Wordnik.com: Tip-Top Toponymic: Comments

Comment by bilby, about 1 year ago

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:53:46 +0000

Never mind pleth, suggestions are welcome. Perhaps you'll come up with something another time.

Comment by plethora, about 1 year ago

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:15:29 +0000

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

Comment by bilby, about 1 year ago

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:15:08 +0000

Berliner's on the list, eighth from the bottom.

Comment by plethora, about 1 year ago

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:55:50 +0000

Since you've got hamburger and frankfurter, how about berliner?

Comment by bilby, about 1 year ago

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 15:37:03 +0000

Thanks Skip! Not sure why frankfurter didn't come to mind when I listed homburg.

Comment by skipvia, about 1 year ago

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 02:15:03 +0000

Very interesting list! Madras and frankfurter come to mind...

Comment by rolig, about 1 year ago

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 01:31:00 +0000

Bilby, I came across another surprising toponym for you: tarantula!

Comment by rolig, about 1 year ago

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:45:23 +0000

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.

Comment by bilby, about 1 year ago

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:43:38 +0000

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.

Comment by rolig, about 1 year ago

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:11:17 +0000

Also, if you have serendipity, how about utopian?
And then there's mayonnaise.

Comment by rolig, about 1 year ago

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:08:46 +0000

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

Comment by bilby, about 1 year ago

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:45:52 +0000

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 :-(

Comment by rolig, about 1 year ago

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:26:34 +0000

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!)

Comment by rolig, about 1 year ago

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:02:54 +0000

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.

Comment by bilby, about 1 year ago

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:10:16 +0000

Comment by rolig, about 1 year ago

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:28:02 +0000

and then there's laconic. I'll say no more.

Comment by rolig, about 1 year ago

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:59:45 +0000

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.

Comment by bilby, about 1 year ago

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:45:48 +0000

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.

Comment by seanahan, about 1 year ago

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:48:00 +0000

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

Comment by bilby, about 1 year ago

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:32:43 +0000

I've always wanted to go to Donnybrook and have an argument with someone.

Comment by bilby, about 1 year ago

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:31:22 +0000

All smashing suggestions. Serendipity is fanciful but, hey, so am I.

Comment by sionnach, about 1 year ago

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:52:18 +0000

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?