User blog:Kasarn/Skyland etymology

Some more stuff from my Skyrates folder: a hastily researched article on the possible etymology of skyland names.


 * Aleut is named after the Aleutian Islands, a chain of islands between Alaska and Russia. Aleut is derived from aliat, meaning island.
 * Arcadia is a name for a rural utopia, derived from the Greek province of the same name.
 * Cidade is Spanish for city (the joke being continued on the Skybrary with municipio being appended). It is pronounced si-da-de (or si-da-je in Brazilian Portugeuse).
 * Earthbreach ????
 * Echo is the letter E in the NATO phonetic alphabet. Noptis may have derived from the Romanian nopţi, meaning nights, I have no idea.
 * Eltsina is the feminine form of Eltsin, a Russian surname, e.g., Boris Yeltsin and Naina Yeltsina.
 * Fuseli likely refers an aircraft fuselage. It may also refer to the painter Henry Fuseli.
 * Getty is likely named after Gettysburg, the location of a decisive battle in the American Civil War. It may also refer to the oil tycoon J. Paul Getty and his family, who are probably more easily recognized by his grandson's Getty Images.
 * Goldenrod is the name of a flower.
 * Gonk is the name of a soft toy.
 * Grottopolis is a portmanteau of grotto and polis to mean something like: a distant and idyllic skyland.
 * Isla di Pisa is probably named after Comune di Pisa. A slight oddity is that it should be Isola di Pisa in Italian or Isla de Pisa in Spanish.
 * Islo is probably derived from the Spanish isla, which is the feminine for island; if the masculine form were used, it would be islo.
 * Jordan is most likely named after the Arabic country of the same name.
 * Juliet is the letter J in the NATO phonetic alphabet (all the original skylands were named such). Juliet is also a character from Romeo and Juliet, which is likely that that is why the name hasn't changed.
 * Kadath is a location in the Lovecraftian Dreamlands where the Great Ones reside.
 * Leng is a location in Lovecraftian fiction aka Y'Pawfrm e'din Leng. It is also a Mandarin word.
 * Lhasa is the capital of Tibet, meaning place of the gods.
 * Luz is a spanish word meaning light
 * Midgard is the name of the Earth in Norse myth.
 * New Hovlund ????
 * Olio is the Italian word for oil and alternate spelling for the Spanish for oil. It may also refer to a Spanish stew (but only in English).
 * Phillipia ????
 * Romeo is a character from Romeo and Juliet as well as the letter R in the NATO phonetic alphabet.
 * Sharif is an Arabic word (شريف‎) meaning honorable, exalted, noble or highborn. It's basically a title.
 * Shriebeck ????
 * Steppe is a type of grass plain, another word for prairie of savannah.
 * Tehras is Moroccan for to break. It may also be derived from Tehran, the capital of Iran.
 * Tinkspoit ????
 * Tortuga is is the name of an Haitian island that is infamous for piracy; the word itself is Spanish for turtle/tortoise
 * Uurwerk is Dutch for clock. Similarly, Horloge, as in Horloge Court from Vignettes of the Legacy, means watch.
 * Valvia ???? may be derived from valve.
 * Volstoy ???? may be derived from Tolstoy.