On pseudo derivations: "Pliny and the Latin poets abound with similar whimsies, which desrve to be classed with Knicerbocker's derivation of Manhattan (Long Island) from the circumstance of a man with a hat on having been seen there by aborigines.*"
And let's not forget Hyalella knickerbockeri, the colorless fresh water shrimp found in this region, a creature "about a half inch long with a face like a hippopotamus." John Kiernan, The Natural History of New York, p. 47.
*P. 6, Contribution to Literature, Historical, Antiquarian and Metrical, by Mark Antony Lower, 1853
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2 comments:
A man, a hat, Panama!
O, wait, that doesn't work.
It was a good try.
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