As we celebrate one hundred years of official 'standardization' of Canadian toponyms, this would be an appropriate time to reflect upon the state of toponyms used by the Aboriginal people of Canada.

Conquests were recorded using toponyms that refer to specific cities or locations, and war captives were identified by their place of origin.

If ביתדוד of the Tel Dan Inscription did originate with a temple of some kind, then we must interpret the ‘’’toponym’’’ as meaning 'House of (the) Patron'. Thus, although the toponym ביתדוד in the Tel Dan Inscription can be connected indirectly with a deity, such a connection is not demanded by the toponym itself.

The name Rūmī, by which he is widely known in the West, is a toponym referring to the fact that he lived in the province of Rūm (Anatolia), the country now known as Turkey.

Next time you go out for a hamburger, ask your sixth grader to find the toponyms. They are words that come from the names of places, like hamburger comes from Hamburg, Germany.

During the Second Boer War (1899-1902), English officers who had done badly were sent to the British military base at Stellenbosch, without losing rank, to look after horses there. Eventually, the term came to refer to relegating or reassigning someone considered incompetent or incapable to a position of lower responsibility, and is thus a demotion, even though there may be no loss of rank or pay. It generally, though not always, arises in connection with military affairs. The word is therefore known as a toponym (see place-name).]

Those husbands with toponyms such as “d'Incisa,” “da Montelupo,” “da Volterra,” and the like we classify as non-Florentine.

Toponym

Meaning

Noun

Synonyms