A look into the origin and etymology of names in geography, namely rivers and mountains.
Task 1
Complete the Following task.
Task 2
Danube (2,860 km) : from Celtic Dānu, meaning "to flow" (same origin for the Rivers Don, Dnieper and Dniester in Russia).
Rhine (1,320 km) : from Middle High German Rin, from the Proto-Indo-European root *reie- ("to flow, run").
Po (652 km) : from Latin Padus, related to the wild pine trees in valley. The former Greek name was Eridanus, and the Ligurian name was Bodincus, meaning "river without bottom" or "deep river".
Oder (866 km) : from proto-Indo-European Adra, probably meaning "water vein".
Can you think of other rivers and try to guess the origin of their names?
Think of rivers in the country or area where you live.
Task 3
Can you guess how these mountains got their names?
The Himalayas
Mount Everest
K2
Matterhorn
Annapurna
Ben Nevis
Mount Kilimanjaro
Task 4
Make a list of some of the major capital cities in the world and try to guess how they got their names.
Task 5
Have some fun generating fantasy mountain names.
Task 6
Research the origins of names of animals, characters in fiction, name of boys ad girls as a follow up.