Hit me with some more interesting place name origins! And improve your career with TripleTen using my code "RobWords" for 30% off on all their programs, Sign up for a FREE TripleTen career consultation with my link: get.tripleten.com/RobWords UPDATE: I have removed the section of this video covering Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. It was proving too controversial in light of Russia's unjustified invasion of Ukraine. 🐇RABBIT UPDATE: I am now aware that rabbits are not rodents.
It's not that interesting, but here in the U.S. state of Colored Red is a town (and mountain) called Niwot after an Arapaho chief, and it means 'left--hand'. Not that interesting, I just wanted to be the first response! ...and I'm sinistral myself.
I think with this comprehensive list, you should have implemented Kosovo as .... yeah difficult how to frame it to not anger the usual supects. May you outline, why it didn't made it into the list?
@@Ed19601 and as an Australian I've long held that this confusion could be entirely avoided by just calling the other one Österreich. After all, it's what the people who live there call it. Makes sense to me.
@@Alias_Anybody well, its even better. Poland comes frome tribe name Polans (Polanie) which meant people living in fields... And it is supposedly came from a fact that early medieval settlements of slavs in that area became rapidly deforested (those land were one huge forests and swamps before)
@@imcbocian "Forest and field" as an expression literally means "garden-variety" in German, so you could say Poles are garden-variety slavs, contrasted to Slovaks who are slavic slavs and the Russian rowing slavs.
Plus... the name "Greek" derives from "Graeci" which was one of the Hellenic tribes (originated from Thessalie) that inhabited in south Italy. For the Romans that became synonym for "old tribe". In a parallel way the Turks are calling the greeks "Yunan" = Ίωνες (Ionians) the Hellenic inhabitants of the west coast of (nowdays) Turkey
@@lagjescuni5482in meteorologika, I see there is a reference on "Γραικοι" (and other Hellenic tribes) but nothing about Illyrians. Those two civilizations have totally different attributes (language, customs, religion, technological advancements, etc). Can you please make a specific reference on documents upon the Illyrians?
@@toboologlou However, according to Hellenic mythology, the Illyrians were their cousins and they also wrote that they descended from Cyclopes.... of course, most of the things that the ancient authors wrote are ridiculous, I know..
I will point out, neither rabbits, nor hyraxes, are rodents. Rabbits are lagomorphs, which are the other member of glires, which rodents also are, but they’re still not technically rodents. Hyraxes, on the other hand, are afrotheres and are therefore more closely related to elephants, manatees, and aardvarks than to rodents. Still a great video, though, as always.
Couple of the etymologies mentioned here were quite "lazy" (outdated or incomplete), so here a few additions/corrections Rob ;) - Poland or Poles reference quite universal Slavic root "pole" (poh-leh) for field or in its origins even perhaps the flat-land. So pretty matching with the landscape where the tribe of Polans (field-dwellers) settled. - Slovaks, Slovenes, Slavonians, Slavs - the connotations with the Latin sclavus is actually nowadays considered an outdated theory by etymologists (something that was used and popularized in the ancient times, for obvious reasons). The most probable origin is the autonym, related to the ancient and still widely universal Slavic word "slovo" for ... word. (Those speaking commonly known words, compare with how they called they neighbors Germans "nemci" = mute, unintelligible), but in the same time also equally universal Slavic root "slava" (glory) or sluch (sense of hearing), all stemming from the Proto-Indo-European *klew (to be spoken of, glory) that can be traced also to other I-E languages. The superimposed "slaves" theory (even if spoken of on neutral terms, as in "how others perceived them") seems to be one of the most tediously repeated (annoyingly persistent) misconceptions. - Same for Serbia and Srbs/Sorbs, who may be etymologically rooted in the endonymous expression for alliance and kinship. (In autonyms, it's usual that people just call themselves "the people", "our people", "people we understand" etc. :D ) - Bulgar origins are not known, although some theories suggest Turkic bulğha for "stirring" "mixing" "disturb" "upheaval" "rebellion". Bulgarians are a curious mixture of indigenous Thracian, central-Asian (Turkic?) settlers' and Slavic genes. Despite this diversity, the language itself is even more curiously based on the Old Church Slavonic - the liturgy language once shared by many Slavic people/nations. And nowadays tightly close to the (North) Macedonian language (Slavic), spoken in the former Yugoslav federal land named after the ancient Greek province. Balkans! - H in Hungarians is said to come from a historic misconception that Magyar riders arrived in the same fashion or from the same direction as the Huns did centuries (!) before them. This H seems like an romanticizing addition to yet another exonym: Ungar(s)/Uhor which is packing these folks with a plethora of Turkic tribes called Onogurs which moved around the region around those times too. Even if they are not of Turkic origin it seems. They themselves called and call themselves Magyars (named after one of the actual seven Hungarian tribes that settled in their current lands) and spoke Ugro-Finnic Magyar language, that may be related to this language family's word magy for ... a man. :) - Georgians may have their exonym based on Persian gurg/wolf, but in their peculiar language (small ancient indigenous Kartvelian language family) they call their country Sa-kartvel-o - translatable as Kartvel-land - which may come from the local tribe of Karts. - Armenians also carry a Greek? Persian? ancient? exonym, that may reference to trees, thickets, or even wasteland. They themselves call(ed) their land Hay-a-stan (in a persianized form) or Hayk, with an unknown origin, but some say traceable even to some Old Testament genealogy.
Very nice, I like the idea to add on to put our common knowledge together! I have a little bit more to add to the list: -On (Bosnia &) Herzegovina: Apparently the Herzegovina part comes from an actual german duke being put as a local ruler at some point. Duke is the most accurate translation of the title as "Herzog" comes originally from "(der vor dem ) HEER zog"= "he who leads the army" -On Greece: "Graecia" is actually a Latin exonym, referring originally to a single Greek-speaking tribe, probably in the Agean coast of Thracia. The Greeks themselves still call themselves "(H)ellenes", also being made the general term for the whole nation after initially only referring to only one single tribe. -On Monaco: Just a little historic context: Monaco was founded as a trading post in the 6th century BC by some inhabitants of nearby Massalia (Marseille), which had been in turn been founded a few decades earlier by Greek colonists from Phocaea on the East coast of the Agean. The naming was therefore put in reference with the myths of Herakles, who had supposedly passed through there (and built a single hut for himself?) on his way to complete labour tasks in Spain. -On Portugal: (Some context) As mentioned, the country was named after the city of Porto (Calide), an ancient Roman port on the Iberian Atlantic Coast. This naming of the entire country after one city stems from the history of the Iberian peninsula: After the end of Roman rule and replacing the visigothic kingdom, most of Iberia was conquered by muslims from the south. The next part is from Wikipedia: "At the end of the 9th century, the region of Portugal between the rivers Minho and Douro, was reconquered from the Moors by nobleman and knight Vímara Peres on the orders of King Alfonso III of Asturias.[42] Finding many towns deserted, he decided to repopulate and rebuild them. Vímara Peres elevated the region to the status of County, naming it the County of Portugal after its major port city - Portus Cale or modern Porto. One of the first cities he founded is Vimaranes, known today as Guimarães - "birthplace of the Portuguese nation" or the "cradle city".After annexing the County of Portugal into one of the counties that made up the Kingdom of Asturias, King Alfonso III of Asturias knighted Vímara Peres, in 868, as the First Count of Portus Cale (Portugal). The region became known as Portucale, Portugale, and simultaneously Portugália.[43] With the forced abdication of Alfonso III in 910, the Kingdom of Asturias split into three separate kingdoms; they were reunited in 924 under the crown of León." During the reconquista, the catholic kingdoms in the north of Iberia basically made a pact of allegiance under the banner of Leon to reconquer the peninsula from the Muslims. Eventually, as the Muslims grew weaker and the Catholic infighting increased, the local ruler Alfonso (I.) Henriques claimed independence for his piece of ruled land in 1143. He then basically kept the name for the old region within Asturias and Leon to even include the newly conquered territories to the south up to the Algarve. This also lead to a still existing rivalry within the country btw Porto, the city the country is named after, and the name. -On Italy: The etymologies given in the vid seem fine, so this is just my take: Both the Vituli (=Latin/Italic endonym) and the Greek "Italoi" exonym as they were colonizing southern Italy (later known by the Romans as "Magna Graecia") seem fair and I could even imagine them going hand in hand with each other since they're fairly close and it makes sense these peoples communicated somehow. Just the myth of the legendary king "Italus" seems like an obvious later mystification/folk etymology, as they are common all throughout history. Just like "Romulus and Remus" are also a nice little story to where the city got its name from, while research hypothesises other sources; Wikipedia supposes it might come: "From Rumon or Rumen, archaic name of the Tiber, which in turn is supposedly related to the Greek verb ῥέω (rhéō) 'to flow, stream' and the Latin verb ruō 'to hurry, rush'; From the Etruscan word 𐌓𐌖𐌌𐌀 (ruma), whose root is *rum- "teat", with possible reference either to the totem wolf that adopted and suckled the cognately named twins Romulus and Remus, or to the shape of the Palatine and Aventine Hills; From the Greek word ῥώμη (rhṓmē), which means strength. That turned out a lot longer than I thought, but maybe someone will enjoy reading it as much a I did researching & writing. Have a good day everyone))
I think that, perhaps, Rob chose the origin stories based on a general consensus of the most accessible literature on the subject and the most 'accepted' theories. Being well-versed in this area of research, you are undoubtedly aware of the many theories which can be postulated. Describing his research as 'lazy' is a very harsh description. What you have written is really interesting. A back and forth, open discussion -"This was interesting, Rob, but I think you might be interested in these contrary theories:...", just might have been a less adversarial way of discussing the matter. Everything is a 'fight' these days!
Very interesting explanations. A question though: even today the name Atilla is widely used in Hungary and yes, the first famous one was Atilla the Hun. Then logically, the name of the country comes from them, ancestors, the Huns, no? Why should they name their boys Atilla if no connection?? And yes, most surprisingly, their country’s name is “The Land of Magyars”, not of the Huns. So, I am totally lost here. Another note. There is a strong minority of Hungarians in Romania and let me tell you, they dislike being named “Unguri”=“Hungarians” by the others. They are “Magyars”. Any clues, please? ... All the more, because I am half Hungarian, half Romanian…
Very interesting explanations. A question though: even today the name Atilla is widely used in Hungary and yes, the first famous one was Atilla the Hun. Then logically, the name of the country comes from them, ancestors, the Huns, no? Why should they name their boys Atilla if no connection?? And yes, most surprisingly, their country’s name is “The Land of Magyars”, not of the Huns. So, I am totally lost here. Another note. There is a strong minority of Hungarians in Romania and let me tell you, they dislike being named “Unguri”=“Hungarians” by the others. They are “Magyars”. So, their sons are called Atilla, but don’t call them Huns! Why? Any clues, please? ... All the more, because I am half Hungarian, half Romanian…
A bit more about Georgia. 1 - The Georgians call their own country Sakartvelo, which simply means "Land of the Kartveli". 2 - The Russians and most (not all) of the former Soviet states refer to Georgia as "Gruzia". 3 - Some of the local Georgians offer the following explanations of why other nations refer to the place as "Georgia" a - It starts with the Persian incursions, one of which was repulsed by the great King Vakhtang. Vakhtang wore a wolf's skull as his battle helmet, striking fear into the Persians. The Persian word for wolf is something like "gorgas", so the Persians referred to the area as "Gorgestan" or "Gorjestan". In fact, the Farsi and Dari speaking populations of the world still refer to this country by that name. Side note - I heard from some Georgians that the English word "Gorgeous" came to us from the French diplomats who began to interact with Persia a few centuries ago. Those diplomats noted the rare and conspicuous beauty of the women of the Lorestan region of Persia - a region populated by people who were intentionally moved en-masse from Gorjestan's Kakheti region during a past invasion of that area. The Persians told the French diplomats that these women hailed from Gorjestan... which quickly became an adjective to describe rare and conspicuous beauty. b - Not long after Vakhtang... or perhaps almost coincidental to that time... Christianity was taking a foothold in the area. The last Pagan hold out was an area just north of modern day Tbilisi. That area's Pagan god was an idol which apparently was called "Tetri Giorgi" - or "White George". The evangelists who converted these Pagans allegedly used the association with Saint George, equating him to "White George", and subordinating him to the larger Christian religion. As the story goes, this helped convince the locals that they had been on target with a reverence for White George but had simply been unaware of his role in a larger religion... which became theirs. c - A few centuries later, during the crusades, some European crusaders took a route to the Holy Land thru Georgia. They noted the locals' reverence for Christianity and especially for Saint George. Later, when they went south into the Holy Land, the Persian "Gorjestan" had influenced what the locals called that area - something not identical but similar to Gorjestan. The crusaders, remembering the Kartveli's reverence for St George and now hearing the Arabs refer to that region as something which sounded like it referred to St George, adopted the name "Georgia" for that area.
@@amir7890 - Interesting. I was not aware that the name preceded Vakhtang. I heard about this from a Georgian perspective. The folks there seem to think that the Persians started calling the place Gorjestan because of Vakhtang. Perhaps the Georgians with whom I spoke were unaware of how long that name had been in use.
A bit about Slavs. In slavic languages the word for Slavs is some variant of "sloveni" which means in a roundabout way, the people with words or the people with language. It's the antonym of th Slavic "nemci" (i.e. the people without language). I guess living next door to the Germans meant the slavs defined themselves in opposition to their neighbours. Something along the line of "we can speak and you can't nya nya nya nya nya". Also, in addition to Slovakia and Slovenia, there's also Slavonia in Croatia.
Slavs or slovanie/sloveni coming from slovo (word) is probably the most popular etymology. And yeah, the situation with Germans can be summed up to: Slavs - "we speak (our language)" Germans - "they don't speak (our language)"
@@InfiniteDeckhand that's bull shit. There are no written sources for the actual use of the term "Slavutych" by the Slavs back in the day. The oldest source is some "historiographic" writing from Moscow from the 17th century. And they translate "Slavutych" as "Son of Slavs" or "Son of Glory", which makes the term "Slav" the older one. Dnipro and similar/older forms of the word are found in writings from the 4th century, when the name shifted from the Greek Borisphen to Latin Danaprius from probably some Old Slavic version of a Scythian name.
The "Single House" that Monaco was derived from was a temple of Hercules that was set all alone upon the Rock of Monaco. Its position made it very noticeable to passing sailors. Since it stood there all alone, so it was known as the "Single House" as it was the only building of note on the promontory.
Shqiperia means land of the people that can speak "Shqip"-->"Speak"-->"Excipere" have the same root and meaning. It's as if the english called their country "Speakeria" . Anyway the word Shqip is also very similar to the Albanian word for eagle "Shqiponje" which is the national totem, so eventually the meaning of the name Shqiperia came to signify "The land of the eagles".
The main reason why Albanians do not call their settlement in the Balkans Albania, but Shqiperia, is because in ancient times the land of the Albanians at the time of its original existence bordered the Armenian Kingdom ( 69BC), which was later destroyed by the Ottomans (during their expansion the Ottomans destroyed most of the ancient nations in Anatolia and the Caucasus). As a result, the Ottomans brought slaves and servants from the Caucasus to what the Ottomans named the Balkans (actually they took the name of the mountain range that stretches in the middle of Bulgaria and named the whole peninsula after it!) and the place where they settled their Albanian servant they called Albania, the Albanians in turn did not accept the name, so they called it Shqiperia because they were the only ones who could speak/understand the language in the area where mainly Serbian, Italian or Greek was spoken. (Search on Google; Kingdom of Armenia, and click on the map, there you can find ancient Albania!)
@@carbon12atom A simple search tells that you that there is no coorelation between Albania and the Caucasus. The inhabitants of that region called themselves Aghwank/Aluank and spoke a language called Udi which itself isn't either Indo-Europe. Albanian on the otherhand is.
russia means the land of the rus, rus being the northman word for rowing, russia means the land of the people who row, belarus means white russia and ukraine means the borderland, because it was the border between poland and russia in the middle ages. altough, in the past ukraine used to be called ruthenia. the medieval russian state used to be centered around kyiv and not moscow, so russia was called ruthenia in latin source. basically, there was this kingdom of Russia (kievan rus) which was destroyed by the mongols, then the duchy of muscovy reconquered it and took the name russia in order to legitimize their new kingdom. ukrainians, russians and belarussians(and other smaller groups) are all russians, but saying implies that Russia should conquer them all. i propose that we call all the east slavs russians and call the russians that live in putin's country muscovites.
If you check 8:02 you can notice that although the previous country was Austria it jumps from Belarus, guessing they were removed due to the current geopolitical climate
I always thought that the Rus in Russia came from the Finnish for Swede (Ruotsi) because of the Scandinavian settlements along the Volga (as later, the Germans would create), following the amber route south to Constantinople. I also was told that Sverige (Swedish for Sweden) combines the goddess Svea with the word for kingdom, Rige (cf Reich).
As an Estonian, I thought Our name came from others thinking were the Baltic Aesti tribe (Eesti is the Estonian name of our country). Our Finish name Viro either might have come from a similar word to Võro (a minority subgroup of Estonians, who's language feels like an in-between Finnish and Estonian) or an area (similar to Holland), because that was an area where people smuggled alcohol from. So people who refer us as "Finland's Alcohol shop" might pick the 2nd answer.
Also, Viro might be the official name for Estonia in Finnish, but about half of the times you can hear Finns referring to Estonia as Eesti in the casual speech.
He should have named that segment "countries named after a tribe, that may or may not have lived there". Hungary comes from Onoghurs, a Turkic tribe, that lived somewhere in the Pontic Steppe. The Byzantines mistakenly believed the Hungarians to be Onoghurs, when they appeared in Europe. But Hungarian is an Ugric language, not a Turkic one and they had nothing to do with Onoghurs, who never lived anywhere near modern day Hungary. I think he just wanted to speed things up, because going into all these details, how tribes were misidentified back in ancient times, would have taken a long time.
Interesting. I have a question that roundaboutedly relates to what you said. There's a meme song called Levan Polkka, in some instances usually accompanied by a animation of an anime girl spinning two leeks. It sounds Finnish to me, but someone I know that speaks Finnish swears its lyrics are not Finnish. I think someone else said it isn't Estonian either. If you've heard of it, answer me this: Could the language in the lyrics be that of the Võro? Random as all hell I know, but I wanted to take a shot in the dark here. 😄
You missed The Netherlands being low on the map. Also down the river, seen from the other German countries. You did mention "Low Dutch" to be an explanation for calling them Dutch. In the Dutch language "low" is "neder" Only parts of the Seven United Netherlands has been close to sea level. Most people don't believe this but perhaps it helps knowing that there hasn't been an argue since "Netherlands" was already written on the map. I come from the town of Groningen. It seemed that there must have been green meadows "groene-ingen" but they found out the first important settlers have had that family name. It referred to being prosperous or from a larger family.
