Sunday, January 3, 2010
3 (D-128) More about California
Day 3 (D -128): 128 days before we leave for California.
Go to Day 1, the first entry of this blog, for my introduction and explanations, if you haven't read it yet.
3. (D - 128) Califia (probably from Arabic "Caliph", which was understood by Europeans to mean king/ruler) is a legendary Amazon warrior queen, associated with the mythical Island of California. Perhaps the US state of California is named after the queen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_California
-The capital of California, called The Golden State, is Sacramento with a population of 464,000 (2008 estimation) and is the 7th largest city in California. In 33 of the 50 U.S. states, the state capital is not the state's most populous city.
Jane
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JPP, one of my students in English at UIAD, writes "Another explanation for the origin of the name of the USA greatest state.
ReplyDeleteIt was HERNAN CORTEZ, the famous CONQUEROR (CONQUISTADOR), who discovered this land in 1536. He believed it was an ISLAND because he was, with his soldiers, in the South and they saw on each side the SEA! The climate was torrid in September, a hot day. So, he said we must call this island: CALIENTE HORNO because we're like in a hot oven. CALIENTE in Spanish means: WARM, HOT, and HORNO: OVEN. But, always with the Spanish Troopers there was a lot of MISSIONARIES, above all JESUITS for EVANGELIZATION. And the chief of the JESUITS said: I want to baptize this land with a LATIN NAME: CALIDA FORNAX. And this name became, with the distortion of the time, CALIFORNIA. The Spanish Dictionary speaks, also, of your explanation, but it says it's rather A LEGEND. You choose!