[lit-ideas] What's in a name (Was: Pacific Ocean (Was: 'Peaceful'))

From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 14:19:29 EDT

In a message dated 4/23/2004 1:42:41 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
That's what I'd say, all right.  The very idea, how peaceful we are!  The 
very idea.
Mmm. Interesting. Was wondering.. Of course, a distinction can be made 
between 'pacific' and 'peaceful' (and 'peaceable' -- see 1555 below and the OED 
etym 
for 'pacific' (ad. L. pacificus peace-making, peaceful, f. pax, pacem peace; 
see -FIC: perh. through F. pacifique, -ficque (15th c. in Godef. Compl.)), and 
as applied to the ocean it's not necessarily recognized as an irony, as it 
perhaps it was not. 

The OED has it, "Pacific Ocean, Sea, the â??Great Oceanâ?? stretching between 
America on the east and Asia on the west; 

        so called by Magellan, because found to 
        be relatively free from violent storms. 
 
but -- to echo McEvoy, what's in a name?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean

       the Pacific is not always peaceful. Many 
       typhoons and hurricanes batter the islands 
       of the Pacific and the lands around the Pacific 
       rim are full of volcanoes and often rocked by 
       earthquakes. Tsunamis, caused by underwater 
       earthquakes, have devastated many islands and 
      wiped out whole towns."

Cheers,

JL

---
Appendix:

1555 EDEN Decades 220 

The sayde sea cauled Pacificum that is peaceable.
1660 F. BROOKE tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 332 

The great pacifick gulph, which may be said one of the calmest Seas of the 
world. 

1777 ROBERTSON Hist. Amer. v. Wks. 1826, VI. 19 

They enjoyed an uninterrupted course of fair weather, with such favourable 
winds, that Magellan bestow'd on that ocean the name of Pacific.

http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=4246

     Pacific Ocean?

    "In 1520, while trying to find a western route 
    to the Moluccas, Ferdinand Magellan and his 
    expedition were blown by fierce storms into 
    the strait which now bears his name. The 
    following year, the expedition reached the 
    Marianas and the Philippines after sailing 
    across the world's largest ocean. Ironically, 
    this (relatively dangerous) leg of the voyage 
    was unusually peaceful, and Magellan was 
    lulled into dubbing the ocean the "Pacific."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean


"The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan named the ocean Pacific, meaning 
peaceful. For most of his voyage from the Straits of Magellan to the 
Philippines, Magellan indeed found the ocean peaceful. However, the Pacific is 
not 
always peaceful. ..."

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[lit-ideas] What's in a name (Was: Pacific Ocean (Was: 'Peaceful'))

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