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Tip-Top Toponymic

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A list of 124 words by bilby.

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Place names that have entered general speech. Toponyms that interest me in other ways are on Place Names Of Distinction

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  • bilby Cheers ptero. It's manilla in these here parts. Aug 20, 2010

  • pterodactyl Oooh, I love this list!

    Also, by the way... I think it's spelled "manila". Aug 20, 2010

  • bilby Never mind pleth, suggestions are welcome. Perhaps you'll come up with something another time. Apr 2, 2008

  • plethora Yes, I saw it just after I posted the comment. I did look before I said it, I must have missed it. My bad. Apr 2, 2008

  • bilby Berliner's on the list, eighth from the bottom. Apr 1, 2008

  • plethora Since you've got hamburger and frankfurter, how about berliner? Apr 1, 2008

  • bilby Thanks Skip! Not sure why frankfurter didn't come to mind when I listed homburg. Dec 31, 2007

  • skipvia Very interesting list! Madras and frankfurter come to mind... Dec 31, 2007

  • rolig Bilby, I came across another surprising toponym for you: tarantula! Dec 31, 2007

  • rolig well, it's your gray matter, or course . . . Would there by a dystopia without Utopia? Not sure. I expect that whereas utopian derives from More's fictional world, dystopia derives from (as an antonym to) the literary genre of utopia of which More's Utopia is the eponym. Getting a bit tangled, aren't I?

    Once you open the door to fictional places as sources of toponyms, you might consider lilliputian and brobdingnagian, too, of course. Dec 11, 2007

  • bilby Grey area rollie, I'll think about it. Love the suggestions. I'm wondering if dystopia was also a place in the novel or just formed by derivation from utopia. Dec 10, 2007

  • rolig Also, if you have serendipity, how about utopian?
    And then there's mayonnaise. Dec 10, 2007

  • rolig If you are being careful about distinguishing between place and people, then cravat (< Hrvat, "Croatian") probably should be elsewhere. Dec 10, 2007

  • bilby Never mind. On a place like Wordie it pays to be a leetle careful with the connotations :-)

    I'm going to be crusty-craniumed about this list and keep it for words that really fit. Even danish I will exclude because it relates to a culture/people, which in turn relates to a place, but the term for the pastry is not derived from the name of the place. Mako senso? Thinko not so :-( Dec 7, 2007

  • rolig bilby, I just realized that could sound like I was telling you to bugger off, which I'm not at all. I hope you didn't take that the wrong way. (oops, there I go again!) Dec 7, 2007

  • rolig well, I probably will say more. I was just trying to be, you know, laconic. Now for a really interesting toponym, you could try buggery, though technically, I suppose that's an ethnonym. Dec 7, 2007

  • bilby ! Dec 7, 2007

  • rolig and then there's laconic. I'll say no more. Dec 7, 2007

  • rolig A wonderful list!

    I, too, was surprised to learn the origin of varnish/vernissage. Thanks!

    Here are a few others: damask, damascene, jersey, morocco, and, to go with your finlandisation, balkanisation. Dec 6, 2007

  • bilby Good point seanahan, I'll send the harvester after those shortly. Food, drink, clothes are all profitable areas here. Items like Finlandisation are priceless because they're so quirky. Dec 6, 2007

  • seanahan There's always champagne. There are of course a whole host of other alcoholic drinks with place names, bordeaux, shiraz, etc. Dec 6, 2007

  • bilby I've always wanted to go to Donnybrook and have an argument with someone. Dec 6, 2007

  • bilby All smashing suggestions. Serendipity is fanciful but, hey, so am I. Dec 6, 2007

  • sionnach I learn something on wordie every day - I would never have figured varnish/vernissage to have toponymic origins.

    How about serendipity? balaclava? tuxedo? denim? donnybrook? Dec 6, 2007