Comments on: Atlas of “True” Names

By: Gustavo B. Lorenzi

Gustavo B. Lorenzi — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 01:15:00 +0000

When the Romans called Italy, the Land of Calves, they didn’t eat spaghetti at that time. They just found…calves! Cool…

By: rohman

rohman — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:43:36 +0000

thanks you very much for you sharing……………
http://poptropicagamess.blogspot.com/

By: ballmdr

ballmdr — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:39:51 +0000

:cool: The names on this map remind me of a community that I live close to: The Rock, Ga. This also reminds me of an interesting community in Florida called Two Egg. :smile:

By: Greatest Potential

Greatest Potential — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:53:31 +0000

Equilibrium Maps

By: Hs4Mm

Hs4Mm — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:40:37 +0000

Became curious about which part of the world covered which part of the body, but it is too much work to figure out.

By: Hs4Mm

Hs4Mm — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:33:23 +0000

SI body paint of atlas: http://bit.ly/4MoE46

By: keefc2

keefc2 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:47:10 +0000

DOH! I should have read the comments below.
Woad extensively covered by Bob & Evan.
Or are Bob & Evan extensively covered in Woad.

By: keefc2

keefc2 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:12:33 +0000

I don’t know about the British being the Tattooed ones.
But one the first things I learnt at school, in my day was that the ancient Britons coloured themselves with a Blue dye called ‘Woad’.

I thought the Tattooed ones were a couple of Russian school girl lesbians. :lol:

By: pedanticKarl

pedanticKarl — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:59:14 +0000

Thank you bsomebody for stating an honest and succinct way of looking at the issue. In fact, you bring up an excellent point that I had been meaning to elaborate on and that is “folk etymologies” carrying more influences.

Many of these stories that we might refer to as “folk tales” or speculation may actually have more truth. To add to your comments, what many people forget is the timeline and pockets of time in context. That is, throughout history, there have been political expediencies created via the burning of books which has all but erased some important history and language origins.

For example, Marina, in most of her videos goes back maybe one or two iterations of changes. Usually, that ends up being around the 1600s or later, but there were many etymological changes prior to that, which in most cases is difficult to track due to lack of documentation, political propaganda and other disinformation. In fact, disinformation by well meaning people has led to some false etymologies. See my comments on the “Wop” video lesson page for an example.

Another problem that I have observed is the alienation of a large group of people. If you do any lengthy look into the etymology of the word “school”, you’ll know what I mean.

Another item that many people forget and don’t want to know about is that sometimes there are two streams of origins occurring at a similar time, but a different locale. Depending on what side of the war the etymology was on, the winners of the wars get to write the history.

I grew up as a kid writing fluently in Fraktur, which is all but wiped out. Would you believe that even my own former countrymen older than me are totally ignorant of my experiences due to what happened. People tell me I’m crazy and it never happened, but when I show them a physical book to demonstrate my point, their jaws drop to the ground. This shows you the ignorance and disinformation of the same group of people separated by a just a few hundred miles.

I guess in the end, it’s all about perceptions and expediency and if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, it’s gotta be a duck, unless it is a platypus. :smile:

By: bsomebody

bsomebody — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:11:12 +0000

I don’t know if I would use the term “false etymology.” Perhaps I would call them “folk” etymology. I encounter the same type of thing in historical research, folk legends, diverse oral histories, etc. These alternative histories often carry more influence than “true” history. When citing any historical source, I try to be honest with my knowledge of the history of the source, when applicable. Of course, this can get to be a circular argument, so it is best to try to keep it simple – maybe put additional info in a footnote or something. Perhaps, this etymological book could serve dual purposes by listing brief explanations at the bottom of the page for certain, “questionable” origins.