The last names 'Wallace' and 'Walsh' are also related to 'walnut'! #etymology #linguistics #history

[C_In_Outlaw]

When you go to a new place and *you* call everyone foreigners 😂

[ProfDanielVargas]

Fun fact: "Wales" is called "Gales" in Spanish, of course same with "Welsh": "Galés".

[deadbeatSad]

*goes to another country*
"Hey! Look! Foreigners!"
*goes to another other country*
"Hey look!! More foreigners!!"
*goes to another other other country ---*

[JorisDM]

I always knew the people in Wallonia were nuts.

[Amadis]

As a Galician, I must point out that Galicia nearly certainly doesn't derive from *walhaz.
It's true that there was a Germanic people, the Suebi, that invaded and settled in Galicia and Northern Portugal in the 5th century, but the name is far older.
Galicia comes from Latin _Gallaecia_, which was the name of a Roman province that correaponds to nowadays Galicia, Northern Portugal, the province of León and bits of Asturias.
_Galleacia_ in turn probably comes from the older _callaeci_, the name of a tribe in the area of Oporto and Braga, which was the first the Romans had contact with in the whole area. Oporto in fact comes from _Portus Callaeci_ .

[ladylucyofNewEngland]

they really just walked in, called everyone foreigners and it stuck!? The Gaul of some people…

[lelman]

Fun fact: Waluigi is the long lost sibling of walnuts

[ehsome]

This is actually way more common than you'd think. The Slavic word for German (language) is немецкий (nemetskiy) which meant mute. Yk, cuz they couldn't understand them when they first encountered...

[SwordTune]

Imagine people showing up to your land and calling you a foreigner.

[Anarchy_Venus]

Wales- foreigners
Cornwall- corn foreigner

[LilFeralGangrel]

i love the trend of people migrating to locations only to call the locals "foreigners"

[huapure]

It’s like:

*walks into random house*

“You guys are my guests.”

[kimyo]

it started over and i had forgot we were talking about walnuts

[gljames]

That w -> g sound change also gave us wear -> gear, warrantee -> guarantee, etc. Rob words has a great video on this topic.

[modmaker]

It's also where the Polish name for Italy "Włochy" comes from.

[irishakita]

Gael comes from the Old Welsh word Guoidel meaning warrior/raider, which is what the Welsh called the Irish raiders on their coast. That traveled into Old Irish as Goídel and into modern Irish as Gael. The branch of Celtic languages that Irish, Scottish, and Manx are a part of is still called Goidelic

[amellirizarry]

Imagine being called a foreigner in your own country 💀

[lawrencechesneau]

Is it bad that I find this sort of thing genuinely fascinating?

No, no, it's not.

[DiverseCurse]

I have an etymology thing that I learned recently.

Apparently, "apocalypse" didn't originally mean "end of the world" like it is commonly used nowadays. I read it comes from a Greek word meaning "unveiling of secrets" or just "revelation." In the biblical sense, it refers to the transcendent acquisition of the knowledge of God's perspective.
The actual word for the end days is another word from the Greek language, "eschaton" which means "final."

Do you have any other cool insights on the origins and past meanings of these words?

[googlelover]

This is so interesting. In Irish, County Donegal (the most northwesteely county in the Republic) is called "Dún na nGall" (Fort on the Foreigners). There is an administrative area in north County Dublin called Fingal, which is an anglicisation of Fine Gall (Foreign Tribe). And the surname Doyle is an anglicisation of Ó Dubhghaill ("of the black foreigners", referring to dark haired Danes, distinguishing them from fair-haired Norwegians during the time Ireland was being invaded by the Vikings)