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[2243]

Which country's name is said to derive from the Spanish 'nothing there'?

Thankyou

[cheaton]

My Spanish is non-existent but how about GreNADA? or any other countries with this in the name?

[shaneystar2]

Canada .... It is commonly thought to derive from a Spanish cartographer who wrote on the early map of the land mass 'Aca-Nada', or 'nothing here'.

[mike b]

Oh dear - this is one of those woolly-******-placename-derivation questions where there is no agreed answer and loads of 'folk etymology' canards... depends on which dodgy book the question was taken from...

there are various interpretations of Canada, but it's generally thought to be well outside the Spanish area of nomenclature and almost certainly from some native language...

Namibia is from a local word meaning 'nothing there'. and was presumably given its European form by the early Portuguese & Spanish explorers...???

Grenada is still a possibility, apart from being a variant of Grenada...

I've got a Very Useful Book on the subject somewhere. but can't find the ****** at the moment - I admit there are times when I concede the advantage of Internet research... ;-)

[shaneystar2]

..this discussion is also going on in P&

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/People_and_Plac es/Question242667.html