Extract: Found in Translation

Our Book of the Month for December is Found in Translation: The Unexpected Origins of Place Names by Duncan Madden.  This book unravels the tangled threads of history and etymology to uncover the strange, intriguing and enlightening stories that have shaped the names of countries and places around the world.

In this extract we look at the etymology behind ‘Argentina’:

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10 place names that ended up in the dictionary

New etymological guide Around the World in 80 Words by Paul Anthony Jones takes the reader on a circumnavigation of the English language, tracing the meanings and histories of eighty words derived from world place names. To whet your globetrotting appetite, here are ten of the book’s most fascinating entries …

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