Not something I thought of a lot when I was back in US since USA is… a pretty bureaucratic name by all means. But I just realized that some countries have really fascinating names in their local language

Like how China names itself Central/Middle country in a very grandiose way (as in, we are the center of the world), or Japan being “land of the rising sun”

  • Waldelfe@feddit.org
    11·
    2 days ago

    Germany: Deutschland. “Deutsch” comes from the word “people, tribe”. The oldest roots go back to the 8th century and the kingdom of Charlemagne, where “deodisk” (“the language of the common people”) was used to distinguish the Old German from “walhisk” (the medieval latin that the ruling class spoke).