Those which, from a distance, look like flies

[larryhammer]

The redundancies of Rillito River, Table Mesa, and the La Brea Tar Pits have delightedly appalled me for some time -- and while I still believed in the apocryphal Camino de Calle Road, I feasted on the supposed ignorance of local housing developers. So how, I ask, how did I go for lo these many years without hearing of Torpenhow Hill? It can only be the iniquity of the universe.

Further goodies in Wikipedia's list of tautological place names. Read 'em and weep -- or howl.

---L.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

So how, I ask, how did I go for lo these many years without hearing of Torpenhow Hill?

Not a linguistics or AS/OE student? The ones listed are all classic classroom jokes...

[larryhammer]

My OE was all self-study...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That Torpenhow Hill is marvelous! And bless Wikipedia for the concept of an entry on tautological place names--what fun :-)

[larryhammer]

Wikipedia has much to be thankful for.

---L.

Wrong direction

[larryhammer]

Needless to say, that is EXACTLY OPPOSITE what I meant to say, which is that there is much about Wikipedia to be thankful for.

Time for a nice cup of iced tea and some Doctor Who.

---L.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

Picacho Peak didn't make the list!

[larryhammer]

Add it!

---L.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I've been told that the 'Mystic' that shows up in many NE place names, such as Mystic River, means... river. I'd better check this out for sure and see if I can actually provide Wikipedia with an authentic update....

[larryhammer]

Huh -- never heard that before. Wonder if it's true.

---L.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

I've been trying hard to think of NE place names with "mystic" or the equivalent and failing (besides the rivers and town). It sounds to me like the more usual Anglicization of a native word... [looks in place-name dictionary] It's listed there as Pequot but that's a Connecticut-area language; I don't know enough to say whether the Mystic River in Massachusetts has the same origin.