… that the Welsh for “rectangle” is “long square thing” (hirsgwar) and for “oval” it’s “long round thing” (hirgrwn) and it made me very happy.
This is how I shall refer to them in English from now on.
… that the Welsh for “rectangle” is “long square thing” (hirsgwar) and for “oval” it’s “long round thing” (hirgrwn) and it made me very happy.
This is how I shall refer to them in English from now on.
Welsh etymology is fantastic - you can work out so many words from your core vocabulary. Not like English, where you need to know Latin and Greek to have any chance…
You’re right, it’s fascinating.
But it reminds me of that phenomenon where you go abroad to somewhere where you don’t speak the language, and all the place-names and geographic features sound so wonderfully exotic and then you find out that they mean ‘Big Hill’ or ‘Village’…
I wonder how many people in Pennsylvania know Bryn Mawr means Big Hill.
See also Torpenhow - Hill Hill Hill.
(Despite rumours, there is no Torpenhow Hill, though if there were it would be very funny.)
I’ve always been rather fond of llosgfynydd for ‘volcano’ - burning mountain ![]()
That’s even better than the River River!
Have you ever seen the Tom Scott video about this called ‘Hill Hill Hill Hill debunked debunked’?
I have now! Hilarious!
Also Bredon Hill (bryn + down + hill) and Pendle Hill.