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bradoryesterday at 10:32 PM1 replyview on HN

Badnami is Persian and literally means bad-name (like defamation of character).

English word origins are a fascinating rabbit hole.


Replies

ben_wyesterday at 10:47 PM

> English word origins are a fascinating rabbit hole.

My favourite example of which is Northern Ireland's Orange Order.

The colour is orange, because that was the Royal colour of the family of the monarch it was named after, William of Orange, who was Dutch, titled after the principality of Orange which is named after the city of Orange which is French which got its name from the Celtic word for forehead or temple.

The colour is named after the fruit, the fruit's name is a corruption "a norange" -> "an orange", which goes back to naranja which goes to Arabic which goes to Classical Persian which goes to Sanskrit.

Meanwhile, the dutch word for the fruit is sinaasappel, Chinese apple, compare with the English word "mandarin" used for many different Chinese things.