I think you missed Poland - the land of fields (pole = field, in Polish), the Slavonic tribe of Polans, people working in the fields (Polanie, in Polish)
You did not explain the name of Slovakia and Slovenia properly , nothing to do with english slave , SLOVO means WORD , so all Slavs are the people who speak the same language and understand each other
to complete the circle, the slavs gave us the word for robot, which means worker, and intended to mean a machine slave in the original 1920's Czech sci-fi play.
@@miroslavvysny4461 unlikely, because that's a name of many peoples. And what, do they all consider each other glorious? Besides, "slava" derives from "slovo" anyway (as in: "he's been talked about"/slovo = "he's glorious"/slava).
The etymology of Finland's name is actually not well established. A popular theory suggests Finland originally meant "land of the fens/swamps". This is also reinforced by the fact "suo" (as seen in Suomi) means swamp in Finnish.
The word Suomi having something to with the word "suo", 'swamp' is not very likely, according to current research (check for example Suomen etymologinen sanakirja: Suomi). Nevertheless, it probably doesn't have any bearing on how and why the term Finland, used by foreigners, came to be. The northern people called "fenni" or "finn" are mentioned in different sources from the Roman times, probably referring to Sami peoples. The people group giving the land its name seems to be the most probable explanation. The meaning of the word would therefore be from something that applies to people, not the landscape. But of course Finland has many fens and swamps, so it's not out of the realm of possibility.
@@heinrichkrull2523 Yes, a modern speaker may break it down to such parts by just looking at how it looks like nowadays, but of course etymology isn't so simple. The most probable reconstruction points to either *sämä or *žemē as the original form of the word. The latter could be a baltic loanword, meaning 'land'. But it's a very difficult word to trace that has puzzled scholars for a long time. Nevertheless, it should be the same word as Sami.
@@finnguy9096 "Finland" is not just used by foreigners. There's a native group of Swedish speaking people, so it's the official name for the country in Swedish. What is now called Finland was earlier called eastern Sweden (östlandet/itämaa) and the name Suomi/Finland originated from a smaller part, what is now called Varsinaissuomi/Egentliga Finland/Southwest Finland.
@@johansvideor Yes, of course. I meant non-Finnish speaking people, sorry for the mix up. The runestones that first mention "finlont" and "finlandi" are from Sweden, Norrtälje and Gotland, from the 11th century. They may well refer to the area known now as Finland Proper (Varsinais-Suomi) as that is what Swedes would have most probably known as "Finland" (and would later call by that name). What I'm saying that linking the word "Suomi" with the word "Finland", as if that is a translation of some kind, is unfounded and improbable. More probable is that Swedes probably named the area Finland for their own reasons and from their own perspective and the name used in Sweden came from Swedes and not Finns or Swedish immigrants moving to Finland. Of course, there's no direct evidence of any kind to settle the matter, I'm just going by my own logic.
For Denmark, "mark" in modern danish means field, specifically one for agricultural purposes. I don't know if it used to mean borderland or forest as Rob mentioned, but growing up I always thought it referred to all the wheat we grow. Cool video!
In German it used to mean border region. And a Markgraf was a person sent to such a region by the king/emperor to protect it. There used to be a Mark Brandenburg for instance.
I once read a theory that the Danes came from a tribe in southern Germany, which lived along the river Danube, named by the Romans. They then settled north, where denmark is now, meaning that they are quite literally in the land of the darüber people. Some words that I have only heard by older people in south West Germany and in modern Denmark: bukser as a word for trousers, although old slang in germany, paere for pear, the fruit, and others. Wondering if those words kinda stayed dormant over a thousand years...
@@raempftl That's how Austria started, it was the East Mark during Frankish times. It went from a mark to a duchy and eventually empire (and now republic of course)
"Slav" or "Slovan" actually comes from the word "Slovo", which means "word". Slavs are to other Slavs "word-people" or "people we can understand", so it's the same as Germany. Also, isn't Poland named after fields?
And what "slowo" word comes from? "(z)łowo" which means "somenthing catched". Perfectly means what it does. Then "uchwycić słowo" means "catch the chatch" :D (it goes further: łów - łowi(ć) - głowa (a head, previously złowa for sure), słowo. The "Word" comes (through phrase/phrasis) from "wy-raz" which literally means "hit out, beat out", which again perfectly means what it does.) So it is more obvious than 'people who talk'
3:53 That's actually one of the plausible ethimologies. The origin is uncertain beyond "Hispania" in Latin, to which the Romans added the nickname "land of the rabbits". However, the term has older roots, but those are unknown, and point to some plausible origins: -The Phoenician terms Isp-an-ya, meaning "land of copper" (as the phoenincians purchased a lot of copper from the Tartessos culture in Southern Spain). -The Iberian name Ispanis, which was the name of the city currently known as Sevilla (the Romans called it Hispalis, later "Hispalis-Villa", and with the passage of time it got shortened to Isvilla, from which the name "Sevilla" comes). The other name for Spain, Iberia, has a well known origin: it's a reference to the Ebro river (then known as Iber), though in the Iberian language "Iber" means "large river".
But today Iberian means of the Iberian pennisula and so Portugal and Andorra are both included as part of the pennisula and historic Iberian people from Bronze Age and whatnot. I mean if we speak of Iberian people and their culture (they are one of the oldest agricultural ppl of Europe and Celtic first cousins). Ofc it was named after Ebro. But also Spain adopted Roman name so the reason why Spaniards called Hispanoamérica the lands they conquered in America.
@@livepazos Sí, pero Portugal no lo acepta, España se quedó con el nombre romano - Hispania. Hispanoamérica significa solo la parte española. Luego, si dices Iberoamérica eso incluye Brasil. Según algunas instituciones inclusa la BBVA.
14:05 🇨🇭 Switzerland is also called Helvetia or Federation Helvetica … I am surprised you didn’t put that in there. “The Latin name is ultimately derived from the name of the Helvetii, the Gaulish tribe living on the Swiss plateau in the Roman era. The allegory Helvetia makes her appearance in 1672. The official Latin name Confoederatio Helvetica was introduced gradually after the formation of the federal state in 1848.”
@@Spacey_key i think you should consider the ways it was pronounced hundreds or thousands of years ago. sound "Ch", "Kh", "H" can be the same depends of language or dialect.
The country was named long before the Grimaldi family came along. The Ancient Greeks called it Monoikos, "one house". It should be noted that in Ancient Greece, temples were also called houses, so it could be a place with only one temple.
I really thought you would elaborate on the 'Hellas' part of Greece as a name. This topic is just too interesting for one sitting. Feel free to carry on with more in-depth explanations, regions, cities, etc. Great work!
@@lagjescuni5482 sorry to disappoint you but Illyrians where tribes that almost eliminated by slavs and others came there a few centuries ago. today's Albania is a mixture of Epirus greek tribe and other population moved there as citizens of byzantine empire and the ottoman empire era. more than half albanian land is epirus. calling albanians as illyrians is like calling the irish immigrants in usa native americans
@@72geoK according to whom?? ...The Albanians are descended from the Illyrians, however the Greeks are a mix of Albanians, Aromanians, Turks and Slavs. Your nation and ethnicity were formed in the 19th century and your leaders and national heroes were mostly Albanians.
Yup. Slav comes from slovo(letter/word, depending on the language). He also said we don't know how Serbia got the name and why Serbs call themselves Serbs and well, as a Serb, I can tell you that is just wrong. Serb is derived from an old proto word for kin or family. It's that simple, we call ourselves Srbi because we are kin.
@@edgarasl.4320do you even know when „these“ people accepted Christianity? Thracians lived B.C. and the people that accepted Christianity „there“ defended it and therefore Europe for centuries together with the Byzanthine / east roman empire against arabic / muslim powers comming from the east. Read up where the title Zar originates from. Likewise did Spain in the southwest.
"Rus" is supposed to come from the Finnic word for Swedes, from which we get the Finnish and Estonian word for Sweden "Ruotsi"/"Rootsi" (but yes it originally comes from the Old Norse word for rowing) And yes, Finland and Estonia do also have a unique word for Sweden, not just for Germany. We also have a different word for Russia: "Venäjä"/"Venemaa" which apparently comes from an old Germanic word for Slavs (sometimes seen in English in the form "Wend") The explanation I've heard for Belarus is that the ancient Slavs associated certain directions with certain colours and white was the colour of north (supposedly also why the White Sea is called that and similarly why the Black Sea is black, black signifying south) and Belarus used to be north of the other Eastern Slavic areas I believe. Of course my sources could just be wrong, I don't even really remember where I got all that In Finnish Estonia is called "Viro" which comes from the region of Estonia called Virumaa which is in Northern Estonia and therefore close to Finland The word suomalaiset originally referred to only one of the tribes living in Finland and therefore Suomi was originally only the southwestern part of Finland but later got generalised to mean all of Finland. (The other tribes were hämäläiset (Tavastians) and karjalaiset (Karelians), although it's a bit complicated with Karelians since they also have their own nationality separate from Finns but at the same time the western Karelians are generally considered Finns)
Estonian name Läti for Latvia is also coming from the name of small Baltic tribe Letts/Leths, who lived in Eastern Latvia. Also 'Estonia / Estland' is not a word that Estonians historically used to call themselves. The root is thought to be of Germanic origin and meant 'east'. The Aestii people are first mentioned by Tacitus in his work "Germania" around 100 AD, speaking of a people living to the east of the Germans. The first reports of its use in an Estonian text are only from the 17th century, the name became commonly used by Estonian people in the 19th century. Previously Estonians used the name 'maarahvas' (people of the land) to refer to themselves.
Karelians aren't complicated since the status of being separate from "Finns" technically applied to Tavastians as well before the idea of a unified "Finnish" identity. However all of them are classified as "ancient Finns", since all 3 tribes are extremely important in the development of the Finnish language and culture and genetics of modern Finns. And archeological evidence from the Karelian isthmus shows that they developed from an eastern Finnic population (likely close to modern Vepsians) who mixed with an incoming Finnic migration from southwestern Finland around the 700s. This 8th century migration is also likely where Karelians acquired the stories that would be collected into Kalevala nearly 1000 years later, as most of those stories have been pinpointed to have taken place and originated in southwestern Finland and Estonia. Some evidence relating to linguistic development also suggests that the Karelians were already separating or had separated into a western population living on the Baltic coast and an eastern population living on the shores of Ladoga somewhere around the 900s, which was way before Sweden and Novgorod drew a line on the map definitively separating the two populations of Karelians politically and religiously.
I think Monaco comes from monks or monasteries, given that Munich is called Monaco di Baviera (Monaco of Bavaria) in Italian and the word 'monacal' in romance languages refers to things related to monks.
The term house can mead family, household, and dynasty so maybe the whole of the country is based on that. I don’t know anything about their history to verify the idea. Could either be that they were all from one royal house or, similar to the Vatican, one religious house which would line up with what you said
Monako is actually named after Hercules Monoikos, since there was a temple there dedicated to the mythical figure Hercules himself. It's not a disputed name origin, so you didn't have to guess as to where the name came from.
@@languagesolehsoleh "The armoured friars on either side of the shield reflect the creation of Monaco under Grimaldi rule, involving one François Grimaldi also known as the “Malizia”. These supporters serve as a reminder of the victory of François Grimaldi over the Ghibellines, whose failed attempt to guard the Rock of Monaco meant the eventual conquest and consequently, the beginning of Grimaldi dominance over this region in 1297. Symbolically, the monks are a core part of this history because François Grimaldi was said to have disguised himself as one in order to penetrate the fortress without detection, hence, the unusual combination of a religious figure defiantly holding a weapon as a dominant theme in this armorial achievement." (Wikipedia "Coat of Arms of Monaco") It's the Family coat of arms first and the country's only secondarily.
A bit about Serbia. In addition to the Serbs ("Srbi" - not "Srba" as in the video, but that's an easy and minor mistake to make) there is another group called thr Sorbs in eastern Germany/western Poland. It is thought that the Serbs and Sorbs were once likely to be one tribe that migrated in different directions - some went west and became the Sorbs, others went south and became the Serbs. Their languages are now only very distantly related - Sorbs lived close to Poland and other Western Slavic language speakers and their language is now firmly in that camp, but Serbs moved into the southern Slavic language group, along with closely related people like the Croatians, Montenegrins, and Bosnians... And Macedonian and Bulgarian are also quite closely related too.
Thats right, and what I was reading about was, thet similar to the "þeudisk" which means, "part of our tribe". All slavs were actually calling themselves something like "serb/syerb/sorb/syorb/srb".
@@brkatimachor but we still have documentation, at least the oldest documented cases of Sorbian indicate it was west slavic language along with Lechitic (Polish and Kashubian) and Czech-slovak groups. And at least according to entomologists sorb and serb are doublet, i.e. same root but came into modern times independent of each other.
I love whenever I turn on the TV and see you on it Rob! The DW News is played really early in the morning here in Australia and I watch it as I'm having a coffee in a desperate attempt to wake up. Really happy you're having success on both television and RUclips.
I've read somewhere that "white" in Belarus was from a time when no words for the four cardinal directions existed yet, and that "white" referred to what is now known as "west".
Geographic colors: White Russia = north (north of the original Kievan Rus), Red Ruthenia = the "western" border of Rus (near Poland), Black Sea - the sea to the south of Russia. No color associated with the east, AFAIK.
@@WangAiHua no, Halych is Red Ruś. Look at this map, "Schwarzreussen" is the black one: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Polen_in_den_Grenzen_vor_1660.jpg
10:05 It doesn't actually mean "Slav", it just comes from it. For a reason, in Slovak, we call "Slavs" - _"Slovania",_ but ourselves, we call - _"Slováci."_ So it's a bit different. And yes, there is a big contextual difference between "it comes from the word referring to Slavs" and "it means Slavic" . For a reason, in like the 6th to 9th century (when there were the first Slavic tribes and countries in the region - Nitrianske Kniežatstvo and Veľká Morava - Principality of Nitra and the Great Morava, respectfully), the folks there actually called themselves "Česi, Moravi a Slovieni" (representing the three tribes of "Czechs, Moravs and Slovaks", however "Slovak" wasn't a thing yet, as we called ourselves "Slovieni"; as we still saw ourselves as one peoples/nation with the Czechs and Moravs, just as different tribes of one another). 11:10 And it's not that the "H" and "C/K" are used interchangeably, as the "H" sound represents the "Ch" sound in Croatian - "Ch", as in the Scottish word "Loch". Funnily enough though, we still call the neck-tie a "kravata", in many Slavic languages. 16:15 The Greeks actually call themselves "[H]éllines". 18:15 Technically, Finland should have been in this category, as the "Suomi", refers to the many lakes and swamps in Finland. I hope I helped a bit! ;)
16:15 And Greece is the Latin name we call it Hellas (Ελλάς). One explanation for the Ελλάς name is the combination of the words for sun(Ελ) and stone(λας).
Although "suo" is the Finnish word for a swamp, that is not the probable etymological origin for Suomi. 🙂 I've heard it, but can't find a reference, but a) Suomi has been only the southwest part and b) we used to have many Sami language speakers right to the south of Finland and "suomi" may be one of the names given to the people speaking in a certain style. It may have meant "people who talk unclear". 🙂
Fun fact, in French, Turkeys are called "Dinde" or "D'inde" which means "Of India". Back when they were discovered by Europeans, they still thought that America was India, hence the name.
our dutch national anthem is so old that it uses the words "ben ik van duytschen bloed" "am i of germanic bloed" but the word duyts now spelled duits means german in dutch now instead of dutch, sometimes spelled diets (or deutch in german).
it also says we honor the spanish king, but i doubt the writer of the song still thinks that as not soona fter the song was written we started 80 years of war to get away from that spanish king
The use of a song from a band named Europe who were actually Swedish to go through the Tribal Countdown is an true rabbit hole of symbology...or should it be Spain hole...hmmm 🤣🤣🤣 Well done Rob!
Fun fact: The Spanish name of Andorra, RUclipsrland, is of modern origin. This is due to the massive population of Spanish RUclipsrs in that country, who arrived there fleeing Spain's taxes.
Thank you for your effort and good teaching! You showed even more than just the origins of countries' names, but also how these language games illustrate the limits of a human brain that understands only English. By the way, the pronunciation of some of the words in their respective language was more English than original. We are waiting for the edited, second edition.😊😊
Not just Swedens name for it, but also Norway and Denmark… But I suspect “tysk” is our version of deutsch. In Dutch it’s called Duitsland, basically a mix of “tysk” and “deutsch”.
@@Sonderborg75 Yes I found out about this as well a couple of years ago. T and D are basically the same letter a couple of years ago. Dag and Tag are basically the same as well.
As a German I also would've liked him to mention why Germans started to refer to themselves as "deutsch" That was to differentiate themselves from the other parts of the balkanised franconian empire after Charlemagne's death. So "deutsch" literally means "of the people" but in practice it means "not-French"
When you said to try and guess what the Moldova River was named after, I just off the top of my head said "a dog." You cannot imagine how hard I laughed when you revealed the answer. It wasn't exact but *very* close
It's just a medieval legend. For sure the river Moldova got its name centuries before the legendary Voivode Dragoș (the last letter is pronounced like "sh"), which lived in the 14th century. So nobody knows the true etymology of this name. And yes, the true Moldova is in Romania. The so-called Republic of Moldova is just an Eastern part of the former Principality of Moldova, which was occupied by the Russians in 1812 and named by them Bessarabia (which was the name of the southern part of it, Budjak, the largest part of which now is in Ukraine). It's interesting that Bessarabia got its name from another Romanian ruler - Basarab, which ruled not Moldova, but another Romanian Principality - Wallachia. Which in 1859 united with the true Moldova to form Romania. So the word "Moldova" disappeared from the international maps, which allowed the former Bessarabia to use this name after it became independent in 1991. And yes, the Republic of Moldova is mostly populated by the Romanians, which speak the same Romanian language as in Romania. This obvious to the whole world fact is disputed by the Russians and Ukrainians, who consider the Moldovans to be a different from Romanians people who speak different Moldovan language :-)
I forgot to mention that the names for Wallachia and Wales are related to each other. They both are exonyms, derived from an old German word for "foreigner".
