Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> 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?
Balkanization Polnische wirtschaft (=Polish i.e. messy economy) Wild West America (2 meanings: El Dorado and Wild West) Dixie - land -crat (or Mason-Dixon line) Bantustan Zion Brazilianisation (=acute social stratification between rich and poor) Continental breakfast (refering to continental Europe) Selling Brooklyn bridge China wall Shanghai (=obtaining a crew of a ship by abduction) Atlantis Greek (=obscure) Trojan horse Olympian Caucasian
Wojtek
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