> lil help?
>
> working on a list of toponyms which originate as proper place names but
> then come to have a more generalized meaning. examples would include:
>
> Babel
> Mecca
> hell
> seltzer
> Siberia
> Boeotian
> champagne
> solecism
> Chautauqua
> Waterloo
> Pax Romana
> Watergate
> Gibraltar
> Timbuktu
> El Dorado
> any other good ones?
Hicksvill? Peoria? Shambala? (Shangrai-la)
Armageddon (not sure on this last - but I think it orginally referred to a particular plain, and only later became a general term for battle of end of the world - better confirm before using this one.)