Romanian here. Moldova wasn't named after some random dog. It was named after a type of tree that used to grow in that area. "Molizi" in Romanian. "Norway Spruce" in English. A type of tree in northen, central, and eastearn Europe.
1. The list is very weird, if "Europe" means the continent, then you're missing countries, if "Europe" means "EU", then there are extra countries that have no relation to the EU. 2. Poland is the land of the Poles, sure, but where the word itself comes from? In most slavic languages words meaning "field" or "plain" come from protoslavic "polje", which is the leading hypothesis.
Someone pointed out that the missing countries may have been removed from the video due to the current geopolitical context, but there are some remains in the animations where he moves from a country from another, but the animation starts in a non-covered country.
@@jorgelotr3752 I'm happy I'm not the only one who noticed the weird cuts! Personally I've got no idea how geopolitics got anything to do with origins of country names. It's disrespectful and insulting to the people and principles of science. Maybe it got something to do with monetization, then at least it could be simply explained by money.
@@MiTaReX it was not me who noticed, but someone else in the comments. What I did notice, however, was at least one comment making reference to the content of one of the missing sections, which means that the video was edited afterwards and allowed to remain with the same identifier (meaning keeping views, likes and comment), so monetization seems to be the likely reason.
Greece in Greek is Hellas (old style and official) and Ellada. Greeks call themselves Hellenes. The word Greece derives from Latin Graecia, which in turn comes from the Ancient Greek Γραικός (Graikos).
I’m not gonna lie, I find Rob’s explanations for Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, not just confusing, but also misleading. I get how the explanation for each country couldn’t be very long, but I am afraid that for some of them short explanations didn’t do enough justice. I can easily imagine how after watching this video, a person could come off thinking that Russia is the main inheritor of the legacy of Rus, and the origin of Belarus is just being a different type of Russians, instead of the Belarusian people just tracing their history from the same state as Russia does (not Russia itself). Actually, to think of it, the origin of the name “Belarus” and how it has settled in its modern territory is an interesting subject for a whole another video :) Lastly, I understand that calling Rus “Russia” was very common in the western historiography, it’s just today I’d rather offer a bit more context to try not to add support to the modern narrative of Ukrainians and Belarusians just being unruly Russians that are denying their origin, though I get that Rob did not mean no ill intent.
Thank you for your comment! I am very much confused and disappointed with this sort of explanation in Rob's video. I believe that nowadays, it is important to spend more time on research and to give more context if one wants to explain the origin of names of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.
The Medieval state of Rus with a capital in Kyiv (now Ukraine) has nothing to do with Muscovia (now Russia). Ruthenians (now Ukrainians) considered Muscovians (now Russians) as foreigners and vice versa because they had different origins, history, languages and cultures. Russian tsar Petr I renamed Muscovia to Russia in 1721, faked the history and started tracking the origins not from Moscow but from Kyiv to make his country older and Christian therefore reputable because previously Muscovia was known as a Great Tartaria with barbarians living there. Previously it wasn't even considered as a part of Europe.
Indeed this part is misleading. Starting with the point that it the word RUS comes from the name of the Swedes/scandinavians. This hypothesis of origin is very disputable. Let's just say that the medieval Rus was named Rus at least 100 years before the first invasion of the vikings, who, by the way, were called "Varyag" in Rus state. And another point for the SLAVS: actually in Slavic languages the word is SLOVYANY that comes from SLOVO (the word) i.e people who speak (opposed to the NIEMCY - mutes, people who doesn't speak)
@@ІванОмаров The word "Rus" came with vikings from Scandinavia - exactly the same as the word "Bulgar" came with turkic tribes from the shores of the Volga River. Now both are connected with Slavs despite their non-Slav origin.
@@EAGauss Again, Ukrainian propaganda.Firstly, Russia was founded on the territory of the modern part of Russia in Ladoga, the vocation of the Varangians occurred in 862, and Oleg conquered Kiev from the Khazar tributaries in 882, and made it the main city.Secondly, show me the maps and historical documents where Kiiv and not Kiev will be written.Thirdly, Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod hails from the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality, on whose territory Moscow was located.Fourth, Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky moved the capital from Kiev to Vladimir, later the Metropolitan moved from Kiev to Vladimir, later the capital was moved from Vladimir to Moscow, the Metropolitan also moved to Moscow, where he still resides, and in Ukraine they are now trying to ban the very faith that began in Kiev in 988.Fifthly, after the Mongol invasion of Kiev, there was practically nothing left of Kiev, one Papal envoy to the horde, when he drove past Kiev, said that only 20 residential courtyards remained of the city.
In Norway the Historical counties are Named After Tribes Rogaland (Land of the Rugii) Hordaland (Land of the Charudes/Harudes) Agder (Land of the Islanders) Romsdal (Land of the Raumer) Grenland (Land of the Grens) Viken (Funnily enough Land of the Vikings) Hedmark (Land of the Hetheners/Heder) Romeriket (Land of Raum The old)
I believe you've mistaken \ missed out on a few countries. Ukraine (my motherland and homeland) may be named after "borderED land \ Land with borders, like a normal country", because the root Край (kray) also means "separated land", the land that has [some] borders, and the beginning У- (U) indicates being in \ belonging to\ that land, which means the people who named the country were native here. Basically, Ukraine means "Home" for us
Ukraine does NOT mean "Borderland"---This is ignorant propaganda propagated by the RuZZians who have a different word for country--"strana".--This is why they do not hear the UKRAINIAN word for "country" in the word Ukrayina! (the root here is krayina---not simply kray!) Ukrayina means U-country just like Deutschland means Deutsch-country, England means Eng-country, Estimaa means Esti-country Jong Guo means Jong-country, etc,
@@Chaldon-hl6yk So what!---Moscow is English word--"cow" --you have many slow mooving cows in Moscow---so slow moss grows on them!--Don't use your foreign RuZZian language to interpret the meaning of a UKRAINIAN word!
As a Hebrew speaker you just blew my mind with the Spain fact. Phoenician/Punic and Hebrew are very mutually intelligible. I never noticed how "Hispania" sounds so much like "i shafan" which literally means "hyrax island". "shafan" means hyrax, "i" means island ("i" pronounced as "E" like the letter "e", not "i" like "I am").
Flatness have nothing to do with it 😂 Fields in mountains are called the same (pole) It comes from rapid deforestation that created fields and accompanied the development of the early Piast state. Previously, these areas were covered with dense forests and swamps.
And most likely Poland refers to the land of the PEOPLE of the fields, not land of the fields themselves!--Most of the country names in Europe AT THAT TIME refer to the PEOPLE, very few to geography!
5:05 The irony here is, that Greenland is by average more icy than Iceland, and Iceland is by average more green than Iceland. The rumor say that the names were given in the context of the season they were visited.
Also because of climate change. There was a particularly cold period when Iceland was discovered and a particularly warm period when Greenland was discovered. I remember reading that somewhere in a history book in school.
@@robertwatson9940 What? Greenland is no more part of Denmark? When that happened and how? And who owns it today? Or is it sovereign/independent nation?
I love all your videos, but your expression at 00:03 is scarily reminiscent of Travis Bickle "are you talking to me?". Yes, yes, I'm definitely listening now...
When my local weatherman does short online updates/forecasts it uses the very first frame of the video before you play it and I swear he always looks like he’s getting ready to go on a rampage, he looks so mean Then you press play and it’s back to normal for the rest of the video
Well in Italian "Monaco" means "monk" and that's actually true to the real origin of the name. Something about salt trade: Heinrich der Löwe destroyed a bridge over the river of Danube to have the salt-trade route go over his bridge, which was near a monastery, to get the trade toll. This became a center for salt trade and people settled there, who called the place "by the monks" or in Latin "forum apud Munichen" - "the market near the monks".
@@dreamyrhodes Wait, Monaco state on Riviera was created by a medieval adventurer who took the castle dressed up as a monk. Monk (Monachos in Greek, latin monachus) could also be the origin of the name ?
The "Rabbit Land" etymology of Spain reminds me of the Mandarin names for various countries and continents, which are made transliteratively rather than based on meeting, but in characters that HAVE meanings nonetheless. France, for instance is Faguo (法國 ) > "Law Country" Germany = Deguo (德國) = "Moral Country" - It's interesting someone seems to have transliterated "de" from "deutsch." England = Yingguo (英國) > "Beauty Country" "America"(USA) = Meiguo (美國) > "Beauty Country," But more interestingly I think, is a variant you rarely see in Mandarin, but which is standard in Japanese; （米国）> "Rice Country" ^ In Japan, the USA has been deemed "Country of Rice!" There are also ones that would appear problematic if you took them literally, and one wonders who came up with them. Like, "Asia" gets transliterated as "Yazhou" (亞洲), which if you read it for meaning, the "ya" means "secondary" or "sub," like lesser. It can translated as "Secondary/Lesser Continent!" And Africa (非洲) "Feizhou" is "Un-Continent"/ "Non-Continent." One more, just for fun. Mexico, is "Moxige" (墨西哥）, which means "Ink West Big-Bro!" That "Ge" at the end is a word used to affectionately call a man "Big Brother" in a way roughly equivalent to the Korean "Oppa" in "Oppa Gangnam Style"! There are a lots more interesting ones, so this might be worth a vid! Oh, and btw- Umm actually, 🧐 Rabbits fall into the category of "lagomorph," not "rodent!"
@@oscah_whisky Oops, you're right. I just wasn't thinking. 米国 (rice country) is the Japanese name. That name doesn exist in Mandarin too, but it's extremely nonstandard, so you'll rarely run into it. I think I'll go back and add an edit on the post. Thanks for pointing that out!
All the country names which end in -guó (國) are actually abbreviations of longer transliterations: France - Fálánxī (法蘭西) > law-orchid-west Germany (Deutsch) - Déyìzhì (德意志) > moral-will England - Yīnggélán (英格蘭) > hero-form-orchid USA (America) - Yàměilìjiā (亞美利加) > sub-beauty-profit-add The characters were primarily chosen for their phonetic value and not their meanings, but they try to use auspicious characters. The continents are also abbreviations of longer transliterations like Asia - Yàxìyà (亞細亞), Africa - Āfēilìjiā (阿非利加).
If we’re going to talk about Chinese, the odd one out is actually Russia, because it contains an extra syllable (ˌo / é, making the long form sound like “o Rus”) and it’s this extra syllable that’s the normal, short name of the country. By comparison, the Japanese long form is just “Russia” (Roshia, short form “Ro”). I don’t know where the extra syllable in the Chinese long form comes from, whether it used to be what Russia was called in Chinese, or if it’s been added for semantic value, or for some other reason. Many names with 亞 are clearly not Mandarin in origin because of the extra y; in both Cantonese and Japanese this is a simple a sound.
@@amyl.9477 Russia's name in Chinese comes from Manchu (oros/orus), which is why you get that extra initial consonant. Also, 米国 in Japanese may refer to grain in general, not rice.
@@wspencerwatkins I want each of the countries he discusses to be treated equally. He talked about Germany's original native name but not many of the others
A really striking thing about Germany to me is the WIDE VARIETY of words for "German" that are used in other languages. They seem to be completely unrelated to each other. In English, we say "German". In French, they say "Allemand". In German, they say "Deutsch". In Italian, they say "Tedesco". In Russian, they say "Nemyetski". Why are they all *so different?*
Big country with a long history of encounters, dominant states, etc., so each probably uses the name that was most prominent during first contact. In Romanian we use both 'Germani' and 'Nemți'. The latter, because there was cultural exchange with Russians. Not so sure where 'Germani' comes from, probably Latin.
Well, simply because of their location. They're situated right in the middle of Europe, crossed by all major roads and navigable rivers. They have a long history of interaction with most European nations and tribes, be it for trade purposes, culture, industry, art or ... imperialistic aggression. Also, starting from Charlemagne in the 800s and up until the present day, basically ALL royal houses of all European nations have intermarried with German-speaking nobility. The fact that the Holy Roman ( Germanic ) Empire was composed of literally HUNDREDS of lordships, each having their own aristocratic class, meant that they could provide aristocratic alliances for every European noble family, seeking to marry their offspring into the dominant class. So, obviously, a nation so deeply embedded in European history, is bound to be known by many names and epithets from all around the continent.
When these names originated there were separate, individual Germanic tribes, treated as such, as opposed to the modern unified Germany: Allemani (French), Saxons (Finnish, Estonian), Franks (etc). "Nemtsy" (mute/non-speaking) may derive from a generic term for any non-intelligible people, i.e "foreigners", as opposed to "Slavs" ("slovo" = word, speech)
There is also an expression, Švapska or Švabija, used in Serbo-Croatian languages, which, strictly speaking, refers only to the region of Swabia in southern Germany, but which is also used colloquially to refer to the whole of Germany.
He talked about this in the video, and Wikipedia actually has a whole article on the "names of Germany." TLDR version though is that Germany didn't become a single unified country until relatively recently, so different languages used different words for it - often referring to different Germanic tribes from different parts of the country - e.g. the Saxons, Allemans, Teutons, etc.
The name of Lithuania in Lithuanian, Lietuva, most likely comes from an old word for a shallow, wide part of a river. Lithuania is indeed full of rivers and other bodies of inland water.
Funnily enough, in one of the oldest Welsh poems, the speaker is a defeated warrior camping out with his servant which he calls a Franc, 'niwuorcosam nemheunaur henoid mitelu nit gurmaur mi am franc dam ancalaur', 'I will not speak ... tonight. My warband is not great, I and my Frank around our cauldron.' Nant Ffrancon is also a region in Wales. Valley of the Spears would be a pretty neat translation of it😳
Finland used to be comprised of several disconnected tribes such as Tavastians, Savonians, Karelians and Finns proper. Lapland and the Sami people is a whole other story, but much of Lapland is a part of Finland now. The Viking sagas refer to "Fenni" as people wielding magical powers and using shaman drums (likely referring to the Sami people) while the Roman historian Tacitus refers to the "Fenni" as poor and miserable with bone spears and shoddy huts for shelter. Nobody knows which tribes they were referring to, but they surely weren't the same people. There even is an area in Northern Norway named Finnmark, which is mostly inhabited by Sami people, not Finns.
Itämerensuomalaisten ja saamelaisten esivanhemmista Tacituksen Germaniassa [journal_sananjalka] - Pasi Ockenström: "Ancestors of the Baltic Sea Finns and the Sámi in Tacitus’ Germania The names Finland and Finn are no doubt a historical consequence of the term Fenni in Tacitus’ book Germania (98 CE). The notion of the Fenni as Finns has changed over time, and nowadays, the Fenni in Finland are more likely considered to have been ancestors of the Sámi. Both Finnish and international discourse on the subject is, however, based on Tacitus’ Fenni, but the questions that still need to be answered are; who were the Fenni in real life and which peoples, if any, represented the Finns and the Sámi in Germania. New archeological and linguistic research Homo Fennicus (2020) by Valter Lang has made it possible to give more detailed answers in defining people and places in Tacitus’ narrative. With the help of Lang’s book, we can better understand the situation in the Baltic Sea area in the first century CE. It is crucial to understand that when it comes to the Baltic Sea region, Tacitus was relying on information from local sources. This means that the main source of information was probably given by Baltic merchants who knew the peoples in the region and their dwellings very well. The information compiled from these merchants was authentic, thus the best available for Tacitus in Rome at the time. We can infer that Tacitus was talking about the ancient Swedes, that is, the Suiones and the Balts or the Aestii in the very same region, the Baltic Sea. According to Lang, the Baltic Sea Finns at that time occupied several places on the shores of Estonia and Finland. Since the Suiones and the Aestii were clearly identified, the other people mentioned in the same vein, Tacitus´s Sitones, may have been the Baltic Sea Finns. Their occupation was obvious, according to Tacitus as he talks about many Sitones’ dwellings near the Suiones. Tacitus also talks about the Hellusi and the Oxionae, who very likely dressed appropriately against a cold climate. These were most probably the people of the North. As we have now covered all the significant groups of people in the area, one question still remains unanswered: why have scholars designated Tacitus’ Fenni as being in the Baltic Sea area as well and presented them the ancestors of the Sámi in particular. It is most probably a misinterpretation rooted far in history, but made several hundred years after Tacitus’, when the content of Germania became a source to locally name the peoples dwellings in the Baltic Sea area. The problem is that the dwellings and peoples by then had changed from Tacitus´ time. Tacitus talks about the Fenni in close geographical connection with the Peucini and the Veneti who even had relations with the Sarmatians. These peoples are all located in East Central Europe, and they had nothing to do with those in the North. Although both the Fenni and the Sámi ancestors led simple lives, they lived in notably different environments from each other. The former lived in Central European circumstances, although in a more primitive way than other Germanic peoples, and the latter in a cold climate in the peripheral Nordic region. The Fenni did not have arms, as they were not warlike. This was not the case for the neighboring Veneti people, who did engage in warfare and also had fixed homes. The Fenni lived apart from them in a swamp area, but they had no houses, only shelters made of branches for protecting infants from wild animals and rain, and for serving as a dwelling place for adults and for those who have reached old age. In the case of the Sámi, the branch shelters would not have been sufficient due to the cold and windy climate they lived in. The Sámi people used Lapp huts covered with hides or birch bark in the summer, and possibly turf huts for survival in the harsh winter environment. The Fenni, like many Germanic peoples, draped themselves in animal skins, whereas the Sámi ancestors traditionally fashioned reindeer skins that resembled a parka. The Fenni used bone as arrowhead material, because of a lack of iron and possibly a lack of suitable stone. This is understandable due to the swamp area where they lived. In the North, however, iron was available in addition to bone and stone. There were substantial differences between the ancestors of the Sámi and the Fenni, that is, they were not the same. The Fenni were very likely a primitive Germanic group of people dwelling in the Pripyat swamp area. With the help of Lang’s study, we can infer, according to the survey utilized in this article, that Tacitus was talking about the Baltic Sea Finns in connection with other peoples in the area and about the peoples who dwelled more north, where the Fenni did not belong."
As a Swede, I find it very easy to understand your old English names. Some are actually the same. Christmas in Swedish is still "Jul" and we often say "Jul månaden" instead of December but only when the context of the meaning is about Christmas. Some other are a bit harder. We often have a modern form of the word but used in another context. About the same as understanding Norwegian or Danish.
