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October 20, 2005, 22:23
Kalleh
Toponomy
While searching for words for Wordcraftjr, I found this site where the author posted his top 20 names of cities.

I thought they were pretty good! Big Grin

Any better ones?
October 21, 2005, 12:48
Richard English
All North American, I note.

And we do have some equally interesting ones in the UK, I suggest.

Chipping Sodbury; Midsomer Norton; Stow on the Wold - to name but three from the Cotswolds.


Richard English
October 21, 2005, 19:54
Kalleh
quote:
All North American, I note.

I assume that's because he is from North America. Just like Europeans wouldn't know fun North American cities, I wouldn't know fun European cities.

Are there others, either North American or European or Australian or Canadian?
October 22, 2005, 03:28
Caterwauller
Some I offer for consideration:

All of these are from the Pennsylvania Dutch area, all grouped together, interestingly:
Intercourse
Bird in Hand
Blue Ball
Paradise
Virginville


*******
"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
~Dalai Lama
October 23, 2005, 20:17
Kalleh
This really isn't on topic here, but I have a toponym question, again from my wordcraftjr theme on toponyms. One site said that "utopia" is a toponym. Yet, when I tried to validate that, etymology.com says:

1551, from Mod.L. Utopia, lit. "nowhere," coined by Thomas More (and used as title of his book, 1516, about an imaginary island enjoying perfect legal, social, and political systems), from Gk. ou "not" + topos "place." Extended to "any perfect place," 1613. Utopian, as a noun meaning "visionary idealist," is first recorded c.1873.

If a word comes from an "imaginary island" would it still be a toponym?
October 24, 2005, 06:51
zmježd
Well, it is the name of an imaginary place. And topos 'place' is part of each word. Do you consider procrustean to be an eponym? Procrustes was a legendary Greek man.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
October 24, 2005, 15:27
Kalleh
I see that "procrustean" is included with Wordcrafter's eponyms. I am not sure about what I think.

For "utopia" some sites included it, while others didn't. Also, I couldn't find it legitimized as toponym by a dictionary (OED or etymology.com) so I didn't use it.

Is the answer "yes" then? They can include either imaginary places (toponyms) or imaginary people (eponyms)?
October 25, 2005, 18:19
Hic et ubique
> Procrustes was a legendary Greek man.

Is he related to the Simpsons character, pro-Crusty the Clown?

<ducking-the-rotten-tomatoes icon>
October 25, 2005, 20:55
Kalleh
Shu made this very clear, and now I feel a bit foolish. As he said, many eponyms are fictional characters. I just wasn't thinking clearly. Sorry!