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In case anyone cares, the country's name comes from "Portus Cale", the Roman name of a location near modern day Oporto and Vila Nova de Gaia cities. Portus mea

In case anyone cares, the country's name comes from "Portus Cale", the Roman name of a location near modern day Oporto and Vila Nova de Gaia cities. Portus means port in Latin. It is the origin for the name of the city of Oporto, also. Cala is the Latin name of the Celtic goddess of winter[1], also known as Cailleach Bhéara in Irish or Beira in Scotland. It is also the origin for the name of the region known as Galicia and the Gaia in Vila Nova de Gaia. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cailleach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cailleach

xinayder 3y ago
The correct city name is Porto, I have no idea why they call it Oporto. In Portuguese it was usually called Cidade do Porto (city of the port), which was shortened to be just Porto.
- sayrer 3y ago
  It is the English term. It collapses the definite article into one word: "the Port" -> "o Porto". Nothing modern uses this name anymore, though. I always see "Porto", even in American English. But, it's a recent enough fix that you can still find signs of it. For example, you can book a flight to "Porto (OPO)". Just like you can book a flight to "Beijing (PEK)".
vasco 3y ago
Porto in Portuguese also means port directly, and Oporto is just foreigners that mistaken the "O Porto" meaning literally "The Port" into a one word that doesn't exist in portuguese for so long that now its the international name.
- rpastuszak 3y ago
  IIRC a somewhat similar thing happened to Istanbul which is based on a greek phrase meaning: "to the city".
rpastuszak 3y ago
Author of the article here. I was actually thinking about writing about this! I live in Porto and was born in Galicia, but a different one: the Galicia spanning from Krakow to Lviv. The universe is one big twisted noodle. Different versions of Galicia exist in most of Europe, from Cornwall to Galatia in Turkey (named after Thracian Gauls). Southern Poland, some parts of Czechia and (I think) parts of Ukraine were also inhabited by Celts, hence the name of the once Austro-Hungarian province.

xinayder 3y ago

The correct city name is Porto, I have no idea why they call it Oporto. In Portuguese it was usually called Cidade do Porto (city of the port), which was shortened to be just Porto.

sayrer 3y ago
It is the English term. It collapses the definite article into one word: "the Port" -> "o Porto". Nothing modern uses this name anymore, though. I always see "Porto", even in American English. But, it's a recent enough fix that you can still find signs of it. For example, you can book a flight to "Porto (OPO)". Just like you can book a flight to "Beijing (PEK)".

vasco 3y ago

Porto in Portuguese also means port directly, and Oporto is just foreigners that mistaken the "O Porto" meaning literally "The Port" into a one word that doesn't exist in portuguese for so long that now its the international name.

rpastuszak 3y ago
IIRC a somewhat similar thing happened to Istanbul which is based on a greek phrase meaning: "to the city".

rpastuszak 3y ago

Author of the article here. I was actually thinking about writing about this! I live in Porto and was born in Galicia, but a different one: the Galicia spanning from Krakow to Lviv. The universe is one big twisted noodle. Different versions of Galicia exist in most of Europe, from Cornwall to Galatia in Turkey (named after Thracian Gauls). Southern Poland, some parts of Czechia and (I think) parts of Ukraine were also inhabited by Celts, hence the name of the once Austro-Hungarian province.