Regarding Spain. Small correction: Not the land of the rabbits but the island of the rabbits. In Hebrew, which is a very close sister language to the Phoenician spoken in Carthage, the translation of "the island of rabbits" is "Yi Hashfanim" = "Ispania".
...and its no more greece. the current international name is Hellas. meaning the rocky land under the sun (el like hELios and las meaning stone) a very ancient word
17:17Country name information: 1. Andorra: The name Andorra has dual origins in Basque andurrial which means land, valleys and hills covered with trees and river forests. And it has another origin that goes back to Latin, Occitan and Catalan which means land of the Celtic and Iberian men of the Pyrenees. 2. Monaco: The name Monaco has Greek origins and derives from the term "monoikos", which means "solitary" or "solitary inhabitant". This name was given due to the isolated location of the principality. And because Monaco was a Greek settlement that was connected to both Gaul and Liguria. 3. Moldova: The name Moldova has a Latin origin. The name "Moldova" derives from the Latin "Moldavia", which in turn comes from the name of the Moldova River, which runs through the country. The official language of Moldova, Romanian, is also a Romance language, derived from Latin. Latin influence in the region dates back to the time of the Roman Empire, when the region was part of the Roman province of Dacia. It means Moldova river land good for cultivation and harvesting, productive and fertile land. This name was given due to the fertility of the soil in the region by the Romans, this name was accepted and preserved by the Dacians, allies and friends and brothers of beliefs of the Romans. 4. Luxembourg: The name Luxembourg derives from the name of the city of Luxembourg, which in turn has its origins in the Latin "Lucilinburhuc", which means "small castle". The city was founded around a castle built in the 10th century. 5. Liechtenstein: The name Liechtenstein derives from the name of the princely family that rules the country, the House of Liechtenstein. The family name originates from Liechtenstein Castle, which was built in the 12th century and means "shining stone" in German Walser. 6. Switzerland: The name Switzerland originates from the Latin "Confoederatio Helvetica", which means "Helvetic Confederation". The term "Helvetica" derives from the name of the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe that inhabited the region before the Roman conquest. The Swiss Confederation was founded in 1291 and the name Switzerland began to be used from the 17th century onwards. Anthropologically and linguistically, Switzerland's ancient origin is Celtic, just like France, England, Ireland and Spain. I don't want review patrol forever on my speech, I don't want opinion patrol in my posts forever, go to work bums, go to hell, let the people who understand the video speak and comment, simple as that. Get lost, there's nothing here for you forever.
Spain's origin isnt celtic there already were people living in iberia and the celts happened to migrate there just like they did in germany or italy. To say that spain's origin is celtic is like to say italy's origin is germanic cuz of the ostrogoths or lombard that migrated there
Not officially! We still need to be invited each year whereas all the rest are automatically in due to their geographical location in the European Broadcast Area and full membership status. The name of Australia is no mystery either: Latin word for "southern".
@@gardenersgraziers7261 Colonial preferences are often like that. Victoria is named after a queen, there's Queensland, and the state capital cities, I believe, are all notable British people of the era. The USA is full of such names, and not just from English explorers, from French and even early immigration settlements. When "Australia" finally came into recognition as a country, the latin derivative, as commonly used dating way back to "Terra Australis", stuck. Although, I have an old map that shows us as New Holland! If the Dutch had stayed, we could be two countries of New Holland (west) and New England (east). Yikes!
Hi Rob, Ukrainian historian here! In fact, the name Ukraine comes from the border of civilization, because in the 10th - 12th centuries, our current southern regions were wild fields. The Golden Horde was located there, a nomadic state that robbed everyone who entered these territories. Please, we do not want to be the border of Russia and this is incorrect information. As well as the name of the country Russia, which they stole. But this is another topic for discussion.
This comment is so underrated. Shame that the creator of the video didn't take more time educating himself and going beyond common a Russian narrative on the name origin and history of Ukraine.
How can you pretend being historian and using such terms as "stolen" i dont know if you use it to sound funny or simple but it is not serious. When you study history there are rarely goods and bads , at least historians try to rid themselves of subjectivities, especially if affected by current times. The golden horde is not just a mere nomadic tribe sealing people and it wasn't even in the 10-12th century but in 13th-14th... you completely discredit yourself "name of the country Russia, which they stole", thank you for the complex analysis and the casual normatif judgement on it.
@@tayloryoung9803 I'm a historian with higher education. But also I'm a simple human that can have their own opinion about different facts and situations, as you have. But I can also be mistaken, as you saw above. I appeciate your correcting. I've never been told that the"name of the country Russia, which they stole" is a historical fact. And as I said, it's a long story. Let me know if you want to know more, I can reply to you with the proved facts. I understand your clue, but I also will understand if you are Russian as well.
@@tayloryoung9803 Oh, boy... Where to start?... First, please check the dictionary for the definition of "stolen". Second, I bet it's not that difficult to read at least the Wikipedia articles on Kievan Rus and then the etymology of "Russia" (spoiler: it has something to do with Rus and its Greek name. And you won't believe from where the Duchy of Muscovy decided to expropriate (another definition for you to check in the dictionary) the name Rus). Last but not least, you will be shocked with all these naughty historians talking about theft... e.g. the art stolen by Nazi Germany.
@@a.s.5735 Im speaking of stealing in the very context of namings , no need to reply with such a tone. First why Rus ? 2) It was adapted the toponym Little or Lesser Rus from the Greek term, used by the Ecumenical Patriarchs of Constantinople from the 14th century. The terms originated from the Byzantines, who identified the northern and southern parts of the lands of Rus as: Greater Rus (Μεγάλη Ῥωσσία, Megálē Rhōssía) and Little Rus (Μικρὰ Ῥωσσία, Mikrà Rhōssía). The terms were geographic in nature; the Byzantines used them to distinguish between the jurisdictions of the metropolitanates of Moscow and of Halych; "Little" (or "Inner") referred to the region closer to Byzantium, Galicia; "Greater" (or "Outer") to the regions further away and more remote, Muscovy. In 1328 Ivan I of Moscow persuaded Theognost, the Metropolitan of Kiev, to settle in Moscow; from which point forward the title changed to "of Kiev and all Rus'"-a title which was retained until the mid-fifteenth century. Later, in 1341 Simeon of Moscow was appointed Grand Prince "of all Russia" by the Khan of the Mongol Golden Horde 3) Muscovite princes considered themselves to be rightful heirs of the "Kievan inheritance", and associated their survival with fulfilling the historical destiny of reunifying the lands of Rus. Following the expansion of his realm and his marriage to Sophia Palaiologina, the grand prince Ivan III took the title of sovereign and claimed inheritance to all the former territories of Kievan Rus', including those under Lithuanian control in the 17th century Russianness' as an ethnic concept stressed the differences between the East Slav population from the rest ___________________________ There is no stolen , it was not right or wrong There is evolution over centuries , Neither Ukraine (modern) or Russia are full fledged heirs of Kievan Rus
Rob, great video but you missed a few points: 1. Armenia is a Greek name for the country. We call our land "Hayastan", meaning "the land of Hayk" (google the legend of Hayk), and we call ourselves "Hay". Historically, the kingdom was called Ararat, and Urartu before that (same name, actually, as in Assirian cuneiform it is just spelled RRT). 2. Armenians call Poland "Lehastan", the lend of Leh who you mentioned. I don't know who else does. 3. Georgia is, agan, a western name. I think they called themselves Kartveli. The Greek name for a part of it is Colchida, see the Argonauts and the Golden Fleas legend In case you are going to do another video about Asia, here are 2 interesting ones there: 1. Iraq is called after Summerian city Uruk 2. Iran means " the land of Arians". Armenians call it Parskastan, the land of Phars
Georgia is a general name. There is actually no georgians, there are community of tribes. The language that is known in Georgia is the the language of svans. And georgians calls their country Sacartvelo or Sakartvelo
Well, this time Rob didn't do his research properly. Slovakia and Slovenia, and slavs ultimately come from "slovo" - " a word", meaning that slavs are people who speak with understandable words, unlike "niemcy" who are "muted". Ukraine, meanwhile has a root "kraj" which simply means "country", "land". It's never been a borderland, but rather a center of old Rus. Ironicly a true borderland of Rus was Moscow, which land was referred as Zalesje (beyond forests).
For those who unhappy with my answer I have my kind reminder: words can have multiple meanings. Kraj, if you talk about a table can mean an edge. While "krajina" means simply "a country", and guess what, countries has edges - borders. So it means a territory with defined borders- a country.
@@RDSk0 край може бути де завгодно. "край" це відрізаний (відкраєний) шматок від будь чого, або грані великого шматка (пограниччя). ця теорія-порівняння з Inland - натягування сови на глобус. термін Україна активно використовується з 16 ст. у Речі Посполитій для позначення земель що граничать з Диким полем. а та поодинока цитата з 12 ст "Оукраина вся постонаша" ніякої ясності не приводить
@@trymai_kavun that's why Poles gave a prefix U- for it province to mark this new (for them) terrirories as "lands that borders with Wild Fields". why it so demeaning to you? it's just an etimology. before 16 century "Oucraina" mentioned just once with unclear meaning.
@@elchile336 In poetic Italian Germany is also sometimes known as Lamagna - in Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" where the character Leporello is listing all the hundreds of conquests (ladies!) his master has made "Germany" is referred to as "Lamagna." -"in Lamagna cento e quaranta" - In Germany he has made 140 conquests. The story is of course originally Spanish.
Hit me with some more interesting place name origins! And improve your career with TripleTen using my code "RobWords" for 30% off on all their programs, Sign up for a FREE TripleTen career consultation with my link: get.tripleten.com/RobWords
UPDATE: I have removed the section of this video covering Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. It was proving too controversial in light of Russia's unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
🐇RABBIT UPDATE: I am now aware that rabbits are not rodents.
It's not that interesting, but here in the U.S. state of Colored Red is a town (and mountain) called Niwot after an Arapaho chief, and it means 'left--hand'.
Not that interesting, I just wanted to be the first response!
...and I'm sinistral myself.
So Iceland is a geothermal hotspot but called Iceland, and Greenland which is covered in ice is called Greenland. weird
@@Twi_543 I just like that Snowland wasn't metal enough, it had to be ICELAND.
I think with this comprehensive list, you should have implemented Kosovo as .... yeah difficult how to frame it to not anger the usual supects. May you outline, why it didn't made it into the list?
@@Twi_543 There's the idea that Greenland was so named in order to attract settlers. Ancient hype.
The embassies of Slovenia and Slovakia in Washington DC have a monthly meeting where they exchange mail mistakenly sent to the wrong embassy.
I would not be surprised if Austria and australia had the same
@@Ed19601 and as an Australian I've long held that this confusion could be entirely avoided by just calling the other one Österreich. After all, it's what the people who live there call it. Makes sense to me.
Sweden and Switzerland meet just down the corridor from them to do the same.
"....where they exchange mail mistakenly sent to the wrong embassy."
Which is gather together & forwarded to Serbia.
@@Luubelaar Both names are directional but from different languages - eastern kingdom for Austria and southern land for Australia!
Pole in slav languages means field....Poland therefore is land of fields.
Field - in the sense of an open area, to be precise. Like in a battlefield.
Considering it's basically one large plain open to invasion from both sides that's pretty fitting.
@@Alias_Anybody well, its even better. Poland comes frome tribe name Polans (Polanie) which meant people living in fields...
And it is supposedly came from a fact that early medieval settlements of slavs in that area became rapidly deforested (those land were one huge forests and swamps before)
I thought Poland was the land of long sticks.
@@imcbocian
"Forest and field" as an expression literally means "garden-variety" in German, so you could say Poles are garden-variety slavs, contrasted to Slovaks who are slavic slavs and the Russian rowing slavs.
Quickly pointing out the "Greece" is also an exonym. The endonym is "Ellas" which is where English get's the term "Hellenistic".
Plus... the name "Greek" derives from "Graeci" which was one of the Hellenic tribes (originated from Thessalie) that inhabited in south Italy. For the Romans that became synonym for "old tribe". In a parallel way the Turks are calling the greeks "Yunan" = Ίωνες (Ionians) the Hellenic inhabitants of the west coast of (nowdays) Turkey
@@toboologlou maybe but according to Aristotle the term greece has Illyrian.( Albanian) origins....Graikhos Graii ("Meteorologica" I.xiv),
@@lagjescuni5482in meteorologika, I see there is a reference on "Γραικοι" (and other Hellenic tribes) but nothing about Illyrians. Those two civilizations have totally different attributes (language, customs, religion, technological advancements, etc). Can you please make a specific reference on documents upon the Illyrians?
@@toboologlou are you kidding? write Graikhos ( Meteorologica" I.xiv ) on google
@@toboologlou However, according to Hellenic mythology, the Illyrians were their cousins and they also wrote that they descended from Cyclopes.... of course, most of the things that the ancient authors wrote are ridiculous, I know..
So… Turkey is now Europe but Russia, Ukraine and Belarus no?
I thought part of Turkey was on the European plate and part on the Asian?
So are Israel and Australia...if Eurovision is to be believed.
@@JM-The_Curious yeah it is
But Ukraine and belarus are almost in the Center of Europe, not Just a border.
@@Ig_Grun Yes, it would have been good to see them included.
I love that in English, Austria and Australia look similar. But Austria comes from German for East, and Australia comes from Latin for South
And on a map Australia is in the South and East on a map.
@@leekelly9639 if you're a resident of Antarctica, it's also in the north
What's interesting, though, is that both derive from the same PIE root, so they are related
Even worse, try to distinguish between Weird Al and Weird AI... D:
The thing is that „Austria“ is a name English people gave that country. It‘s real name is different, as you probably know.
I will point out, neither rabbits, nor hyraxes, are rodents. Rabbits are lagomorphs, which are the other member of glires, which rodents also are, but they’re still not technically rodents. Hyraxes, on the other hand, are afrotheres and are therefore more closely related to elephants, manatees, and aardvarks than to rodents. Still a great video, though, as always.
Glad someone else knows this :)
And people who have never seen a rabbit before are supposed to know this?
All right. I'll accept that, but I think that you're just splitting hares.
@@johnturner4400 No, but now you know.
That's only using modern taxonomy, which is arbitrary. They used to be officially rodents, which is why they are still considered that colloquially.
Couple of the etymologies mentioned here were quite "lazy" (outdated or incomplete), so here a few additions/corrections Rob ;)
- Poland or Poles reference quite universal Slavic root "pole" (poh-leh) for field or in its origins even perhaps the flat-land. So pretty matching with the landscape where the tribe of Polans (field-dwellers) settled.
- Slovaks, Slovenes, Slavonians, Slavs - the connotations with the Latin sclavus is actually nowadays considered an outdated theory by etymologists (something that was used and popularized in the ancient times, for obvious reasons). The most probable origin is the autonym, related to the ancient and still widely universal Slavic word "slovo" for ... word. (Those speaking commonly known words, compare with how they called they neighbors Germans "nemci" = mute, unintelligible), but in the same time also equally universal Slavic root "slava" (glory) or sluch (sense of hearing), all stemming from the Proto-Indo-European *klew (to be spoken of, glory) that can be traced also to other I-E languages. The superimposed "slaves" theory (even if spoken of on neutral terms, as in "how others perceived them") seems to be one of the most tediously repeated (annoyingly persistent) misconceptions.
- Same for Serbia and Srbs/Sorbs, who may be etymologically rooted in the endonymous expression for alliance and kinship. (In autonyms, it's usual that people just call themselves "the people", "our people", "people we understand" etc. :D )
- Bulgar origins are not known, although some theories suggest Turkic bulğha for "stirring" "mixing" "disturb" "upheaval" "rebellion". Bulgarians are a curious mixture of indigenous Thracian, central-Asian (Turkic?) settlers' and Slavic genes. Despite this diversity, the language itself is even more curiously based on the Old Church Slavonic - the liturgy language once shared by many Slavic people/nations. And nowadays tightly close to the (North) Macedonian language (Slavic), spoken in the former Yugoslav federal land named after the ancient Greek province. Balkans!
- H in Hungarians is said to come from a historic misconception that Magyar riders arrived in the same fashion or from the same direction as the Huns did centuries (!) before them. This H seems like an romanticizing addition to yet another exonym: Ungar(s)/Uhor which is packing these folks with a plethora of Turkic tribes called Onogurs which moved around the region around those times too. Even if they are not of Turkic origin it seems. They themselves called and call themselves Magyars (named after one of the actual seven Hungarian tribes that settled in their current lands) and spoke Ugro-Finnic Magyar language, that may be related to this language family's word magy for ... a man. :)
- Georgians may have their exonym based on Persian gurg/wolf, but in their peculiar language (small ancient indigenous Kartvelian language family) they call their country Sa-kartvel-o - translatable as Kartvel-land - which may come from the local tribe of Karts.
- Armenians also carry a Greek? Persian? ancient? exonym, that may reference to trees, thickets, or even wasteland. They themselves call(ed) their land Hay-a-stan (in a persianized form) or Hayk, with an unknown origin, but some say traceable even to some Old Testament genealogy.
This is when one puts more effort into writing a comment than the author into a video!
Very nice, I like the idea to add on to put our common knowledge together!
I have a little bit more to add to the list:
-On (Bosnia &) Herzegovina: Apparently the Herzegovina part comes from an actual german duke being put as a local ruler at some point. Duke is the most accurate translation of the title as "Herzog" comes originally from "(der vor dem ) HEER zog"= "he who leads the army"
-On Greece: "Graecia" is actually a Latin exonym, referring originally to a single Greek-speaking tribe, probably in the Agean coast of Thracia. The Greeks themselves still call themselves "(H)ellenes", also being made the general term for the whole nation after initially only referring to only one single tribe.
-On Monaco: Just a little historic context: Monaco was founded as a trading post in the 6th century BC by some inhabitants of nearby Massalia (Marseille), which had been in turn been founded a few decades earlier by Greek colonists from Phocaea on the East coast of the Agean. The naming was therefore put in reference with the myths of Herakles, who had supposedly passed through there (and built a single hut for himself?) on his way to complete labour tasks in Spain.
