CHAT National toponyms (was: OT Caution!! IRA funding)
| From: | Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, September 16, 2004, 17:14 |
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On Wednesday, September 15, 2004, at 11:12 , J. 'Mach' Wust wrote:
[snip]
> It's strange how names of countries are formed. Sometimes, the place name
> adopted for the country may have been used for the whole area of that
> country (Australia), sometimes only for a part (England, Holland). However
Holland I understand. But England? I was born here and have lived in
England nearly two thirds of my 65+ years (the other third I lived in
Wales). But what is this part of England from which England is named?
> it seems very strange to me that the name of a continent has become the
> name
> of a single country.
Presumably a back-formation from 'United States of America'.
But is this use really any stranger than the use of 'Europe' in the
British media of the past few decades to mean 'The European Union' and not
the whole continent?
Ray
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"They are evidently confusing science with technology."
UMBERTO ECO September, 2004
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