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Re: naming schemes (was Re: Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 released)



On Sun, 2002-07-21 at 17:24, Colin Watson wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 21, 2002 at 04:58:45PM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > Also, "Greece" is _only_ the _name_ given by the Anglos.  I'd
> > bet a nickle that those-that-Anglos-call-Greece don't spell or
> > pronounce it the same as Anglos.  So, I bet that Greece, NY 
> > actually did get there first...
> 
> You're only partly right on the first count, and I'd say still wrong on
> the second. :) The word "Greece" existed in various forms in Old English
> and other earlier Germanic languages, so considerably predates your
> Founding Fathers; if you want its modern form, I'm pretty sure
> Shakespeare used the word, and he lived quite a long time before anyone
> even called New York New Amsterdam, let alone New York.

How did the Founding Fathers get pulled into the discussion?
(Of course, we did correct Britain's silly pronunciation of
jaguar.)

> Also, while it's true that the modern Greeks call their country
> something like "Hellas" (?), my dictionary tells me that Aristotle

http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=greece
  synonym is Ellas.  (I bet that's where they-we-call-Greek
  get Hellas.)
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=Ellas
 Ellas
 
 n : a republic in southeastern Europe on the southern part of 
 the Balkan peninsula; known for grapes and olives and olive oil 
 [syn: Greece, Ellas] 
 Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University

> mentioned "Graikoi" as the prehistoric name for the people of that
> region.

Probably one of the many peoples of the region.

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ron Johnson, Jr.        Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net             |
| Jefferson, LA  USA                                              |
|                                                                 |
| "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment |
|  by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding."      |
|   Justice Louis Brandeis, dissenting, Olmstead v US (1928)      |
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