"Your Finger you Fool"

Those of you familiar with the great works of Terry Prachett will know about the ranges of Mountains etc called "Your finger you fool"

These names came about when a foreign explorer enquired the name of a particular feature by pointing & loudly asking "Whats That Called?"

The subsquent answer in the native language became the name of the feature on the map.

This happens in the real world, like when the English shouted across the river and asked what it was called, the Welsh reply was "The river you fool" Welsh for river being Afon, and so the River Avon was named: River River.

Reason i'm telling you all this is that due to a similar mistake by an early French explorer, the entire country of Canada is named after the local word for village, kanata.

This is not news for Penny in Ontario, but it sure made me giggle

 

There are actually a few "river rivers " , it was a question on an episode of QI . I think that Humber means river and there are a few more , in the Uk.
Another one is when Cooke landed in Australia he asked an aborigine what the strange animal was. The reply was Kangaroo which means I dont understand you ! :D Its probably an urban myth .

 

At the risk of lowering the tone entirely, following the subject line bring to mind the story of the Dutch boy who saved the nation.

Little Dutch Girl.. "Hans, that's not the dijk"... Hans, ... "I know, and that's not my finger either"

Mods - please delete if inappropriate

 

Blirts "Pink" all over keyboard

 

You're right Harry. Wye, Way, Usk are all derived from water or Uisk, same word stem as Whiskey.

 

Just checked out the Kangaroo story, you were right, a rural myth,

Kangaroo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

On the subject of river names Zig, I think I'm right in saying there's a River Piddle in your neck of the woods. How on earth did it get that name?

As someone also familiar with the works of the great Terry Pratchett, I'd love to see one of those gardens designed by 'Bloody Stupid Johnson' which regularly crop up in his stories. :D

Or has somebody, somewhere, already done that?

 

Drifting slightly off topic, my favourite silly character name from Terry Pratchett's books would be 'Medium Dave'. So named because there was already a Big Dave and a Little Dave.

Favourite character overall though has to be Ms Weatherwax. I've actually known a few old sticks over the years that could easily have been the inspiration for Granny Weatherwax. In fact my wife's granny is one of them

 

Hey guys,

Yes, The River Piddle is a big feature around here, many of the villages along its course are named after it. Piddletrenthide being a favourite(30 hides on the Piddle River)

They say the word comes from puddle, but old Dorset for bucket is "Biddle" so I think that might have something to do with it too.

Dave, I have always seen you as "Medium Dave" as you are so well balanced

I loved the bit when Granny Weatherwax returned home and found a Badger in the privvy.