Comment

Comment on How do names of countries get translated? What is the reason why Nippon/Nihon is called Japan or Ellada is called Greece in English?

6mementomori@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

we call it Japan from the name Marco Polo gave it, Cipango, which should come from the name of some random island he ended up in. we call it Greece because the Romans called it Graecia, for reasons I can’t figure out

source

Sort:hotnew top

Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Because they thought it was full of greasy bastards?

source
- SacrificedBeans@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Interestingly, the Romans called the Greeks Grekili , a degrading term, signifying they were fallen, decadent and servile. This is thought to be because allegedly the Greeks were not fans of straightforward battle, but preferred other tactics like ambushes and night-attacks.
  
  source