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OP No, I'm not proposing an unlikely World Cup pairing, but recently, a friend brought up the old saw about how these countries got their names. If you haven't heard it, it says that the first settlers of Iceland found it a very amenable home, what with all the geothermal activity to warm it up, but they named it Iceland because it was so small, they didn't want people horning in on their good thing. Conversely, the settlers of Greenland found a desolate wasteland, but wanted to encourage more settlers, so they named it Greenland in the ultimate example of false advertising.
I learned it way back in elementary school, and it has the whiff of one of those fictionally acronymic word origins (Port In Starboard Home, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, etc.). Any truth to it at all?
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted Greenland v. Iceland Flatlander 05/20/04 01:12 PM Re: Greenland v. Iceland Flatlander 05/20/04 01:53 PM Re: Greenland v. Iceland dxb 05/20/04 03:15 PM Re: A 21st Century Saga? Read the Runes ... Capfka 05/20/04 09:29 PM Re: Greenland v. Iceland Faldage 05/20/04 10:45 PM
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