Names and Their Histories: A Handbook of Historical Geography and Topographical NomenclatureRivingtons, 1898 - 400 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
afterwards anciently Antonine Itinerary appears Arabic Arctic America Asia Australia bears the name Brazil built burh Canton Cape Cape Colony capital Captain castle Celtic century charter Chronicle coast colony corruption dative dative plural denotes Derbyshire derived discovered district Domesday Dorset Dutch East English Essex etymology explained Flinders ford forest fortress founded French Gaelic genitive German Gloucestershire Graubünden Gulf harbour hence hill honour Indian Irish island Isle Kent King lake land Latin legend Lincolnshire Lord modern name mountain mouth name given name meaning native name North Novaya Zemlya old name Persian personal name places called plain port Portuguese prefix Prince probably province Ptolemy Queensland river rock Roman name Romansch Russian Sanskrit Saxon ship shire signifies Slavonic Somerset South South Wales Spanish Strait suffix supposed takes its name Teutonic translation tribe tún Turkic usually valley voyage Wales Welsh West Worcestershire word Yorkshire Zealand
Popular passages
Page 104 - Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific — and all his men Looked at each other with a wild surmise — Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Page 178 - Pueblo de la Reina de los Angeles, the ' town of the Queen of the Angels.
Page 107 - I have before observed that this is the most desolate coast I ever saw. It seems entirely composed of rocky mountains without the least appearance of vegetation. These mountains terminate in horrible precipices, whose craggy summits spire up to a vast height, so that hardly any thing in nature can appear with a more barren and savage aspect than the whole of this country.
Page 44 - the name of the river of the Amazons was given to it because Orellana and his people beheld the women on the banks fighting as valiantly as the me.n. It is not that there are any Amazons on that river, but -that they said there were, by reason of the valour of the women.
Page 204 - A local manuscript records the fact, that 'in the year 1497, the 24th of June, on St John's Day, was Newfoundland found by Bristol men, in a ship called the Matthew.
Page 67 - ... During the crop season, in the months of April, May and June, steamers are run weekly. The Cunard Company also have a. monthly service between Halifax, Bermuda, Turks Island and Jamaica, under contract with the Admiralty. The Bermudas were first discovered in 1515 by a Spanish vessel, called La Garza, on a voyage from Spain to Cuba, with a cargo of hogs, and commanded by Juan Bermudez, and having on board Gonzalez Oviedo, the historian of the Indies, to whom we are indebted for the first account...
Page 387 - Twyford, the twi, or two fords over the river Brent; and several others. And here, perhaps, a short digression may be allowed on the very large number of towns and villages throughout England generally whose names end in ford, and the very few that contain the word bridge — a striking " testimony to the want of facilities for travel at the time when our local names originated.
Page 230 - je cherchay lieu propre pour nostre habitation, mais je n'en peu trouver de plus commode, n'y mieux situé que la pointe de Quebecq, ainsi appellé des sauvages, laquelle estoit remplie de noyers.
Page 210 - than now from those of that little company. " And we feel that they had reason to be proud as well as grateful, when we call to mind the time, the money, the men, which England had previously lavished, without success, on the discovery of this great geographical problem. "Franklin and his heroic followers had, indeed, not been found ; but, in...
Page 50 - west,' to which the name Europe is also referred. But more probably it means the ' wilderness,' since ereb also means ' to be waste ' or 'barren,' and the name Arabia seems originally to have been confined to the sandy desert between Palestine and Egypt. In like manner, the WADY ARABAH, the dry and barren valley which extends from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah, doubtless means the 'wilderness.