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Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

notes.rolandcrosby.com

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Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#261

Post by smcl »

glandium wrote: post #256
tkgally wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most common word in Japanese for “stapler” is hochikisu or hotchikisu , which seems to come from the name of the E.F. Hotchkiss Company [1], an American manufacturer whose staplers were imported to Japan in the early 20th century. Some Japanese sources [2] say that the word comes from Benjamin Hotchkiss [3], an inventor of machine guns, and that is what I learned many years ago, but that etymology apparently has…

X rays are called Rentogen in Japanese, after Wilhelm Röntgen, who produced/detected them first.

Same in Czech, tbh it's possible that English is the outlier here

Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#263

Post by aqme28 »

kmarc wrote: post #262

My favorite is, although mentioned on the list without the Hungarian accented characters, is the ELO system (chess). Named after Árpád Élő, "Elo" is not an abbreviation but his last name, and means "living" in Hungarian.

It's not actually the "ELO" system. People just think it's an acronym mistakenly and capitalize it. It's supposed to be written as just "Elo."

Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#264

Post by RMPR »

smcl wrote: post #261
glandium wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X rays are called Rentogen in Japanese, after Wilhelm Röntgen, who produced/detected them first.

Same in Czech, tbh it's possible that English is the outlier here

English is definitely not an outlier. In french it's Rayon X

Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#268

Post by dustincoates »

andy800 wrote: post #144
bobbyi wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other NYC bridges are all (I think?) named Bridge, but they went with Crossing here because Outerbridge Bridge sounds weird. Another NYC one: A lot of people think "major" in The Major Deegan Expressway means it is a significant expressway, but actually the expressway is named after (Army) Major William Deegan

Maybe I'm weird but I think NYC area has numerous semi-poetic sounding roads (while most of the country just uses route numbers): Harlem River Drive, Cross Bronx, Major Deegan, Van Wyck, Belt Parkway, Grand Central Parkway, the Taconic, Palisades Parkway, the B.Q.E., the Sprain Brook. Plus the Verrazano and Tappan Zee.

Houston does the same with its highways, and, in fact, they have different names depending on their relation to downtown. For example, I-45 is both the Gulf Freeway and North Freeway, 59 is both Eastex and Southwest.

Austin also has named highways (Mopac, Capital of Texas, Research), except I-35, which I was once told was because "it was the only one not created locally."

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