786: Switzerland (Helvetia) Feb 1, 2017

Many countries are known by other drastically different names in other languages for a number of reasons, usually due to colonialism. For more examples see the links below. Switzerland is no exception. For official purposes, the country is often referred to as Helvetia, and is abbreviated CH, which is seen on such items as license-plates. This stands for Confoederatio Helvetica, which is not only where the name for the font, helvetica, comes from, but also derives from the name given to the region by the Romans. Opposite to this, the French, German, and Italian names are all, 'Suisse', 'Schweiz', and 'Svizzera' respectively, much like the English. Therefore, unlike other place-names with imposed historically Latin-versions, Switzerland holds on to a great amount of influence from the Romans millennia ago, including some languages spoken in certain cantons that are quite similar to Latin spoken at the time.

Previous
Previous

787: heathen, heath, and heather Feb 2, 2017

Next
Next

785: draconian Jan 31, 2017