Re: CHAT: silly names, prepositions

Padraic Brown scripsit:
> All right, here's the solution: We start calling ourselves Columbia
> (an old poetic name for the US) and Columbians. This way, us oh so
> prideful Americans - oops, sorry, Rob - Columbians won't be coopting
> the name of a whole continent; and has the added benefit of only
> ticking off the Colombians. But then again, we had the name by the
> 1790s, and they only got started in 1810; and we have the District of
> Columbia, so all's fair.
Right enough.  And we even have a song "Columbia, the gem of the ocean"
which uses it.  (This song was originally written as "Britannia, the
gem of the ocean", which makes a whole lot more sense, but it didn't
catch on in the U.K., so the song's author decided to remarket it.)

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter

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