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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 130
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 130 |
Apparently the Horse Latitudes were also known as the doldrums. The doldrums were any area in the open ocean where a ship could become becalmed. The word of course is also used to describe a dull, listless feeling or general gloominess. Probably how I'd feel being stuck for an extended period on a boat in equatorial waters.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Since nobody else chose to elaborate on the connection between Hanseatic League and sterling silver, I will.
The members of the Hanseatic League each had trade outposts in Britain. There were two main groups: The Easterlings and the Westerlings. Each had a silver coinage of such dependable value that there arose a demand for it, and the phrase "Pound Sterling" became current.
I checked encyclopedia and got information that appears to conflict with what I read in Widener Library so many years ago. It gives much earlier date than Hanseatic League.
ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
pound sterling
the basic monetary unit of Great Britain, divided (since 1971) decimally into 100 new pence. The term is derived from the fact that, about 775, silver coins known as "sterlings" were issued in the Saxon kingdoms, 240 of them being minted from a pound of silver, the weight of which was probably about equal to the later troy pound. Hence large payments came to be reckoned in "pounds of sterlings," a phrase later shortened to "pounds sterling." After the Norman Conquest the pound was divided for accounting purposes into 20 shillings and into 240 pennies, or pence. In medieval Latin documents the words libra, solidus, and denarius were used to denote the pound, shilling, and penny, which gave rise to the use of the symbols £, s., and
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Sort of on topic: here's a link to an AWAD week when the theme was Eponyms derived from place names. http://wordsmith.org/awad/archives/1097
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
> Seven Hills
On the opposite side of the Rhine river from Bonn there are some beautiful hills known as the 'Sieben Gebirge' (roughly the 'Seven Range'), so it doesn't surprise me Jackie found so many results
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
Other places to be built on seven hills include: Edinburgh (Calton Hill, Castle Hill, Corstorphine Hill, Craiglochart Hill, Braid Hill, Blackford Hill, and Arthur's Seat) http://www.edinburghscience.co.uk/aboutedinburgh.htmand Sheffield with its seven hills, carved by six rivers, trying to shed the image given in the film "The Full Monty" http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/A-C/biblst/prospectiveundergraduates/livinginshef.htmlNew to me is Worcester, Massachusetts but I expect that there are others out there. There also seem to be a lot of places called "Seven Hills".
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