2121: Pressburg and Bratislava Oct 5, 2020

The capital of Slovakia is Bratislava, but this name only came about in the 20th century. Before 1919, it was known in Slovak as Prešporok, in German as Pressburg, and in Hungarian as Pozson; keep in mind this was all part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, but most modern languages still use a variant of one of these 3 versions, except Greek which has Istropolis. Indeed, in 1918 and 1919, there was talk that the city might be known as 'Wilsonov' or 'Wilsonstadt' after American President Woodrow Wilson who campaigned for national sovereignty in the region. In the end, the name came from Pavol Jozef Šafárik's misunderstanding of the medieval 'Brezalauspurc' (Breslav castle), from which he designed 'Bratislava', though it's unclear whether the castle was actually there, and at any rate the adoption was made largely to make the name clearly Slavic. Other names which share a common root were discussed yesterday.