor’, the Welsh ‘Pen’, and the Danish ‘How’ - all of which translate to modern English as ‘Hill’. Therefore, Torpenhow Hill would translate as hill-hill-hill hill
I believe there’s also a Haversham Hill, which is also a hill hill hill hill
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In my group if the GM can’t pronounce the name in one try in a way that makes it clear to us how to spell it the players with rename it something more like “Bonertown” or just “Dave”
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I’m sorry, who’s wearing the hat?
You . . . are.
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People naming things in Australia:
- Townsville
- Western Australia
- Shark bay
- Great Sandy Desert
- Little Sandy Desert
- Snowy Mountains
But you also have wildcards:
- Tasmania (not actually a mental illness)
- Monkey Mia (There are no monkeys, and nobody named Mia)
- Lake disappointment (contains no water)
- Blue mountains (they are mostly green)
- King Island (we don’t recognise its claim to the throne)
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Reminds of the old story that I heard (unsure if it’s true or not) about Torpenhow Hill in the UK.
Over centuries… various invaders and conquerors had come to that place and asked what it was called… First it was called Tor later on invaders added the word ‘Pen’ which was their word for Hill… later, more invaders came along and added the suffix ‘How’ which was their word for Hill… and finally… it was named in more modern English as Torpenhow Hill… which literally translates as Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill.
I don;t know if that’s 100% true or not… but it’s an amusing little story and given the oddities of the English language… I’d like to think it was.
Especially given there’s a species of bear out there that’s name is literally translated as Bear, Bear, Bear.
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Oh and the Newtown.
New Town (2)