This could be fun. Let's compile a list of geographical names which are actually common names for things or materials, in any language. Rules: 1) no suffixes (as these would make a distinction between the two words, we want one word), 2) word is used as both a name and a thing in the same language (to exclude "the x-ese name of country Y means yardstick in z-ese").
Off the top of my head, to start the list:
in english
Java - coffee
China - porcelain
in hungarian
burgonya (Burgundy) - potato
Can't remember any of them in my own language, except those that break rule #1.
Places which are things
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Places which are things
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Re: Places which are things
Eugo wrote:in hungarian
burgonya (Burgundy) - potato
Burgundy's also a thing in English. A wine (named after the region) and a colour (named after the wine).
Anyway, lots of wines are named after the region they're from.
my pronouns are they
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Re: Places which are things
eSOANEM wrote:Eugo wrote:in hungarian
burgonya (Burgundy) - potato
Burgundy's also a thing in English. A wine (named after the region) and a colour (named after the wine).
Anyway, lots of wines are named after the region they're from.
Not to mention cheeses.
Re: Places which are things
Turkey - a bird
Georgia - a U.S. State
Georgia - a Caucasian country.
Georgia - a U.S. State
Georgia - a Caucasian country.
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Re: Places which are things
Sizik wrote:Georgia - a U.S. State
Georgia - a Caucasian country.
These are both places.
I think what Eugo wanted were places which were non-place things.
my pronouns are they
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Re: Places which are things
I was surprised to learn the word chad; an office supply term of arguable usefulness.
Oh, and I know you said none that are in the main language of the country it's in, but I've just got to mention:
Seal Chart in the County of Kent.
It belongs right up there with the penguin diagram.
Oh, and I know you said none that are in the main language of the country it's in, but I've just got to mention:
Seal Chart in the County of Kent.
It belongs right up there with the penguin diagram.
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Re: Places which are things
tesseraktik wrote:I was surprised to learn the word chad; an office supply term of arguable usefulness.
If you were in the US in late 2000, you would be intimately familiar with that word >_<
Re: Places which are things
In portuguese, Peru also means "turkey". It must be a common word for naming animals and countries...
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Re: Places which are things
No, he just wanted to exclude cases where a word for an object in one language happens to be the word for a place in a different language. That sort of thing would thus better belong in a different thread.tesseraktik wrote:Oh, and I know you said none that are in the main language of the country it's in
Re: Places which are things
gmalivuk wrote:No, he just wanted to exclude cases where a word for an object in one language happens to be the word for a place in a different language. That sort of thing would thus better belong in a different thread.
Exactly.
Just remembered one from my language:
Mali - small one
It's an adjective, but it usually implies a thing - a kid, most often.
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Re: Places which are things
Sometimes it's also about a wolf, apparently, or at least it is in my surname.
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