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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Sitting here at my work desk studying a map of the world on the wall (as is my wont).
Am now wondering what, if anything, the 'guay' suffix refers to in the names Paraguay and Uruguay.
What do those countries' names translate to in English?
Is there a contextual similarity to the 'ia' in anglicised place names (eg Australia, Oceania, Westphalia etc)?
stales
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Joined: Jan 2003
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member
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member
Joined: Jan 2003
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Can't help with "guay," but if your curiosity is aroused by "guad" (as in Guadalcanal, Guadalquivir, Guadalajara), I think I can enlighten. My recollection is that this goes back to the Moorish influence on Spain, and "guad" is the Arabic word for "river."
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247 |
what, if anything, the 'guay' suffix refers to in the names Paraguay and Uruguay. What do those countries' names translate to in English?
Gazetteer says: Paraguay is named after the Paraguay River. Paraguay means either "tail of the sea," "garlanded river," or "river which gives birth to the sea."
Uruguay is named after the Uruguay River
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
You're forgetting that newly Iberianised country, Chadguay. It changed its name so it could join Bush's "Axis of Dumb Countries Whose Names End in -guay".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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My guess, totally SWA, would be that Spanish ain' got nothin to do with it. Es probablemente una palabra india. I could look it up in mi diccionario guaraní-español and see is it there.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
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Guay in Spanish means: (interjection) ¡Ay! Güey in gutter Spanish means: dumb f**k They are both pronounced simular to "way". SOThis is where the tongue goes guay in the cheek Paraguay means: A pair of dumb f**ks and Uraguay means: You're a dumb f**k.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Güey in gutter Spanish means: dumb f**k
Hence the comment that I never understood from the movie El Mariachi, which unleashed Antonio Banderas on an unsuspecting world:
¡En botell', güey!
when the bartender gave him a draft after he asked for 'na cerveza.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Aha! And so we come to Bushguay!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm betting guay means "river" in Tupi-Guarani.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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