Why the generic name for our country (USA)?

[Bugfatty300]

美国 ("the beautiful country" - our name for the USA)

I have to wonder how that name came about. I guess the first impression of the USA was a good one. But I just have to ask; is there a country called "the ugly country" or a one called "the smelly country" in Chinese?

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Well the character for beautiful, "mei," sounds like America.

Germany is called "Moral Country" because the character meaning moral, "de," sounds like Deutschland.

England is called "Heroic Country" because the character maning hero, "ying," sounds like England.

 

[scy12]

Well the character for beautiful, "mei," sounds like America.

Germany is called "Moral Country" because the character meaning moral, "de," sounds like Deutschland.

England is called "Heroic Country" because the character maning hero, "ying," sounds like England.

That would make for awesome news stories. Heroic country and moral country are against us !!

 

[warpus]

The Chinese are so poetic.

What's chinese for Poland?

 

[Huayna Capac357]

It's "Bolan" meaning "Wave Orchid." I don't get it....I think it's more phonetic than poetic...

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Because that's what we were. United states. We are states (some even a separate country for a time, not just Texas) each with their own creative or adopted name. Mexico is also called the United States of Mexico.

Canada is an Amerindian word for village as far I know which is pretty lame as far as places named after Native American words go. They should have lots of repeating confusing syllables and the nastier they sound the better. Canada could have had a great name.

Canada DOES have a great name, thankyouverymuch!

Besides, we save the really confusing names to scare American tourists who get lost and, when they ask where they are, get even more freaked out when the answer is "Saskatoon, Saskatchewan."

"In other news, Vespucciland have declared war again...."


*wonders how many now who Vespucci was*

Why, the guy you named your country after...

Why do you call it "our country", as if everyone here lives there?

"New" countries do tend to have rather boring names, something which Mitchell and Webb had fun with recently ("You know, this reminds me of nothing more than Wales." "What, you arrive on this amazing continent with all these exotic animals and you think of Cardiff?" "No, not north Wales! This is like south Wales!" etc). The number of places called "New" something beggars belief; there are so many that sometimes they had to do it in other languages ("Nova Scotia"?) just for variety. Generally the "new" place bears no relation to the old one (New Zealand isn't a whole lot like the old one). To my mind, however, the most boring name of any such place is Newfoundland, which people surely ought to have realised is not only completely uninformative but quickly outdated.

Ha! Finally, I can explain something to Plotinus!

First of all, there was no "Foundland" to warrant tacking on the prefix "New." That's not what the name means. What it means is that the land is "new-found" or "newly-found" -- in other words, land that was recently found after spending a long time at sea.

It isn't even pronounced like "new-found-land." It's hard to describe how to say it... as a Westerner, I'd been saying it wrong for most of my life, but finally managed to wrap my tongue around the proper pronunciation. The emphasis is on the first syllable, and you don't really pronounce the "ou" in the second syllable. The closest I can describe it is "NEW-f'nd-land." The third syllable is emphasized almost as much as the first, but not quite. And I'm sure somebody who actually lives there would correct me further.

And why do you say "Newfoundland" is outdated, anyway? Unless you mean that because the name has recently been changed to "Newfoundland and Labrador."

 

[Arwon]

What's Australia called in Chinese?

 

[Dann]

What's Australia called in Chinese?

澳大利亚 pronounced Ao-tah-li-yah.

For once it's just a meaningless jumble of sounds.

More often the newer countries get these kind of names. No more poetry.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

It isn't even pronounced like "new-found-land." It's hard to describe how to say it... as a Westerner, I'd been saying it wrong for most of my life, but finally managed to wrap my tongue around the proper pronunciation. The emphasis is on the first syllable, and you don't really pronounce the "ou" in the second syllable. The closest I can describe it is "NEW-f'nd-land." The third syllable is emphasized almost as much as the first, but not quite. And I'm sure somebody who actually lives there would correct me further.

"Newfundlund" is how I've always heard it said.

And why do you say "Newfoundland" is outdated, anyway? Unless you mean that because the name has recently been changed to "Newfoundland and Labrador."

They could always be referring to the island...

 

[flyingchicken]

Question:

And why do you say "Newfoundland" is outdated, anyway?

Answer:

What it means is that the land is "new-found" or "newly-found" -- in other words, land that was recently found after spending a long time at sea.

 

[Plotinus]

First of all, there was no "Foundland" to warrant tacking on the prefix "New." That's not what the name means. What it means is that the land is "new-found" or "newly-found" -- in other words, land that was recently found after spending a long time at sea.

I know! That's exactly my point - they didn't even bother naming the place after somewhere else, they just named it "place we've just found", which is as uninformative as you could possibly get. How boring is that?

And why do you say "Newfoundland" is outdated, anyway?

Because it's not newly found any more, is it?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Well the character for beautiful, "mei," sounds like America.

Germany is called "Moral Country" because the character meaning moral, "de," sounds like Deutschland.

England is called "Heroic Country" because the character maning hero, "ying," sounds like England.

Very interesting. What about Spain?

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Spain is "Xibanya," which is simply phonetic. The characters mean roughly "Western Group of Teeth."

 

[bob bobato]

Why couldn't our country have been named something more creative than "United States"?

Well, when you think about it, most places actually had generic names that did mean something originally- its just that after a couple of centuries the name or language changes. They didn't just go, " 'O-stray-lee-aa' sounds pretty, but lets spell it as 'Australia' instead of those random sounds."

For all we know, 'The United States of America' might be called 'Yanidesteyit' or 'Usa' in 1000 years.

 

[DroopyTofu]

I guess George Washington didn't have much creativity.

hehe, reminds of when I was in Michigan - it took my a long to find someone who actually knew what an inhabitant of Michigan is called

And who would like to be called an "Ohioan"? Nobody can pronounce it...

Got to feel sorry for the people in Luxembourg; for a long time they were called Luxembourgers.

 

[Mirc]

Spain is "Xibanya," which is simply phonetic. The characters mean roughly "Western Group of Teeth."

What about Romania? Or Canada?

 

[Dreadnought]

Canada, iirc, is called Canada because: when some explorer landed in Canada, and got an interpreter to ask where he was, the Native Americans replied "Kanata".

Mexico is what the Aztecs called themselves.

 

[Algeroth]

And Czech Republic is republic of what, then? And do I really want to know this?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

And why do you say "Newfoundland" is outdated, anyway? Unless you mean that because the name has recently been changed to "Newfoundland and Labrador."

Because it's not newly found any more, is it?

So we should therefore change it to "Oldfoundland?"

 

[flyingchicken]

No, they shouldn't have named it "Newfoundland" in the first place.