- The words "vaccine" and "buckaroo" share a root word! The Latin "vacca," meaning "cow"!! This is because the first vaccine was derived from cowpox, and buckaroo comes from spanish "vaquero," meaning "cowboy"!
- The state of New Mexico was NOT named after the country of Mexico, and in fact was named that several centuries EARLIER than the country!! (New Mexico has been called that since 1560s, while Mexico only gained that name in the 1820s.) Both of them are named after the Valley of Mexico, which is the location of modern-day Mexico City! At the time of New Mexico's naming, the location of modern-day Mexico was called New Spain!
- Speaking of state names, California was likely named after a fictional location in a 16th-century Spanish romance novel! In Las Sergas de Esplandián, there's a fictional island named California, named after its ruler, Queen Calafia (whose name possibly comes from the Arabic word "khalif")!!
- Nobody knows where the word "dog" comes from.
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in reply to @hthrflwrs's post:
from dogs, obviously. look at them. nothing else could possibly be named 'dog'
the dog thing is extremely interesting to me because it's apparently also the case for Polish, where any research also gives me only "so here are possible etymologies but there is no consensus", despite the Polish word for dog - "pies" - having seemingly nothing in common with the English equivalent
speaking of Polish guys and dogs and etymology, I think it's a shame Gąsiorowski 2006 isn't more widely known https://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/server/api/core/bitstreams/1b624bc8-0ce3-43ef-baec-bb1df795ee48/content
also, it's possible the Slavic etymon also comes from an old color adjective, like the English habit of calling dogs Spot https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/p%D1%8Cs%D1%8A
I love when we completely lose the etymology for what's honestly not that old of a word. A thousand years is pretty young for this!
The etymology of "Idaho" is fascinating. It appears to be just a made-up word by a huckster who kept trying to name various things (like a steamship) "Idaho" because I guess he just liked the word? He tried to get Colorado called Idaho but his ruse was discovered, and then later accidentally succeeded in getting a different state named Idaho anyway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho#Etymology
Fun fact about "dog" as the word for the domesticated canine: the Mbabaram language (Australian Aboriginal language from the northeast of the continent) has the word "dúg" for that animal, pronounced almost exactly like the Australian English pronunciation of "dog". This was very confusing for linguists for a bit, who thought it might have been borrowed from English.
We don't know where the word "dog" comes from, but it's at least possible that it basically means "who's a good boy?", as is good and right.
in reply to @APOAPSIS's post:
in reply to @whit's post:
fascinating!! if you'd asked me, i would've guessed it had roots in polari!
god polari is so cool. lost my mind a little bit to find a talking bag of treasure in Dragon Quest Builders who used it. now that's a localizer having FUN