5 ms·
This has to be a contender for strangest country name origin story : Subsequent settlers were surprised to find vegetation on the chunk of coral rising from th
by bagpuss 6y ago
This has to be a contender for strangest country name origin story :
Subsequent settlers were surprised to find vegetation on the chunk of coral rising from the sea, calling the place Niue, which in the local language means, "Look, there's a coconut."
- stakkur 6y agoDouglas Adams must have written this. There's no other plausible explanation.
- gostsamo 6y agoMore like Pratchett.
- gostsamo 6y agoHonestly people, I don't know what is so problematic about Pratchett. For the last day this comment is receiving almost equal amounts of up and down votes every now and then for reasons unobtainable to me. For those interested, check Fantastic Light and the geographic naming conventions described there. Adams is also fantastic humorist but he does not play with the names of places the same way and prefers to just make them long and convoluted.
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoIt is probably spurious, just like so many folk etymologies of the names of towns based on something the founder supposedly said as he caught sight of the area.