Silly Random Stuff

[Rana]

Does anyone know about place or other names that have a meaning unbeknown to the people who so confidently named them?
I have one, it may be an urban legend but I suspect its a true story
In Australia in the city of Melbourne, they have an important "cultural" festival called Moomba.
Now Moomba is an aboriginal word and apparently the  organisers of the festival being culturally and politically correct and all that sort of stuff, found an aboriginal (who unsuspected by them had a sense of humour).  They asked him to supply a word that would describe the festival and he obligingly told them Moomba, which they liked very much & the rest is history.
Apparently Moomba is a real aboriginal word, or mor accurately a composite word Moom (I apologise moderators, I dont know how to say this delicately   ) means anus.   And ba, means what an anus does.
So it appears that the festival of Moomba is properly named.

I have another one, and maybe Canadians can tell me if this is correct - concerns the naming of Quebec.
Apparently the French explorers landed and seeing an Indian asked him what the place was called.  Conversation probably went like this

French explorer "I say,ignorant benighted savage, what do you call this place".
Indian (obviously highly irritated and replying in his own language) " Go and get {an extremely rude and vulgar action}, which in the Indians language was Quebec.
French explorer "Thank you ignorant savage, that name certainly has a nice ring to it, Quebec it shall henceforth be"
And with the science of nominitave determinism, this may explain a lot about the inhabitants of Quebec

Rana
Attempting to inject levity

[stephanie_craxford]

I have another one, and maybe Canadians can tell me if this is correct - concerns the naming of Quebec.
Apparently the French explorers landed and seeing an Indian asked him what the place was called.  Conversation probably went like this

French explorer "I say,ignorant benighted savage, what do you call this place".
Indian (obviously highly irritated and replying in his own language) " Go and get {an extremely rude and vulgar action}, which in the Indians language was Quebec.
French explorer "Thank you ignorant savage, that name certainly has a nice ring to it, Quebec it shall henceforth be"
And with the science of nominitave determinism, this may explain a lot about the inhabitants of Quebec

Rana
Attempting to inject levity

Actually the name Quebec comes from the Algonquin word meaning narrow passage or strait. It originally referred to the area of Quebec City and the narrowing of the river at Cape Diamond.  So while your version is funnier I'm afraid it's just one of those myths

The word Canada has an interesting origin as well:
Canada, a name derived from the Huron-Iroquois kanata, meaning a village or settlement. On 13 August 1535, as Jacques CARTIER was nearing Île d'Anticosti, 2 Indian youths he was bringing back from France informed him that the route to Canada ("chemin de Canada") lay to the south of the island. By Canada they meant the village of Stadacona, on the future site of QUÉBEC CITY. Cartier used the word in that sense, but also referred to "the province of Canada," meaning the area subject to DONNACONA, chief at Stadacona. The name was soon applied to a much larger region. The "Harleian" world map of c 1547, the first to show the discoveries made on Cartier's second voyage, applied it to an area north of the gulf and river St Lawrence, and by 1550 maps were also placing the name south of the river.

Steph

[jan c]

ah man Steph that was such a pretty myth you just debunked!
kay BECK!

LOVE the sound of MOOMBA
I wanna go do a MOOMBA beat right now in fact
see yez


Posted at: June 09, 2006, 08:55:32 AMwaitaminnit your story

Actually the name Quebec comes from the Algonquin word meaning narrow passage or strait.

when you think about it, is quite similar to Rana's

[Melissa]

Personally, I liked the Canadian history lesson.  I like learning about other cultures.

Melissa