-On Portugal: (Some context) As mentioned, the country was named after the city of Porto (Calide), an ancient Roman port on the Iberian Atlantic Coast. This naming of the entire country after one city stems from the history of the Iberian peninsula: After the end of Roman rule and replacing the visigothic kingdom, most of Iberia was conquered by muslims from the south. The next part is from Wikipedia: "At the end of the 9th century, the region of Portugal between the rivers Minho and Douro, was reconquered from the Moors by nobleman and knight Vímara Peres on the orders of King Alfonso III of Asturias.[42] Finding many towns deserted, he decided to repopulate and rebuild them. Vímara Peres elevated the region to the status of County, naming it the County of Portugal after its major port city - Portus Cale or modern Porto. One of the first cities he founded is Vimaranes, known today as Guimarães - "birthplace of the Portuguese nation" or the "cradle city".After annexing the County of Portugal into one of the counties that made up the Kingdom of Asturias, King Alfonso III of Asturias knighted Vímara Peres, in 868, as the First Count of Portus Cale (Portugal). The region became known as Portucale, Portugale, and simultaneously Portugália.[43] With the forced abdication of Alfonso III in 910, the Kingdom of Asturias split into three separate kingdoms; they were reunited in 924 under the crown of León."
During the reconquista, the catholic kingdoms in the north of Iberia basically made a pact of allegiance under the banner of Leon to reconquer the peninsula from the Muslims. Eventually, as the Muslims grew weaker and the Catholic infighting increased, the local ruler Alfonso (I.) Henriques claimed independence for his piece of ruled land in 1143. He then basically kept the name for the old region within Asturias and Leon to even include the newly conquered territories to the south up to the Algarve. This also lead to a still existing rivalry within the country btw Porto, the city the country is named after, and the name.
-On Italy: The etymologies given in the vid seem fine, so this is just my take:
Both the Vituli (=Latin/Italic endonym) and the Greek "Italoi" exonym as they were colonizing southern Italy (later known by the Romans as "Magna Graecia") seem fair and I could even imagine them going hand in hand with each other since they're fairly close and it makes sense these peoples communicated somehow. Just the myth of the legendary king "Italus" seems like an obvious later mystification/folk etymology, as they are common all throughout history. Just like "Romulus and Remus" are also a nice little story to where the city got its name from, while research hypothesises other sources; Wikipedia supposes it might come: "From Rumon or Rumen, archaic name of the Tiber, which in turn is supposedly related to the Greek verb ῥέω (rhéō) 'to flow, stream' and the Latin verb ruō 'to hurry, rush';
From the Etruscan word 𐌓𐌖𐌌𐌀 (ruma), whose root is *rum- "teat", with possible reference either to the totem wolf that adopted and suckled the cognately named twins Romulus and Remus, or to the shape of the Palatine and Aventine Hills;
From the Greek word ῥώμη (rhṓmē), which means strength.
That turned out a lot longer than I thought, but maybe someone will enjoy reading it as much a I did researching & writing.
Have a good day everyone))
I think that, perhaps, Rob chose the origin stories based on a general consensus of the most accessible literature on the subject and the most 'accepted' theories.
Being well-versed in this area of research, you are undoubtedly aware of the many theories which can be postulated. Describing his research as 'lazy' is a very harsh description.
What you have written is really interesting. A back and forth, open discussion -"This was interesting, Rob, but I think you might be interested in these contrary theories:...", just might have been a less adversarial way of discussing the matter.
Everything is a 'fight' these days!
Very interesting explanations. A question though: even today the name Atilla is widely used in Hungary and yes, the first famous one was Atilla the Hun. Then logically, the name of the country comes from them, ancestors, the Huns, no? Why should they name their boys Atilla if no connection?? And yes, most surprisingly, their country’s name is “The Land of Magyars”, not of the Huns. So, I am totally lost here. Another note. There is a strong minority of Hungarians in Romania and let me tell you, they dislike being named “Unguri”=“Hungarians” by the others. They are “Magyars”. Any clues, please? ... All the more, because I am half Hungarian, half Romanian…
Very interesting explanations. A question though: even today the name Atilla is widely used in Hungary and yes, the first famous one was Atilla the Hun. Then logically, the name of the country comes from them, ancestors, the Huns, no? Why should they name their boys Atilla if no connection?? And yes, most surprisingly, their country’s name is “The Land of Magyars”, not of the Huns. So, I am totally lost here. Another note. There is a strong minority of Hungarians in Romania and let me tell you, they dislike being named “Unguri”=“Hungarians” by the others. They are “Magyars”. So, their sons are called Atilla, but don’t call them Huns! Why? Any clues, please? ... All the more, because I am half Hungarian, half Romanian…
Title of the Video should've been - Origin of Every English names of European Countries....!
The video is in english, and he features a lot of the origins in the original languages...
The title is in English? The video is in English? Not sure what you expected, Einstein
A bit more about Georgia.
1 - The Georgians call their own country Sakartvelo, which simply means "Land of the Kartveli".
2 - The Russians and most (not all) of the former Soviet states refer to Georgia as "Gruzia".
3 - Some of the local Georgians offer the following explanations of why other nations refer to the place as "Georgia"
a - It starts with the Persian incursions, one of which was repulsed by the great King Vakhtang. Vakhtang wore a wolf's skull as his battle helmet, striking fear into the Persians. The Persian word for wolf is something like "gorgas", so the Persians referred to the area as "Gorgestan" or "Gorjestan". In fact, the Farsi and Dari speaking populations of the world still refer to this country by that name.
Side note - I heard from some Georgians that the English word "Gorgeous" came to us from the French diplomats who began to interact with Persia a few centuries ago. Those diplomats noted the rare and conspicuous beauty of the women of the Lorestan region of Persia - a region populated by people who were intentionally moved en-masse from Gorjestan's Kakheti region during a past invasion of that area. The Persians told the French diplomats that these women hailed from Gorjestan... which quickly became an adjective to describe rare and conspicuous beauty.
b - Not long after Vakhtang... or perhaps almost coincidental to that time... Christianity was taking a foothold in the area. The last Pagan hold out was an area just north of modern day Tbilisi. That area's Pagan god was an idol which apparently was called "Tetri Giorgi" - or "White George". The evangelists who converted these Pagans allegedly used the association with Saint George, equating him to "White George", and subordinating him to the larger Christian religion. As the story goes, this helped convince the locals that they had been on target with a reverence for White George but had simply been unaware of his role in a larger religion... which became theirs.
c - A few centuries later, during the crusades, some European crusaders took a route to the Holy Land thru Georgia. They noted the locals' reverence for Christianity and especially for Saint George. Later, when they went south into the Holy Land, the Persian "Gorjestan" had influenced what the locals called that area - something not identical but similar to Gorjestan. The crusaders, remembering the Kartveli's reverence for St George and now hearing the Arabs refer to that region as something which sounded like it referred to St George, adopted the name "Georgia" for that area.
long before Vakhtang we called that land georgia (gorgestan). in parthian sources, it's name is wergestan (werg in parthian = gorg in persian)
@@amir7890 - Interesting. I was not aware that the name preceded Vakhtang. I heard about this from a Georgian perspective. The folks there seem to think that the Persians started calling the place Gorjestan because of Vakhtang. Perhaps the Georgians with whom I spoke were unaware of how long that name had been in use.
@@amir7890 soo interesting…Wergestan… In Armenia, Georgia is called Verastan (the Upper Country).
@@davidprugh4190The Turks also call it Gorjestan, the name was adopted from Persian.
That was amazing! Thanks so much for putting all that out there. I may cite you at some point. 😊
A bit about Slavs. In slavic languages the word for Slavs is some variant of "sloveni" which means in a roundabout way, the people with words or the people with language. It's the antonym of th Slavic "nemci" (i.e. the people without language). I guess living next door to the Germans meant the slavs defined themselves in opposition to their neighbours. Something along the line of "we can speak and you can't nya nya nya nya nya".
Also, in addition to Slovakia and Slovenia, there's also Slavonia in Croatia.
@@InfiniteDeckhand Any scientific proof?
@@InfiniteDeckhand It was called "Slavuta", and that was from a different root.
Slavs or slovanie/sloveni coming from slovo (word) is probably the most popular etymology.
And yeah, the situation with Germans can be summed up to:
Slavs - "we speak (our language)"
Germans - "they don't speak (our language)"
Exactly- sclaves came from Slavs, not vice versa
@@InfiniteDeckhand that's bull shit. There are no written sources for the actual use of the term "Slavutych" by the Slavs back in the day. The oldest source is some "historiographic" writing from Moscow from the 17th century. And they translate "Slavutych" as "Son of Slavs" or "Son of Glory", which makes the term "Slav" the older one. Dnipro and similar/older forms of the word are found in writings from the 4th century, when the name shifted from the Greek Borisphen to Latin Danaprius from probably some Old Slavic version of a Scythian name.
The "Single House" that Monaco was derived from was a temple of Hercules that was set all alone upon the Rock of Monaco. Its position made it very noticeable to passing sailors. Since it stood there all alone, so it was known as the "Single House" as it was the only building of note on the promontory.
Agree with that
This was discussed recently on the Ancient History podcast on Hercules
Shqiperia means land of the people that can speak "Shqip"-->"Speak"-->"Excipere" have the same root and meaning. It's as if the english called their country "Speakeria" . Anyway the word Shqip is also very similar to the Albanian word for eagle "Shqiponje" which is the national totem, so eventually the meaning of the name Shqiperia came to signify "The land of the eagles".
The main reason why Albanians do not call their settlement in the Balkans Albania, but Shqiperia, is because in ancient times the land of the Albanians at the time of its original existence bordered the Armenian Kingdom ( 69BC), which was later destroyed by the Ottomans (during their expansion the Ottomans destroyed most of the ancient nations in Anatolia and the Caucasus). As a result, the Ottomans brought slaves and servants from the Caucasus to what the Ottomans named the Balkans (actually they took the name of the mountain range that stretches in the middle of Bulgaria and named the whole peninsula after it!) and the place where they settled their Albanian servant they called Albania, the Albanians in turn did not accept the name, so they called it Shqiperia because they were the only ones who could speak/understand the language in the area where mainly Serbian, Italian or Greek was spoken. (Search on Google; Kingdom of Armenia, and click on the map, there you can find ancient Albania!)
@@carbon12atom You are completely wrong, none of what you said is true.
@@carbon12atom Do more research because you are wrong. You failed.
@@carbon12atom A simple search tells that you that there is no coorelation between Albania and the Caucasus. The inhabitants of that region called themselves Aghwank/Aluank and spoke a language called Udi which itself isn't either Indo-Europe. Albanian on the otherhand is.
“Pole” comes from the slavic word for “field”. Poland probably got it’s name from being on a flat plain and is mostly rural.
Poland doesn't even own the land the country started out in though..
@@druncle1977before Jan sobeiski or after??
@@druncle1977 any proof for this lie? Because the origins of the country were in a region called Greater Poland, which surely belongs Poland.
@@druncle1977 Polanie lived between Poznań, Gniezno and Kruszwica, which is now literally centre of Poland.
@@druncle1977 you can make that statement for ANY country.
you left out Russia, Belarus and Ukraine
russia means the land of the rus, rus being the northman word for rowing, russia means the land of the people who row, belarus means white russia and ukraine means the borderland, because it was the border between poland and russia in the middle ages. altough, in the past ukraine used to be called ruthenia. the medieval russian state used to be centered around kyiv and not moscow, so russia was called ruthenia in latin source. basically, there was this kingdom of Russia (kievan rus) which was destroyed by the mongols, then the duchy of muscovy reconquered it and took the name russia in order to legitimize their new kingdom. ukrainians, russians and belarussians(and other smaller groups) are all russians, but saying implies that Russia should conquer them all. i propose that we call all the east slavs russians and call the russians that live in putin's country muscovites.
If you check 8:02 you can notice that although the previous country was Austria it jumps from Belarus, guessing they were removed due to the current geopolitical climate
I always thought that the Rus in Russia came from the Finnish for Swede (Ruotsi) because of the Scandinavian settlements along the Volga (as later, the Germans would create), following the amber route south to Constantinople. I also was told that Sverige (Swedish for Sweden) combines the goddess Svea with the word for kingdom, Rige (cf Reich).
Omitting information in an educational video because of politics turned me off completely to this channel
Read the description
As an Estonian, I thought Our name came from others thinking were the Baltic Aesti tribe (Eesti is the Estonian name of our country). Our Finish name Viro either might have come from a similar word to Võro (a minority subgroup of Estonians, who's language feels like an in-between Finnish and Estonian) or an area (similar to Holland), because that was an area where people smuggled alcohol from. So people who refer us as "Finland's Alcohol shop" might pick the 2nd answer.
Also, Viro might be the official name for Estonia in Finnish, but about half of the times you can hear Finns referring to Estonia as Eesti in the casual speech.
You mean Estimaa?
He should have named that segment "countries named after a tribe, that may or may not have lived there". Hungary comes from Onoghurs, a Turkic tribe, that lived somewhere in the Pontic Steppe. The Byzantines mistakenly believed the Hungarians to be Onoghurs, when they appeared in Europe. But Hungarian is an Ugric language, not a Turkic one and they had nothing to do with Onoghurs, who never lived anywhere near modern day Hungary.
I think he just wanted to speed things up, because going into all these details, how tribes were misidentified back in ancient times, would have taken a long time.
Interesting. I have a question that roundaboutedly relates to what you said.
There's a meme song called Levan Polkka, in some instances usually accompanied by a animation of an anime girl spinning two leeks.
It sounds Finnish to me, but someone I know that speaks Finnish swears its lyrics are not Finnish. I think someone else said it isn't Estonian either.
If you've heard of it, answer me this:
Could the language in the lyrics be that of the Võro?
Random as all hell I know, but I wanted to take a shot in the dark here. 😄
@@Zabiru- Ievan Polkka (written with capital i) is sung in Finnish but that part which is part of the meme is completely gibberish.
You missed The Netherlands being low on the map. Also down the river, seen from the other German countries. You did mention "Low Dutch" to be an explanation for calling them Dutch. In the Dutch language "low" is "neder" Only parts of the Seven United Netherlands has been close to sea level. Most people don't believe this but perhaps it helps knowing that there hasn't been an argue since "Netherlands" was already written on the map.
I come from the town of Groningen. It seemed that there must have been green meadows "groene-ingen" but they found out the first important settlers have had that family name. It referred to being prosperous or from a larger family.
I think you missed Poland - the land of fields (pole = field, in Polish), the Slavonic tribe of Polans, people working in the fields (Polanie, in Polish)
In Russian too
You did not explain the name of Slovakia and Slovenia properly , nothing to do with english slave , SLOVO means WORD , so all Slavs are the people who speak the same language and understand each other
I would argue the word 'slav' in slavic languages has an origin in the word 'slava' which means 'glory'
to complete the circle, the slavs gave us the word for robot, which means worker, and intended to mean a machine slave in the original 1920's Czech sci-fi play.
@@miroslavvysny4461 unlikely, because that's a name of many peoples. And what, do they all consider each other glorious?
Besides, "slava" derives from "slovo" anyway (as in: "he's been talked about"/slovo = "he's glorious"/slava).
@@robneff7084 Golem was also made in Prague. Though by the Jews. :D
Are the Slavs named after Slovo (word) or Slava (glory)? I always thought it was the latter
The etymology of Finland's name is actually not well established. A popular theory suggests Finland originally meant "land of the fens/swamps". This is also reinforced by the fact "suo" (as seen in Suomi) means swamp in Finnish.
The word Suomi having something to with the word "suo", 'swamp' is not very likely, according to current research (check for example Suomen etymologinen sanakirja: Suomi). Nevertheless, it probably doesn't have any bearing on how and why the term Finland, used by foreigners, came to be.
The northern people called "fenni" or "finn" are mentioned in different sources from the Roman times, probably referring to Sami peoples. The people group giving the land its name seems to be the most probable explanation. The meaning of the word would therefore be from something that applies to people, not the landscape. But of course Finland has many fens and swamps, so it's not out of the realm of possibility.
In Estonian we say "Soome"
"Soo" a word that can mean swamp.
"Me" shorthand for "Meie/Meie oma", meaning "us/ours"
@@heinrichkrull2523 Yes, a modern speaker may break it down to such parts by just looking at how it looks like nowadays, but of course etymology isn't so simple.
The most probable reconstruction points to either *sämä or *žemē as the original form of the word. The latter could be a baltic loanword, meaning 'land'. But it's a very difficult word to trace that has puzzled scholars for a long time. Nevertheless, it should be the same word as Sami.
@@finnguy9096 "Finland" is not just used by foreigners. There's a native group of Swedish speaking people, so it's the official name for the country in Swedish. What is now called Finland was earlier called eastern Sweden (östlandet/itämaa) and the name Suomi/Finland originated from a smaller part, what is now called Varsinaissuomi/Egentliga Finland/Southwest Finland.
@@johansvideor Yes, of course. I meant non-Finnish speaking people, sorry for the mix up.
The runestones that first mention "finlont" and "finlandi" are from Sweden, Norrtälje and Gotland, from the 11th century. They may well refer to the area known now as Finland Proper (Varsinais-Suomi) as that is what Swedes would have most probably known as "Finland" (and would later call by that name).
What I'm saying that linking the word "Suomi" with the word "Finland", as if that is a translation of some kind, is unfounded and improbable. More probable is that Swedes probably named the area Finland for their own reasons and from their own perspective and the name used in Sweden came from Swedes and not Finns or Swedish immigrants moving to Finland. Of course, there's no direct evidence of any kind to settle the matter, I'm just going by my own logic.
For Denmark, "mark" in modern danish means field, specifically one for agricultural purposes. I don't know if it used to mean borderland or forest as Rob mentioned, but growing up I always thought it referred to all the wheat we grow.
Cool video!
In German it used to mean border region. And a Markgraf was a person sent to such a region by the king/emperor to protect it.
There used to be a Mark Brandenburg for instance.
I once read a theory that the Danes came from a tribe in southern Germany, which lived along the river Danube, named by the Romans. They then settled north, where denmark is now, meaning that they are quite literally in the land of the darüber people.
Some words that I have only heard by older people in south West Germany and in modern Denmark: bukser as a word for trousers, although old slang in germany, paere for pear, the fruit, and others. Wondering if those words kinda stayed dormant over a thousand years...
@@raempftl That's how Austria started, it was the East Mark during Frankish times. It went from a mark to a duchy and eventually empire (and now republic of course)
"Slav" or "Slovan" actually comes from the word "Slovo", which means "word". Slavs are to other Slavs "word-people" or "people we can understand", so it's the same as Germany. Also, isn't Poland named after fields?
