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OT: Is there any information where the name "isle of man" is originating from? It always sounded overly dramatic to me like "dawn of mankind". But apparently "m
by xg15 4y ago
OT: Is there any information where the name "isle of man" is originating from? It always sounded overly dramatic to me like "dawn of mankind". But apparently "man" neither stands for "male" nor "mankind" but instead is some weird term without further meaning? Is there some story behind it?
- thomond 4y agoIt's disputed, it's also allegedly named after the Gaelic/Celtic god of the sea, Manannán.
- mwest 4y agoI had the same question some time ago. The Wikipedia page is, as always, quite interesting. Although I think the tl;dr is "the name's so old, no one really knows". But the theory is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man#Name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man#Name "The name is probably cognate with the Welsh name of the island of Anglesey, Ynys Môn, usually derived from a Celtic word for 'mountain' (reflected in Welsh mynydd, Breton menez, and Scottish Gaelic monadh), from a Proto-Celtic *moniyos."
- xg15 4y agoThat's interesting indeed, thanks a lot for the pointer. So the ancient meaning might have been something like "island of the mountain". As a retro gamer, I also appreciate that at some point the name appears to have been "isle of mana".