Wednesday 22 January 2014

Etymological smack-down!

On the naming of Batticaloa:
It has much rice, principally in a district that lies on the side of the island that faces the east, called Calou, that is "kingdom," by reason of which rice, which they call bate, the kingdom is called Batecalou, which they interpret as the "kingdom of rice" [4].
- Joao De Barros, The history of Ceylon: From the earliest times to 1600 AD

That said:
[4] This is one of the most amusing of Barros's etymological atrocities. Of course, Sinh. bat is boiled rice; and neither in Sinh. nor in Tam. is there a word like calou meaning "kingdom."
- Donald Ferguson, Barros's translator and editor

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