And what "slowo" word comes from? "(z)łowo" which means "somenthing catched". Perfectly means what it does. Then "uchwycić słowo" means "catch the chatch" :D (it goes further: łów - łowi(ć) - głowa (a head, previously złowa for sure), słowo. The "Word" comes (through phrase/phrasis) from "wy-raz" which literally means "hit out, beat out", which again perfectly means what it does.) So it is more obvious than 'people who talk'
Yep correct, people who speak "slovo" and therefore ours, whereas those other guys are "nemy", mute (Nemec/Niemec = German).
@@jakubhusak1624 @ Dafuq? No, this is not how etymology works, at all.
@@jakubhusak1624average poles theoristc
@@jakubhusak1624
Nonsense---you take it out of context!---In all of the other Slavic languages Slovo means "word"--nothing to do with "catch"!
3:53 That's actually one of the plausible ethimologies. The origin is uncertain beyond "Hispania" in Latin, to which the Romans added the nickname "land of the rabbits". However, the term has older roots, but those are unknown, and point to some plausible origins:
-The Phoenician terms Isp-an-ya, meaning "land of copper" (as the phoenincians purchased a lot of copper from the Tartessos culture in Southern Spain).
-The Iberian name Ispanis, which was the name of the city currently known as Sevilla (the Romans called it Hispalis, later "Hispalis-Villa", and with the passage of time it got shortened to Isvilla, from which the name "Sevilla" comes).
The other name for Spain, Iberia, has a well known origin: it's a reference to the Ebro river (then known as Iber), though in the Iberian language "Iber" means "large river".
But today Iberian means of the Iberian pennisula and so Portugal and Andorra are both included as part of the pennisula and historic Iberian people from Bronze Age and whatnot. I mean if we speak of Iberian people and their culture (they are one of the oldest agricultural ppl of Europe and Celtic first cousins). Ofc it was named after Ebro. But also Spain adopted Roman name so the reason why Spaniards called Hispanoamérica the lands they conquered in America.
@@pinagrrrr2280 es que cuando dice España en realidad se refiere a Hispania, que era el nombre para toda la península exactamente igual que Iberia.
@@livepazos
Sí, pero Portugal no lo acepta, España se quedó con el nombre romano - Hispania.
Hispanoamérica significa solo la parte española. Luego, si dices Iberoamérica eso incluye Brasil. Según algunas instituciones inclusa la BBVA.
8:33 "White" means "Northern", similar to how "Red Ruthenia" is "Western" and refers to Western Ukraine and adjacent parts of Poland.
another theory: former "white" was "west" - "light sky when sun goes down"
Doesn't 'black' mean 'northern' though?
@@georgeoldsterd8994 White is West and North is Black in East Asia
@@georgeoldsterd8994 Seems like white=north, red=west, black=south (Black Sea is to the south of Russia). No color associated with the east, AFAIK.
@@contrarian8870 the name of Black Sea exists earlier than so called russia (known from 1721)
Love Rob's English sense of humour. For example, at 21:35 "No photo available" and at 1:28 "Classic German creativity".
14:05 🇨🇭 Switzerland is also called Helvetia or Federation Helvetica … I am surprised you didn’t put that in there.
“The Latin name is ultimately derived from the name of the Helvetii, the Gaulish tribe living on the Swiss plateau in the Roman era. The allegory Helvetia makes her appearance in 1672. The official Latin name Confoederatio Helvetica was introduced gradually after the formation of the federal state in 1848.”
I think it also is on the Swiss postage stamps. The Helvetii were one of the first tribes Caesar conquered on his way through Gaul.
I don't know if the currency is still like that, but Swiss coins I have from the 60s and 70s have "Helvetica" on them as well.
@@peztopher7297 The Swiss use their own money still and I believe it still does have Helvetica on them.
@@louisegogel7973 not anymore
No one in german switzerland calls it Helvetica tho, ever.
In iranic languages (Persian, kurdish etc)
Poland is usually called Lahestan, meaning the Land of the Lech.
@@OtaBengaBokongohow is it related? That's literally not the origin of that name, also it's Lech, one "e"?
@@Spacey_key i think you should consider the ways it was pronounced hundreds or thousands of years ago. sound "Ch", "Kh", "H" can be the same depends of language or dialect.
@@ghomeyshi7 I know how it's pronounced, I'm polish
@@Spacey_key Well his comment was still correct: you don't know how things were pronounced thousands years ago thousands of kilometers away :)
In Armenian we say « Lehastan »
Monaco, meaning "single house" may be named for the fact that it has been ruled by a single family, or house, the Grimaldis, for over 800 years
The pizza guy?
8 C. is a pretty good record
probably not long enough to be responsible for the name
Not because that's literally the size of Monaco? One house
The country was named long before the Grimaldi family came along. The Ancient Greeks called it Monoikos, "one house". It should be noted that in Ancient Greece, temples were also called houses, so it could be a place with only one temple.
that azerbaijan one is 100% wrong
... you also skipped over russia, ukraine and the very easy belarus
The Greeks, I found out passing in front of the French Embassy in Athens, still call France "Gallia". Not to surprising.
We also call Germany "Germania", Czech Republic "Czechia" and so on.
Just like France calls Germany Allemania for the tribe of Allemans. It's basically the same thing as calling France "Gallia"
the gauls still rule over france
-the greeks, probably
Do they call Romania as Wallachia ?
Is that related to gallium?
I really thought you would elaborate on the 'Hellas' part of Greece as a name. This topic is just too interesting for one sitting. Feel free to carry on with more in-depth explanations, regions, cities, etc. Great work!
the term greece according to Aristotle it has Illyrian.( Albanian) origins....Graikhos Graii ("Meteorologica" I.xiv),
@@lagjescuni5482 sorry to disappoint you but Illyrians where tribes that almost eliminated by slavs and others came there a few centuries ago. today's Albania is a mixture of Epirus greek tribe and other population moved there as citizens of byzantine empire and the ottoman empire era. more than half albanian land is epirus. calling albanians as illyrians is like calling the irish immigrants in usa native americans
@@72geoK according to whom?? ...The Albanians are descended from the Illyrians, however the Greeks are a mix of Albanians, Aromanians, Turks and Slavs. Your nation and ethnicity were formed in the 19th century and your leaders and national heroes were mostly Albanians.
@@72geoK en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Albanians_in_Greece
@@72geoK oh and there never existed an empire called Byzantine...kokorito....
I thought Slav came from the slavic root Slovo- meaning “word”, basically referring to people who spoke a mutually intelligible language to eachother
Yup. Rob sort of fvcked up where it comes to Slavs. And also Poles.
Yup. Slav comes from slovo(letter/word, depending on the language).
He also said we don't know how Serbia got the name and why Serbs call themselves Serbs and well, as a Serb, I can tell you that is just wrong.
Serb is derived from an old proto word for kin or family. It's that simple, we call ourselves Srbi because we are kin.
Yes, in Slavic.
@@edgarasl.4320 thank you for exposing your own stupidity, cheers.
@@edgarasl.4320do you even know when „these“ people accepted Christianity? Thracians lived B.C. and the people that accepted Christianity „there“ defended it and therefore Europe for centuries together with the Byzanthine / east roman empire against arabic / muslim powers comming from the east. Read up where the title Zar originates from.
Likewise did Spain in the southwest.
I love your enjoyment of languages.
"Rus" is supposed to come from the Finnic word for Swedes, from which we get the Finnish and Estonian word for Sweden "Ruotsi"/"Rootsi" (but yes it originally comes from the Old Norse word for rowing)
And yes, Finland and Estonia do also have a unique word for Sweden, not just for Germany. We also have a different word for Russia: "Venäjä"/"Venemaa" which apparently comes from an old Germanic word for Slavs (sometimes seen in English in the form "Wend")
The explanation I've heard for Belarus is that the ancient Slavs associated certain directions with certain colours and white was the colour of north (supposedly also why the White Sea is called that and similarly why the Black Sea is black, black signifying south) and Belarus used to be north of the other Eastern Slavic areas I believe. Of course my sources could just be wrong, I don't even really remember where I got all that
In Finnish Estonia is called "Viro" which comes from the region of Estonia called Virumaa which is in Northern Estonia and therefore close to Finland
The word suomalaiset originally referred to only one of the tribes living in Finland and therefore Suomi was originally only the southwestern part of Finland but later got generalised to mean all of Finland. (The other tribes were hämäläiset (Tavastians) and karjalaiset (Karelians), although it's a bit complicated with Karelians since they also have their own nationality separate from Finns but at the same time the western Karelians are generally considered Finns)
Estonian name Läti for Latvia is also coming from the name of small Baltic tribe Letts/Leths, who lived in Eastern Latvia.
Also 'Estonia / Estland' is not a word that Estonians historically used to call themselves. The root is thought to be of Germanic origin and meant 'east'. The Aestii people are first mentioned by Tacitus in his work "Germania" around 100 AD, speaking of a people living to the east of the Germans.
The first reports of its use in an Estonian text are only from the 17th century, the name became commonly used by Estonian people in the 19th century. Previously Estonians used the name 'maarahvas' (people of the land) to refer to themselves.
Karelians aren't complicated since the status of being separate from "Finns" technically applied to Tavastians as well before the idea of a unified "Finnish" identity. However all of them are classified as "ancient Finns", since all 3 tribes are extremely important in the development of the Finnish language and culture and genetics of modern Finns. And archeological evidence from the Karelian isthmus shows that they developed from an eastern Finnic population (likely close to modern Vepsians) who mixed with an incoming Finnic migration from southwestern Finland around the 700s. This 8th century migration is also likely where Karelians acquired the stories that would be collected into Kalevala nearly 1000 years later, as most of those stories have been pinpointed to have taken place and originated in southwestern Finland and Estonia. Some evidence relating to linguistic development also suggests that the Karelians were already separating or had separated into a western population living on the Baltic coast and an eastern population living on the shores of Ladoga somewhere around the 900s, which was way before Sweden and Novgorod drew a line on the map definitively separating the two populations of Karelians politically and religiously.
Yes, exactly, and the term lives on in the region where the "rus" may have come from, now called Roslagen.
Rus and russia - it's like Rome and Romania
Interesting. Rob's mention of Russians being rowers rang a bell that I'd heard somewhere that "ruotsi" meant (or kinda meant) rowers.
I think Monaco comes from monks or monasteries, given that Munich is called Monaco di Baviera (Monaco of Bavaria) in Italian and the word 'monacal' in romance languages refers to things related to monks.
So that's why there are two monks on their coat of arms.
The term house can mead family, household, and dynasty so maybe the whole of the country is based on that. I don’t know anything about their history to verify the idea.
Could either be that they were all from one royal house or, similar to the Vatican, one religious house which would line up with what you said
I have an association with the place of Monaco which was closed to neighbors as monasteries were self-closed places for the world.
Monako is actually named after Hercules Monoikos, since there was a temple there dedicated to the mythical figure Hercules himself. It's not a disputed name origin, so you didn't have to guess as to where the name came from.
@@languagesolehsoleh "The armoured friars on either side of the shield reflect the creation of Monaco under Grimaldi rule, involving one François Grimaldi also known as the “Malizia”. These supporters serve as a reminder of the victory of François Grimaldi over the Ghibellines, whose failed attempt to guard the Rock of Monaco meant the eventual conquest and consequently, the beginning of Grimaldi dominance over this region in 1297. Symbolically, the monks are a core part of this history because François Grimaldi was said to have disguised himself as one in order to penetrate the fortress without detection, hence, the unusual combination of a religious figure defiantly holding a weapon as a dominant theme in this armorial achievement." (Wikipedia "Coat of Arms of Monaco")
It's the Family coat of arms first and the country's only secondarily.
A bit about Serbia. In addition to the Serbs ("Srbi" - not "Srba" as in the video, but that's an easy and minor mistake to make) there is another group called thr Sorbs in eastern Germany/western Poland. It is thought that the Serbs and Sorbs were once likely to be one tribe that migrated in different directions - some went west and became the Sorbs, others went south and became the Serbs. Their languages are now only very distantly related - Sorbs lived close to Poland and other Western Slavic language speakers and their language is now firmly in that camp, but Serbs moved into the southern Slavic language group, along with closely related people like the Croatians, Montenegrins, and Bosnians... And Macedonian and Bulgarian are also quite closely related too.
Thats right, and what I was reading about was, thet similar to the "þeudisk" which means, "part of our tribe". All slavs were actually calling themselves something like "serb/syerb/sorb/syorb/srb".
If it's true, it would need to be before split up of proto-slavic as Sorbian is part of west slavic languages and Serbian of south slavic.
@@radovanakovic3800 its from verb sorbati which meant to suck. As from one mother. So yea, bot Sorbs and Serbs means something along brethren.
@@Dread_2137 not necessarily. Languages have changed and people adopted new ones a lot since then.
@@brkatimachor but we still have documentation, at least the oldest documented cases of Sorbian indicate it was west slavic language along with Lechitic (Polish and Kashubian) and Czech-slovak groups.
And at least according to entomologists sorb and serb are doublet, i.e. same root but came into modern times independent of each other.
that's a really interesting video that you made there ! thx you from the land of the Franca :D
I love whenever I turn on the TV and see you on it Rob! The DW News is played really early in the morning here in Australia and I watch it as I'm having a coffee in a desperate attempt to wake up. Really happy you're having success on both television and RUclips.
He's on TV too?
Thank you!
You watch German news in the morning in Australia?
@@Skyfighter94 What better way to start one's day than to wake up in Australia and watch some German news😎?
Does Rob speak German on the show?
I've read somewhere that "white" in Belarus was from a time when no words for the four cardinal directions existed yet, and that "white" referred to what is now known as "west".
That's what I thought indeed though in some languages white means east but still, it's related to the cardinal directions.
Geographic colors: White Russia = north (north of the original Kievan Rus), Red Ruthenia = the "western" border of Rus (near Poland), Black Sea - the sea to the south of Russia. No color associated with the east, AFAIK.
@@contrarian8870 Black Ruś is also in modern Belarus.
@@ayararesara6253
You mean Halych Volynia!
@@WangAiHua no, Halych is Red Ruś. Look at this map, "Schwarzreussen" is the black one: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Polen_in_den_Grenzen_vor_1660.jpg
10:05 It doesn't actually mean "Slav", it just comes from it. For a reason, in Slovak, we call "Slavs" - _"Slovania",_ but ourselves, we call - _"Slováci."_
So it's a bit different. And yes, there is a big contextual difference between "it comes from the word referring to Slavs" and "it means Slavic" . For a reason, in like the 6th to 9th century (when there were the first Slavic tribes and countries in the region - Nitrianske Kniežatstvo and Veľká Morava - Principality of Nitra and the Great Morava, respectfully), the folks there actually called themselves "Česi, Moravi a Slovieni" (representing the three tribes of "Czechs, Moravs and Slovaks", however "Slovak" wasn't a thing yet, as we called ourselves "Slovieni"; as we still saw ourselves as one peoples/nation with the Czechs and Moravs, just as different tribes of one another).
11:10 And it's not that the "H" and "C/K" are used interchangeably, as the "H" sound represents the "Ch" sound in Croatian - "Ch", as in the Scottish word "Loch".
Funnily enough though, we still call the neck-tie a "kravata", in many Slavic languages.
16:15 The Greeks actually call themselves "[H]éllines".
18:15 Technically, Finland should have been in this category, as the "Suomi", refers to the many lakes and swamps in Finland.
I hope I helped a bit! ;)
16:15 And Greece is the Latin name we call it Hellas (Ελλάς). One explanation for the Ελλάς name is the combination of the words for sun(Ελ) and stone(λας).
Although "suo" is the Finnish word for a swamp, that is not the probable etymological origin for Suomi. 🙂
I've heard it, but can't find a reference, but a) Suomi has been only the southwest part and b) we used to have many Sami language speakers right to the south of Finland and "suomi" may be one of the names given to the people speaking in a certain style. It may have meant "people who talk unclear". 🙂
@@AnttiKivivalli Damn, that is even better etymological explanation, IMO! Love it!
This is the best comment that I've ever read. Don't let it go to your head, though. 😒
Thank you for answering so many curiosities in such a succinct and entertaining manner!
15:54 Hearing rob say the phrase "big ass birds" caught me off-guard a little haha
Ah, so I wasn't hearing things after all. :D
Rob, the French "cravatte" also gave the Italian "cravatta" and Portuguese "gravata" which are translations for tie!
And German Krawatte
Sounds like 'krawatka' in Ukrainian. I bet it's something similar in Polish:)
And Spanish “corbata”
in Finnish "kravatti" is a tie
By the way, the French cravate is spelled with only one T.
Fun fact, in French, Turkeys are called "Dinde" or "D'inde" which means "Of India". Back when they were discovered by Europeans, they still thought that America was India, hence the name.
turkey - a bird - is called in Polish indyk (of India), so common etymology :)
In portuguese, Turkey (the bird) is called Peru, which is also a name of a country ;)
I never made the connection yet it's so obvious now that you're saying it
Funny, never thought about that. Interesting how an animal can be simultaneously Indian, Turkish and Peruvian...
Turks call Turkey also hindi
Bro forgot Ukraine and Russia lol
There is a cut at 8:02 where the video is point to Belarus. He probably edited them all out due to political reasons
@@comeberza so he just separated them from Europe😬
our dutch national anthem is so old that it uses the words "ben ik van duytschen bloed" "am i of germanic bloed" but the word duyts now spelled duits means german in dutch now instead of dutch, sometimes spelled diets (or deutch in german).
So basically Germans and Dutch today are all Diets. They could have called Nederland Dietsland.
it also says we honor the spanish king, but i doubt the writer of the song still thinks that as not soona fter the song was written we started 80 years of war to get away from that spanish king
Love that!
❤
I have a lot of respect and affection for our Dutch neighbors. 😊
@@ElysiaWhitemoonOmegaisnt it called the 100 year war?
@@marios1861 No, the 100 year war was between England and France and happened 2 centuries before the 80 year war.
The use of a song from a band named Europe who were actually Swedish to go through the Tribal Countdown is an true rabbit hole of symbology...or should it be Spain hole...hmmm 🤣🤣🤣 Well done Rob!
Still a bit miffed that the Land of perpetually angry Drunkards (Ireland) did not make it into the Top 11 ;)
Fun fact:
The Spanish name of Andorra, RUclipsrland, is of modern origin. This is due to the massive population of Spanish RUclipsrs in that country, who arrived there fleeing Spain's taxes.
@@OtaBengaBokongo L take
😂
Funny, in France we call it Tobaccoland for the same reason.
