We need more pixels this is gold
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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Lefty Memes
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You could have just kept Ireland as it is now
true, unfortunately...
This map is the gift that keeps giving:
- Obodo Oyibo Belfast, Polar Obodo Oyibo — Obodo oyibo is "white man land" in Igbo. See RL Niger and Nigeria.
- Big Wota — colonisers often picked some random word/expression the locals mention and assumed it was the name of the place. See RL Yucatán, probably from Maya ma'anaatik ka t'ann (I don't understand you)
- Baris, Rom, Nedelan, Phrans, Deutshland, Doisrikondre, Caucasia — Paris, Rome, Netherlands, France, Germany [Deutschland], Germany (again) Caucasus. It's all somewhere there anyway.
- Cabo Cinza — geographical feature + adjective. See RL Cabo Verde (Green Cape).
- Duckstan — it's basically "place of the ducks"; most of the time you see -(i)stan being associated with a local people but that isn't obligatory, see Persian ⟨گلستان⟩ (gulistān "rose garden"). See RL Lagoa dos Patos (Ducks Lagoon).
- Lithium Coast, Cheese Coast — after some local resource. See RL Argentina, Brazil, Ivory Coast
- Qhadafia — after some random political big shot. (From the colonising side, of course.) See: RL Philippines, Victoria
- Kemetic Ocean — Kemet is the old name of Egypt, both the pre-Roman kingdom and the region around the Nile. I think it's being modelled after the RL Atlantic Ocean vs. Atlas.
Surprised to not see any place being called "Big River" or "Day of Arafah Island".
You really be effort posting in this thread today
Etymology is kind of bait for me. Doubly so with what-if scenarios.
Yeah ent~~o~~ymology is quite interesting to me as well but not on special interest lvl lol
not on special interest for etymology
[User banned from linguistics@mander.xyz]
actually it's entomology
[User banned from the whole mander.xyz instance]
Just kidding :-P
lmao
Thanks for this, as it explains a lot.
Also, wouldn't Qhadafia be better explained through Rhodesia?
It could be too. It depends if the Qhadaf in question was the one founding it (like Cecil Rhodes), or simply some noble the discoverer was trying to please, while fighting the local tribals who were "refusing to be civilised". Either way, it's some name that feels completely out-of-place from Europe, much like all three we mentioned.
The Mediterranean should actually be named after Haile I
i recommend everyone learn to recognize colonization on a map. it's a really great skill to have when you're trying to figure out what the truth is in a heavily propagandized media environment
Surely it was the local natives who decided it should be called Lake Victoria? They were probably calling it that for hundreds of years before Europeans arrived.
signs of colonization on a map:
- static borders (humans intermingle naturally)
- unnatural borders (straight lines)
- pockets (as in on population is slowly surrounding and eleminating another population)
- as you pointed out, the names of stuff are bonkers
I would like to live on the cheese coast.
I'm quite fond of Deutshland myself
I already do
The line through the middle of Sweden and Norway is not far off from separating the southern swedes and norweigns from the samí.
Oh my God it's incredible
This gets more amazing the more I look at it, but why Duckstan?
Probably because of the common eider. I'm not sure what is its state in the wild, but Iceland makes up the majority of eiderdown harvests globally.
The suffix -(i)s(e)tan in Classical Persian and descendants means roughly "place of $noun". While you see it often being attached to human groups, that isn't the only way to use it. Like,
- flower garden: ⟨بستان⟩ bostân = place of fragrance[s]
- hospital: ⟨بیمارستان⟩ bimârestân = place of [the] ill
- summer: ⟨تابستان⟩ tâbestân = place of heat
- rural district: ⟨دهستان⟩ dehestân = place of village[s]
- etc.
So you could theoretically name some place after the local fauna with -stan.
It helps if you remember that suffix is cognate to "stand", "status" (see status quo), "stay".
Thanks for the explanation but I was more wondering what Iceland has to do with ducks.
Ah, my bad; I don't know it either.
South parts were colonized by Ottoman Empire and other north Africans after Roman Empire collapse until crusades so for around 1000 years. That is way more than modern history of America.
The east side of Britain was colonized by the Vikings. "Big Wota" = the Danelaw + Scotland.
I like it. Nice straight lines.
Some Northern Italians would thank you for separating them from the Southern ones
I think the cheese coast border works pretty well