Re: Number/Specificality/Archetypes in Language

Steg Belsky scripsit:

> What're the etymologies, then?  I thought the Bronx is named after the
> Bronx River, a singular noun.
Yes, "the Bronx" is short for "the Annexed District of the Bronx [River]".
But if you dig down behind that, you find that the Bronx River is named
for the family that held land on it in colonial times: the Broncks.

> No idea about Yonkers though, but then
> again i don't think i've ever been there.
It's the land of the Jonkheer (Dutch for "nobleman"), and it was
"the Yonkers" formerly.  Same basic story.  Here the -s is
possessive rather than plural, but that's a detail.

At any rate, it's definitely "The Bronx is part of New York City,
but Yonkers is a separate city", with "is" in both cases.

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
Rather than making ill-conceived suggestions for improvement based on
uninformed guesses about established conventions in a field of study with
which familiarity is limited, it is sometimes better to stick to merely
observing the usage and listening to the explanations offered, inserting
only questions as needed to fill in gaps in understanding. --Peter Constable

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