@@OtaBengaBokongo - Weak trolling attempt :D
oh yeah the youtubers who cried cause they had to take a catalan course to get citizenship or whatever
Thank you for your effort and good teaching! You showed even more than just the origins of countries' names, but also how these language games illustrate the limits of a human brain that understands only English. By the way, the pronunciation of some of the words in their respective language was more English than original. We are waiting for the edited, second edition.😊😊
Switzerland was historically known as Helvetica. That was the name of the gauls residing there
Some countries still use that name for Switzerland by the way. In Greece for example, we call it Ελβετία (Elvetia).
Finns use the word Sveitsi instead of Helvetia/Helvetica since we have a word "helvetti" meaning "hell".
15:47
I think what's really funny is the name for the bird turkey in portuguese is peru, which is also a country
In Ukrainian it is called "indyk", which refers to West-Indies
@@jbeeyeIn Romanian it's "curcan", derived from "curcă", which is borrowed from Slavic. So I'm sure you know what "kurka" means :-)
And in some languages the bird's name refers to Egypt (Mesir)
@@MajorChernobaev-w9iwhat language? 🤔
You missed Swedens name for Germany which is the same name as their own. Tyskland which also is Land of the people in proto norse.
Italians use Germania for the country but tedesco (of same family as deutsch and tysk) for its people
Not just Swedens name for it, but also Norway and Denmark… But I suspect “tysk” is our version of deutsch. In Dutch it’s called Duitsland, basically a mix of “tysk” and “deutsch”.
@@Sonderborg75 Yes I found out about this as well a couple of years ago. T and D are basically the same letter a couple of years ago. Dag and Tag are basically the same as well.
As a German I also would've liked him to mention why Germans started to refer to themselves as "deutsch"
That was to differentiate themselves from the other parts of the balkanised franconian empire after Charlemagne's death.
So "deutsch" literally means "of the people" but in practice it means "not-French"
Tysk sounds very close to Deuts, or Deutsch.
What an excellent jam packed full of fun facts video! Loved every minute. The way you educate is great! Thank you!
The “mark” in Denmark simply means ground. You find the same in Norwegian regions like Telemark, Hedmark, and Finnmark.
And here in Sweden. ' Det är min mark'/It is my land.
Denmark, field of the Danes or actually border forest of the Danes
mark means border, in Danish a field is called a mark,, a piece of land that is clearly seperated from whats next to it,,
When you said to try and guess what the Moldova River was named after, I just off the top of my head said "a dog."
You cannot imagine how hard I laughed when you revealed the answer.
It wasn't exact but *very* close
I also guessed dog, because I thought there was a breed associated with it.
It's just a medieval legend. For sure the river Moldova got its name centuries before the legendary Voivode Dragoș (the last letter is pronounced like "sh"), which lived in the 14th century. So nobody knows the true etymology of this name. And yes, the true Moldova is in Romania. The so-called Republic of Moldova is just an Eastern part of the former Principality of Moldova, which was occupied by the Russians in 1812 and named by them Bessarabia (which was the name of the southern part of it, Budjak, the largest part of which now is in Ukraine). It's interesting that Bessarabia got its name from another Romanian ruler - Basarab, which ruled not Moldova, but another Romanian Principality - Wallachia. Which in 1859 united with the true Moldova to form Romania. So the word "Moldova" disappeared from the international maps, which allowed the former Bessarabia to use this name after it became independent in 1991. And yes, the Republic of Moldova is mostly populated by the Romanians, which speak the same Romanian language as in Romania. This obvious to the whole world fact is disputed by the Russians and Ukrainians, who consider the Moldovans to be a different from Romanians people who speak different Moldovan language :-)
I forgot to mention that the names for Wallachia and Wales are related to each other. They both are exonyms, derived from an old German word for "foreigner".
Romanian here. Moldova wasn't named after some random dog.
It was named after a type of tree that used to grow in that area. "Molizi" in Romanian. "Norway Spruce" in English. A type of tree in northen, central, and eastearn Europe.
@@saszab And as complicated as that is, the Transnistrians made it much, much worse.
1. The list is very weird, if "Europe" means the continent, then you're missing countries, if "Europe" means "EU", then there are extra countries that have no relation to the EU.
2. Poland is the land of the Poles, sure, but where the word itself comes from? In most slavic languages words meaning "field" or "plain" come from protoslavic "polje", which is the leading hypothesis.
Someone pointed out that the missing countries may have been removed from the video due to the current geopolitical context, but there are some remains in the animations where he moves from a country from another, but the animation starts in a non-covered country.
@@jorgelotr3752 I'm happy I'm not the only one who noticed the weird cuts!
Personally I've got no idea how geopolitics got anything to do with origins of country names. It's disrespectful and insulting to the people and principles of science. Maybe it got something to do with monetization, then at least it could be simply explained by money.
@@MiTaReX it was not me who noticed, but someone else in the comments. What I did notice, however, was at least one comment making reference to the content of one of the missing sections, which means that the video was edited afterwards and allowed to remain with the same identifier (meaning keeping views, likes and comment), so monetization seems to be the likely reason.
@@MiTaReX Probabyl he didn't wanted to be flooded by trolls and bots.
Poland comes from "pole". People were cutting/burning the forest and transforming the forest into farmland.
Greece in Greek is Hellas (old style and official) and Ellada. Greeks call themselves Hellenes. The word Greece derives from Latin Graecia, which in turn comes from the Ancient Greek Γραικός (Graikos).
I’m not gonna lie, I find Rob’s explanations for Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, not just confusing, but also misleading. I get how the explanation for each country couldn’t be very long, but I am afraid that for some of them short explanations didn’t do enough justice. I can easily imagine how after watching this video, a person could come off thinking that Russia is the main inheritor of the legacy of Rus, and the origin of Belarus is just being a different type of Russians, instead of the Belarusian people just tracing their history from the same state as Russia does (not Russia itself). Actually, to think of it, the origin of the name “Belarus” and how it has settled in its modern territory is an interesting subject for a whole another video :)
Lastly, I understand that calling Rus “Russia” was very common in the western historiography, it’s just today I’d rather offer a bit more context to try not to add support to the modern narrative of Ukrainians and Belarusians just being unruly Russians that are denying their origin, though I get that Rob did not mean no ill intent.
Thank you for your comment! I am very much confused and disappointed with this sort of explanation in Rob's video. I believe that nowadays, it is important to spend more time on research and to give more context if one wants to explain the origin of names of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.
The Medieval state of Rus with a capital in Kyiv (now Ukraine) has nothing to do with Muscovia (now Russia).
Ruthenians (now Ukrainians) considered Muscovians (now Russians) as foreigners and vice versa because they had different origins, history, languages and cultures.
Russian tsar Petr I renamed Muscovia to Russia in 1721, faked the history and started tracking the origins not from Moscow but from Kyiv to make his country older and Christian therefore reputable because previously Muscovia was known as a Great Tartaria with barbarians living there. Previously it wasn't even considered as a part of Europe.
Indeed this part is misleading. Starting with the point that it the word RUS comes from the name of the Swedes/scandinavians. This hypothesis of origin is very disputable. Let's just say that the medieval Rus was named Rus at least 100 years before the first invasion of the vikings, who, by the way, were called "Varyag" in Rus state. And another point for the SLAVS: actually in Slavic languages the word is SLOVYANY that comes from SLOVO (the word) i.e people who speak (opposed to the NIEMCY - mutes, people who doesn't speak)
@@ІванОмаров The word "Rus" came with vikings from Scandinavia - exactly the same as the word "Bulgar" came with turkic tribes from the shores of the Volga River. Now both are connected with Slavs despite their non-Slav origin.
@@EAGauss Again, Ukrainian propaganda.Firstly, Russia was founded on the territory of the modern part of Russia in Ladoga, the vocation of the Varangians occurred in 862, and Oleg conquered Kiev from the Khazar tributaries in 882, and made it the main city.Secondly, show me the maps and historical documents where Kiiv and not Kiev will be written.Thirdly, Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod hails from the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality, on whose territory Moscow was located.Fourth, Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky moved the capital from Kiev to Vladimir, later the Metropolitan moved from Kiev to Vladimir, later the capital was moved from Vladimir to Moscow, the Metropolitan also moved to Moscow, where he still resides, and in Ukraine they are now trying to ban the very faith that began in Kiev in 988.Fifthly, after the Mongol invasion of Kiev, there was practically nothing left of Kiev, one Papal envoy to the horde, when he drove past Kiev, said that only 20 residential courtyards remained of the city.
In Norway the Historical counties are Named After Tribes Rogaland (Land of the Rugii) Hordaland (Land of the Charudes/Harudes) Agder (Land of the Islanders) Romsdal (Land of the Raumer) Grenland (Land of the Grens) Viken (Funnily enough Land of the Vikings) Hedmark (Land of the Hetheners/Heder) Romeriket (Land of Raum The old)
In viking times Viken was actually danish. But if it arrives frim viking is debatable
It was ruled/occupied by Danes for some periodes during the Viking age. Most of those 273 years (793-1066) it was not ruled by a Danish king.
I believe you've mistaken \ missed out on a few countries.
Ukraine (my motherland and homeland) may be named after "borderED land \ Land with borders, like a normal country", because the root Край (kray) also means "separated land", the land that has [some] borders, and the beginning У- (U) indicates being in \ belonging to\ that land, which means the people who named the country were native here. Basically, Ukraine means "Home" for us
окраина это русское слово
@@Chaldon-hl6yk I suggest you use goggle translator if you can't speak.
Ukraine does NOT mean "Borderland"---This is ignorant propaganda propagated by the RuZZians who have a different word for country--"strana".--This is why they do not hear the UKRAINIAN word for "country" in the word Ukrayina! (the root here is krayina---not simply kray!)
Ukrayina means U-country just like Deutschland means Deutsch-country, England means Eng-country, Estimaa means Esti-country Jong Guo means Jong-country, etc,
@@Chaldon-hl6yk
So what!---Moscow is English word--"cow" --you have many slow mooving cows in Moscow---so slow moss grows on them!--Don't use your foreign RuZZian language to interpret the meaning of a UKRAINIAN word!
@@WangAiHua ukrainian is archaic rural dialect of russian, okraina = outskirt
As a Hebrew speaker you just blew my mind with the Spain fact. Phoenician/Punic and Hebrew are very mutually intelligible. I never noticed how "Hispania" sounds so much like "i shafan" which literally means "hyrax island". "shafan" means hyrax, "i" means island ("i" pronounced as "E" like the letter "e", not "i" like "I am").
Poland is named after the fields, because Poland is quite flat country. Pole means field in western Slavic languages.
and in Eastern Slavic languages too
Flatness have nothing to do with it 😂 Fields in mountains are called the same (pole)
It comes from rapid deforestation that created fields and accompanied the development of the early Piast state. Previously, these areas were covered with dense forests and swamps.
And most likely Poland refers to the land of the PEOPLE of the fields, not land of the fields themselves!--Most of the country names in Europe AT THAT TIME refer to the PEOPLE, very few to geography!
Your linguistic channel is just pure gold. Thank you!
Modern Greeks call themselves Éllines and their country Ellátha.
or "έllinεs" and "εlláða", to be near-pointlessly pedantic
Russia? Ukraine? Too awkward?
5:05 The irony here is, that Greenland is by average more icy than Iceland, and Iceland is by average more green than Iceland.
The rumor say that the names were given in the context of the season they were visited.
Greenland was named Greenland so that more settlers would be prone to settle there---if they called it wasteland few people would be attracted to it!
Also because of climate change. There was a particularly cold period when Iceland was discovered and a particularly warm period when Greenland was discovered. I remember reading that somewhere in a history book in school.
In iceland yes, Greenland was just "marketing"
@@robertwatson9940 What? Greenland is no more part of Denmark? When that happened and how? And who owns it today? Or is it sovereign/independent nation?
@@jarimarttinen579Greenland is part of the "Rigs fælleskabet" along with the farao islands, both with independant rule but ties to Denmark.
Can I just say a huge well done to the editor (or Rob) for painstakingly putting the chapters in 😂😂
Monako is named after Hercules Monoikos, since there was a temple there dedicated to the mythical figure Hercules himself.
You spent 2 seconds for Greece just to says something completely wrong.
Same about Latvia
because it is another shallow pseudo-factual YT video :)
I love all your videos, but your expression at 00:03 is scarily reminiscent of Travis Bickle "are you talking to me?". Yes, yes, I'm definitely listening now...
When my local weatherman does short online updates/forecasts it uses the very first frame of the video before you play it and I swear he always looks like he’s getting ready to go on a rampage, he looks so mean
Then you press play and it’s back to normal for the rest of the video
The Italians call the German city of Munich Monaco. To confuse people they also call the mini state of Monaco on thr Riviera the same.
FYI Italians call Munich: Monaco di Baviera
Well in Italian "Monaco" means "monk" and that's actually true to the real origin of the name. Something about salt trade: Heinrich der Löwe destroyed a bridge over the river of Danube to have the salt-trade route go over his bridge, which was near a monastery, to get the trade toll. This became a center for salt trade and people settled there, who called the place "by the monks" or in Latin "forum apud Munichen" - "the market near the monks".
@@dreamyrhodes Wait, Monaco state on Riviera was created by a medieval adventurer who took the castle dressed up as a monk. Monk (Monachos in Greek, latin monachus) could also be the origin of the name ?
The "Rabbit Land" etymology of Spain reminds me of the Mandarin names for various countries and continents, which are made transliteratively rather than based on meeting, but in characters that HAVE meanings nonetheless.
France, for instance is Faguo (法國 ) > "Law Country"
Germany = Deguo (德國) = "Moral Country" - It's interesting someone seems to have transliterated "de" from "deutsch."
England = Yingguo (英國) > "Beauty Country"
"America"(USA) = Meiguo (美國) > "Beauty Country,"
But more interestingly I think, is a variant you rarely see in Mandarin, but which is standard in Japanese; （米国）> "Rice Country"
^ In Japan, the USA has been deemed "Country of Rice!"
There are also ones that would appear problematic if you took them literally, and one wonders who came up with them. Like, "Asia" gets transliterated as "Yazhou" (亞洲), which if you read it for meaning, the "ya" means "secondary" or "sub," like lesser. It can translated as "Secondary/Lesser Continent!" And Africa (非洲) "Feizhou" is "Un-Continent"/ "Non-Continent."
One more, just for fun. Mexico, is "Moxige" (墨西哥）, which means "Ink West Big-Bro!" That "Ge" at the end is a word used to affectionately call a man "Big Brother" in a way roughly equivalent to the Korean "Oppa" in "Oppa Gangnam Style"!
There are a lots more interesting ones, so this might be worth a vid!
Oh, and btw- Umm actually, 🧐 Rabbits fall into the category of "lagomorph," not "rodent!"
Actually, the USA's name in Chinese means "Beautiful Country". Not quite sure where you got "rice country".😬😬😬
@@oscah_whisky Oops, you're right. I just wasn't thinking. 米国 (rice country) is the Japanese name. That name doesn exist in Mandarin too, but it's extremely nonstandard, so you'll rarely run into it. I think I'll go back and add an edit on the post. Thanks for pointing that out!
All the country names which end in -guó (國) are actually abbreviations of longer transliterations:
France - Fálánxī (法蘭西) > law-orchid-west
Germany (Deutsch) - Déyìzhì (德意志) > moral-will
England - Yīnggélán (英格蘭) > hero-form-orchid
USA (America) - Yàměilìjiā (亞美利加) > sub-beauty-profit-add
The characters were primarily chosen for their phonetic value and not their meanings, but they try to use auspicious characters. The continents are also abbreviations of longer transliterations like Asia - Yàxìyà (亞細亞), Africa - Āfēilìjiā (阿非利加).
If we’re going to talk about Chinese, the odd one out is actually Russia, because it contains an extra syllable (ˌo / é, making the long form sound like “o Rus”) and it’s this extra syllable that’s the normal, short name of the country. By comparison, the Japanese long form is just “Russia” (Roshia, short form “Ro”). I don’t know where the extra syllable in the Chinese long form comes from, whether it used to be what Russia was called in Chinese, or if it’s been added for semantic value, or for some other reason.
Many names with 亞 are clearly not Mandarin in origin because of the extra y; in both Cantonese and Japanese this is a simple a sound.
@@amyl.9477 Russia's name in Chinese comes from Manchu (oros/orus), which is why you get that extra initial consonant.
Also, 米国 in Japanese may refer to grain in general, not rice.
This was actually really funny and interesting, thank you Rob
I love the way you just gleefully nerd out sometimes ("hey, that band's called Europe!")
Miniature monarchy Monaco...best tonguetwister I've heard in ages.
This should be titled "Why people from outside of these countries call them something other than what these countries call themselves."
Well I think it’s understood that it’s the English names since this is an English language video. But he does cover a lot of the endonyms as well
@@wspencerwatkins yes, it is a myopic viewpoint
@@kirancourt it’s just a particular viewpoint. His audience is mostly English speaking, what do you want?
@@wspencerwatkins I want each of the countries he discusses to be treated equally. He talked about Germany's original native name but not many of the others
@@kirancourt or... you could suck it up and enjoy a good video anyway.
Great info n very smooth in transition from info to promo n back into info i rate the way he does it as i usually hate the mid promos.
As soon as Rob said "Let's get cracking!" I was expecting a variant sudoku.
A really striking thing about Germany to me is the WIDE VARIETY of words for "German" that are used in other languages. They seem to be completely unrelated to each other.
In English, we say "German". In French, they say "Allemand". In German, they say "Deutsch". In Italian, they say "Tedesco". In Russian, they say "Nemyetski". Why are they all *so different?*
Big country with a long history of encounters, dominant states, etc., so each probably uses the name that was most prominent during first contact. In Romanian we use both 'Germani' and 'Nemți'. The latter, because there was cultural exchange with Russians. Not so sure where 'Germani' comes from, probably Latin.
Well, simply because of their location.
They're situated right in the middle of Europe, crossed by all major roads and navigable rivers.
They have a long history of interaction with most European nations and tribes, be it for trade purposes, culture, industry, art or ... imperialistic aggression.
Also, starting from Charlemagne in the 800s and up until the present day, basically ALL royal houses of all European nations have intermarried with German-speaking nobility. The fact that the Holy Roman ( Germanic ) Empire was composed of literally HUNDREDS of lordships, each having their own aristocratic class, meant that they could provide aristocratic alliances for every European noble family, seeking to marry their offspring into the dominant class.
