TIL: Today I Learned
- Thread starter Cutlass
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Speaking of English towns, what's with the whole "-upon-rivername" thing? Is that to distinguish it from similarly named towns that are not upon a river? Saying I live in Berwick-upon-Tweed would get old damned fast compared to just saying Berwick.
It is hard to tease out the cause and effect of names in England (and most of the old world) because they have developed over millennia. We have some really weird ones, but generally they just get shortened to the 1st word, especially if they are the "big" one.
gay_Aleks
from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
TIL the word bistro comes from ex-White Russian officers that worked outdoors in French cafes.
I didn't realise that Newcastle was actually Newcastle-under-Tyne for years. Likewise, there's a town in the Cotswolds called Wootton-under-Edge, but which is only ever referred to as Wootton.
In added fun, Berwick is pronounced Berrick, like Leicester is Lester and Gloucester Gloster, but Lerwick (in the Northern Isles) is actually Lerwick. Those silly Nordic people.
In added fun, Berwick is pronounced Berrick, like Leicester is Lester and Gloucester Gloster, but Lerwick (in the Northern Isles) is actually Lerwick. Those silly Nordic people.
Yeah, that is a good examlpe. That is always reffered to as Newcastle, but I think Newcastle-under-Lyme is generally reffered to WITH the river name (it is much smaller).
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
I guess it's a bit like adding the state when naming an American town, "Boston, MA" or whatever, because ets you distinguish between towns that may have the same or similar names. Most towns with an "upon" in them have pretty mundane roots- Berwick ("barley farm"), Kingston, Newcastle, etc.- and seem to share their names with at least one other town in England. Speculating baselessly, it seems to attach itself most often to towns of regional but not national prominence, so perhaps people found themselves referring to it often enough that the interfix became routine, but not so often that it was simply assumed you where talking about the whatever-town?
Scotland and Ireland don't seem to bother with this, perhaps because our place names are all creatively-mangled Gaelic, so there's enough variety built-in.
Scotland and Ireland don't seem to bother with this, perhaps because our place names are all creatively-mangled Gaelic, so there's enough variety built-in.
gay_Aleks
from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
Is Newcastle really named due to the fact some guy built a new castle?
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
It was originally called "Monkchester", apparently.
Civ'ed
I ain't gotta explain a thing
On a similar non-English note, there's Frankfurt am Main and Frankfurt an der Oder.
madviking
north american scum
virginia has got this too, except with creatively-mangled amerindian placenames: accotink, potomac, rappahannock, rapidan, chopawamsic, etc.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Virginia seems to have a lot more of those than New England, which apart from its "Massachusetts" and "Connecticut" generally reads like a jumbled map of the English Midlands. It's quite interesting, the different attitudes different colonies and generations of colonists took to native place-names. There's probably a thesis in it, somewhere.
SS-18 ICBM
Oscillator
It is never displayed correctly when you use the quick-reply feature. It does when you write your reply on a separate page and then come back to the thread.
See here.
Why not write one, then?
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