So, obviously, a nation so deeply embedded in European history, is bound to be known by many names and epithets from all around the continent.
When these names originated there were separate, individual Germanic tribes, treated as such, as opposed to the modern unified Germany: Allemani (French), Saxons (Finnish, Estonian), Franks (etc). "Nemtsy" (mute/non-speaking) may derive from a generic term for any non-intelligible people, i.e "foreigners", as opposed to "Slavs" ("slovo" = word, speech)
There is also an expression, Švapska or Švabija, used in Serbo-Croatian languages, which, strictly speaking, refers only to the region of Swabia in southern Germany, but which is also used colloquially to refer to the whole of Germany.
He talked about this in the video, and Wikipedia actually has a whole article on the "names of Germany." TLDR version though is that Germany didn't become a single unified country until relatively recently, so different languages used different words for it - often referring to different Germanic tribes from different parts of the country - e.g. the Saxons, Allemans, Teutons, etc.
I love geography and etymology
Right?
Of course!!!
And history
The name of Lithuania in Lithuanian, Lietuva, most likely comes from an old word for a shallow, wide part of a river. Lithuania is indeed full of rivers and other bodies of inland water.
Better keep joke version, as real old Lithuanian lands are a bit in the other countries.
I am totally working "a horror show of excessive sibilance" into my lexicon. Awesome stuff!
Funnily enough, in one of the oldest Welsh poems, the speaker is a defeated warrior camping out with his servant which he calls a Franc,
'niwuorcosam nemheunaur henoid
mitelu nit gurmaur
mi am franc dam ancalaur',
'I will not speak ... tonight.
My warband is not great,
I and my Frank around our cauldron.'
Nant Ffrancon is also a region in Wales. Valley of the Spears would be a pretty neat translation of it😳
"Valley of the Spears" sounds like a book in the Game of Thrones series...
Finland used to be comprised of several disconnected tribes such as Tavastians, Savonians, Karelians and Finns proper. Lapland and the Sami people is a whole other story, but much of Lapland is a part of Finland now. The Viking sagas refer to "Fenni" as people wielding magical powers and using shaman drums (likely referring to the Sami people) while the Roman historian Tacitus refers to the "Fenni" as poor and miserable with bone spears and shoddy huts for shelter. Nobody knows which tribes they were referring to, but they surely weren't the same people. There even is an area in Northern Norway named Finnmark, which is mostly inhabited by Sami people, not Finns.
Itämerensuomalaisten ja saamelaisten esivanhemmista Tacituksen Germaniassa [journal_sananjalka]
- Pasi Ockenström:
"Ancestors of the Baltic Sea Finns and the Sámi in Tacitus’ Germania
The names Finland and Finn are no doubt a historical consequence of the term Fenni in Tacitus’ book Germania (98 CE). The notion of the Fenni as Finns has changed over time, and nowadays, the Fenni in Finland are more likely considered to have been ancestors of the Sámi. Both Finnish and international discourse on the subject is, however, based on Tacitus’ Fenni, but the questions that still need to be answered are; who were the Fenni in real life and which peoples, if any, represented the Finns and the Sámi in Germania. New archeological and linguistic research Homo Fennicus (2020) by Valter Lang has made it possible to give more detailed answers in defining people and places in Tacitus’ narrative.
With the help of Lang’s book, we can better understand the situation in the Baltic Sea area in the first century CE. It is crucial to understand that when it comes to the Baltic Sea region, Tacitus was relying on information from local sources. This means that the main source of information was probably given by Baltic merchants who knew the peoples in the region and their dwellings very well. The information compiled from these merchants was authentic, thus the best available for Tacitus in Rome at the time.
We can infer that Tacitus was talking about the ancient Swedes, that is, the Suiones and the Balts or the Aestii in the very same region, the Baltic Sea. According to Lang, the Baltic Sea Finns at that time occupied several places on the shores of Estonia and Finland. Since the Suiones and the Aestii were clearly identified, the other people mentioned in the same vein, Tacitus´s Sitones, may have been the Baltic Sea Finns. Their occupation was obvious, according to Tacitus as he talks about many Sitones’ dwellings near the Suiones. Tacitus also talks about the Hellusi and the Oxionae, who very likely dressed appropriately against a cold climate. These were most probably the people of the North. As we have now covered all the significant groups of people in the area, one question still remains unanswered: why have scholars designated Tacitus’ Fenni as being in the Baltic Sea area as well and presented them the ancestors of the Sámi in particular.
It is most probably a misinterpretation rooted far in history, but made several hundred years after Tacitus’, when the content of Germania became a source to locally name the peoples dwellings in the Baltic Sea area. The problem is that the dwellings and peoples by then had changed from Tacitus´ time. Tacitus talks about the Fenni in close geographical connection with the Peucini and the Veneti who even had relations with the Sarmatians. These peoples are all located in East Central Europe, and they had nothing to do with those in the North. Although both the Fenni and the Sámi ancestors led simple lives, they lived in notably different environments from each other. The former lived in Central European circumstances, although in a more primitive way than other Germanic peoples, and the latter in a cold climate in the peripheral Nordic region.
The Fenni did not have arms, as they were not warlike. This was not the case for the neighboring
Veneti people, who did engage in warfare and also had fixed homes. The Fenni lived apart from them in a swamp area, but they had no houses, only shelters made of branches for protecting infants from wild animals and rain, and for serving as a dwelling place for adults and for those who have reached old age. In the case of the Sámi, the branch shelters would not have been sufficient due to the cold and windy climate they lived in. The Sámi people used Lapp huts covered with hides or birch bark in the summer, and possibly turf huts for survival in the harsh winter environment. The Fenni, like many Germanic peoples, draped themselves in animal skins, whereas the Sámi ancestors traditionally fashioned reindeer skins that resembled a parka. The Fenni used bone as arrowhead material, because of a lack of iron and possibly a lack of suitable stone. This is understandable due to the swamp area where they lived. In the North, however, iron was available in addition to bone and stone.
There were substantial differences between the ancestors of the Sámi and the Fenni, that is, they were not the same. The Fenni were very likely a primitive Germanic group of people dwelling in the Pripyat swamp area. With the help of Lang’s study, we can infer, according to the survey utilized in this article, that Tacitus was talking about the Baltic Sea Finns in connection with other peoples in the area and about the peoples who dwelled more north, where the Fenni did not belong."
As a Swede, I find it very easy to understand your old English names. Some are actually the same. Christmas in Swedish is still "Jul" and we often say "Jul månaden" instead of December but only when the context of the meaning is about Christmas.
Some other are a bit harder. We often have a modern form of the word but used in another context.
About the same as understanding Norwegian or Danish.
Regarding Spain. Small correction: Not the land of the rabbits but the island of the rabbits.
In Hebrew, which is a very close sister language to the Phoenician spoken in Carthage, the translation of "the island of rabbits" is "Yi Hashfanim" = "Ispania".
So the most probably the word Espania or Hispania comes from the Hebrew word Hashefanim
@@Rus-bw2oq
From the Phoenician which is very close to Hebrew
I have other meanings the land of the north and the land were metals are forged. Also from Hispalo son of Hercules and father of hispan....
That's right take Spain as well, why don't you guys take Germany they're the ones that bent you guys over, not Spain
People of Greece don't call themselves Greek but Hellinic
...and its no more greece. the current international name is Hellas. meaning the rocky land under the sun (el like hELios and las meaning stone) a very ancient word
polýMATHY has an interesting video on the name of Greece/Elliniká.
We also used to call ourselves romios, meaning roman
17:17Country name information:
1. Andorra: The name Andorra has dual origins in Basque andurrial which means land, valleys and hills covered with trees and river forests. And it has another origin that goes back to Latin, Occitan and Catalan which means land of the Celtic and Iberian men of the Pyrenees.
2. Monaco: The name Monaco has Greek origins and derives from the term "monoikos", which means "solitary" or "solitary inhabitant". This name was given due to the isolated location of the principality. And because Monaco was a Greek settlement that was connected to both Gaul and Liguria.
3. Moldova: The name Moldova has a Latin origin. The name "Moldova" derives from the Latin "Moldavia", which in turn comes from the name of the Moldova River, which runs through the country. The official language of Moldova, Romanian, is also a Romance language, derived from Latin. Latin influence in the region dates back to the time of the Roman Empire, when the region was part of the Roman province of Dacia.
It means Moldova river land good for cultivation and harvesting, productive and fertile land.
This name was given due to the fertility of the soil in the region by the Romans, this name was accepted and preserved by the Dacians, allies and friends and brothers of beliefs of the Romans.
4. Luxembourg: The name Luxembourg derives from the name of the city of Luxembourg, which in turn has its origins in the Latin "Lucilinburhuc", which means "small castle". The city was founded around a castle built in the 10th century.
5. Liechtenstein: The name Liechtenstein derives from the name of the princely family that rules the country, the House of Liechtenstein. The family name originates from Liechtenstein Castle, which was built in the 12th century and means "shining stone" in German Walser.
6. Switzerland: The name Switzerland originates from the Latin "Confoederatio Helvetica", which means "Helvetic Confederation". The term "Helvetica" derives from the name of the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe that inhabited the region before the Roman conquest. The Swiss Confederation was founded in 1291 and the name Switzerland began to be used from the 17th century onwards.
Anthropologically and linguistically, Switzerland's ancient origin is Celtic, just like France, England, Ireland and Spain.
I don't want review patrol forever on my speech, I don't want opinion patrol in my posts forever, go to work bums, go to hell, let the people who understand the video speak and comment, simple as that. Get lost, there's nothing here for you forever.
Spain's origin isnt celtic there already were people living in iberia and the celts happened to migrate there just like they did in germany or italy. To say that spain's origin is celtic is like to say italy's origin is germanic cuz of the ostrogoths or lombard that migrated there
That was brilliant! Thank you, Rob
Was never taught any of this in High School.
Always interesting to learn the etymology of names and words.
Rabbits are not actually rodents, but a closely related group called 'Lagomorphs' which by convergent evolution bacame very similar to Rodents.
The two groups have similar traits because their common ancestor had them. Not due to convergent evolution.
Who cares😂 this is a language channel
Unfortunately you didn't explain why Poles are called Poles (and that it's just slightly different than the endonym)
Because they come from the North Pole, obviously.
pole = field, or something
Your interpretation of "Greece" and the fact you use that word and not "Hellas" show us the hard job whoever prepared the texts did..
YOU forgot AUSTRALIA - WE are Part of Eurovision
😂
Not officially! We still need to be invited each year whereas all the rest are automatically in due to their geographical location in the European Broadcast Area and full membership status.
The name of Australia is no mystery either: Latin word for "southern".
@@mreurovisionau lucky they didnt call us wales - hang on a minute - NSW -
@@gardenersgraziers7261 Colonial preferences are often like that. Victoria is named after a queen, there's Queensland, and the state capital cities, I believe, are all notable British people of the era. The USA is full of such names, and not just from English explorers, from French and even early immigration settlements. When "Australia" finally came into recognition as a country, the latin derivative, as commonly used dating way back to "Terra Australis", stuck. Although, I have an old map that shows us as New Holland! If the Dutch had stayed, we could be two countries of New Holland (west) and New England (east). Yikes!
@@mreurovisionau amended = wales is west - consequently westpac was bank of nsw
‘Rabbit’ is actually the FIRST thing that came to mind for me, b/c Spain is the first place I tried rabbit meat!
Traditional paella is indeed made with rabbit and chicken meat. "Seafood paellas" although visually appealing, are rather rice with things.
@@BN.ja05well no it’s still paella
@@sparv1067 Tell that to Valencians.
Me too! After eating traditional paella last March.
Hi Rob, Ukrainian historian here!
In fact, the name Ukraine comes from the border of civilization, because in the 10th - 12th centuries, our current southern regions were wild fields. The Golden Horde was located there, a nomadic state that robbed everyone who entered these territories.
Please, we do not want to be the border of Russia and this is incorrect information.
As well as the name of the country Russia, which they stole. But this is another topic for discussion.
This comment is so underrated. Shame that the creator of the video didn't take more time educating himself and going beyond common a Russian narrative on the name origin and history of Ukraine.
How can you pretend being historian and using such terms as "stolen" i dont know if you use it to sound funny or simple but it is not serious.
When you study history there are rarely goods and bads , at least historians try to rid themselves of subjectivities, especially if affected by current times.
The golden horde is not just a mere nomadic tribe sealing people and it wasn't even in the 10-12th century but in 13th-14th... you completely discredit yourself
"name of the country Russia, which they stole", thank you for the complex analysis and the casual normatif judgement on it.
@@tayloryoung9803 I'm a historian with higher education. But also I'm a simple human that can have their own opinion about different facts and situations, as you have. But I can also be mistaken, as you saw above. I appeciate your correcting.
I've never been told that the"name of the country Russia, which they stole" is a historical fact. And as I said, it's a long story. Let me know if you want to know more, I can reply to you with the proved facts.
I understand your clue, but I also will understand if you are Russian as well.
@@tayloryoung9803 Oh, boy... Where to start?...
First, please check the dictionary for the definition of "stolen".
Second, I bet it's not that difficult to read at least the Wikipedia articles on Kievan Rus and then the etymology of "Russia" (spoiler: it has something to do with Rus and its Greek name. And you won't believe from where the Duchy of Muscovy decided to expropriate (another definition for you to check in the dictionary) the name Rus).
Last but not least, you will be shocked with all these naughty historians talking about theft... e.g. the art stolen by Nazi Germany.
@@a.s.5735 Im speaking of stealing in the very context of namings , no need to reply with such a tone.
First why Rus ?
2) It was adapted the toponym Little or Lesser Rus from the Greek term, used by the Ecumenical Patriarchs of Constantinople from the 14th century.
The terms originated from the Byzantines, who identified the northern and southern parts of the lands of Rus as: Greater Rus (Μεγάλη Ῥωσσία, Megálē Rhōssía) and Little Rus (Μικρὰ Ῥωσσία, Mikrà Rhōssía).
The terms were geographic in nature; the Byzantines used them to distinguish between the jurisdictions of the metropolitanates of Moscow and of Halych; "Little" (or "Inner") referred to the region closer to Byzantium, Galicia; "Greater" (or "Outer") to the regions further away and more remote, Muscovy.
In 1328 Ivan I of Moscow persuaded Theognost, the Metropolitan of Kiev, to settle in Moscow; from which point forward the title changed to "of Kiev and all Rus'"-a title which was retained until the mid-fifteenth century. Later, in 1341 Simeon of Moscow was appointed Grand Prince "of all Russia" by the Khan of the Mongol Golden Horde
3)
Muscovite princes considered themselves to be rightful heirs of the "Kievan inheritance", and associated their survival with fulfilling the historical destiny of reunifying the lands of Rus.
Following the expansion of his realm and his marriage to Sophia Palaiologina, the grand prince Ivan III took the title of sovereign and claimed inheritance to all the former territories of Kievan Rus', including those under Lithuanian control
in the 17th century Russianness' as an ethnic concept stressed the differences between the East Slav population from the rest
___________________________
There is no stolen , it was not right or wrong
There is evolution over centuries , Neither Ukraine (modern) or Russia are full fledged heirs of Kievan Rus
Rob, great video but you missed a few points:
1. Armenia is a Greek name for the country. We call our land "Hayastan", meaning "the land of Hayk" (google the legend of Hayk), and we call ourselves "Hay". Historically, the kingdom was called Ararat, and Urartu before that (same name, actually, as in Assirian cuneiform it is just spelled RRT).
2. Armenians call Poland "Lehastan", the lend of Leh who you mentioned. I don't know who else does.
3. Georgia is, agan, a western name. I think they called themselves Kartveli. The Greek name for a part of it is Colchida, see the Argonauts and the Golden Fleas legend
In case you are going to do another video about Asia, here are 2 interesting ones there:
1. Iraq is called after Summerian city Uruk
2. Iran means " the land of Arians". Armenians call it Parskastan, the land of Phars
Georgia is a general name. There is actually no georgians, there are community of tribes. The language that is known in Georgia is the the language of svans. And georgians calls their country Sacartvelo or Sakartvelo
minor correction - it's Argonauts and the Golden Fleece. Golden fleas would be something else entirely!
Well, this time Rob didn't do his research properly. Slovakia and Slovenia, and slavs ultimately come from "slovo" - " a word", meaning that slavs are people who speak with understandable words, unlike "niemcy" who are "muted".
Ukraine, meanwhile has a root "kraj" which simply means "country", "land". It's never been a borderland, but rather a center of old Rus. Ironicly a true borderland of Rus was Moscow, which land was referred as Zalesje (beyond forests).
а коли берешся за край столу, ти тримаєшся за центр?
@@besconst А Черкаси не можуть бути рідним краєм, тільки рідним центром?
For those who unhappy with my answer I have my kind reminder: words can have multiple meanings. Kraj, if you talk about a table can mean an edge.
While "krajina" means simply "a country", and guess what, countries has edges - borders. So it means a territory with defined borders- a country.
@@RDSk0 край може бути де завгодно. "край" це відрізаний (відкраєний) шматок від будь чого, або грані великого шматка (пограниччя). ця теорія-порівняння з Inland - натягування сови на глобус. термін Україна активно використовується з 16 ст. у Речі Посполитій для позначення земель що граничать з Диким полем. а та поодинока цитата з 12 ст "Оукраина вся постонаша" ніякої ясності не приводить
@@trymai_kavun that's why Poles gave a prefix U- for it province to mark this new (for them) terrirories as "lands that borders with Wild Fields". why it so demeaning to you? it's just an etimology. before 16 century "Oucraina" mentioned just once with unclear meaning.
Your posts are invariably entertaining, informative, and fascinating. I appreciate what I've learned from watching your channel.
As a brazilian, in portuguese the germanic people are still called the "germânicos" but Germany is "Alemanha".
O espanhol do século XIX usa a palavra "germánico" em vez do "alemán" de hoje :)
interestingly, in Italian, "German" is "tedesco" which is related to "deutsch"
@@milkenjoyer14 Yes.
"Thiutisk = us people" is the original term from about 2.000ish years ago...😊
@@elchile336 In poetic Italian Germany is also sometimes known as Lamagna - in Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" where the character Leporello is listing all the hundreds of conquests (ladies!) his master has made "Germany" is referred to as "Lamagna." -"in Lamagna cento e quaranta" - In Germany he has made 140 conquests. The story is of course originally Spanish.
Weird. In Continental Portugal we still call them "Alamães."