Re: The German Ocean

--- In cybalist@..., x99lynx@... wrote:

> It is interesting to note that the (19th C) OED states that the

word "German"

> itself only comes into use in English in the 15th C. The first

citation is

> actually 1552 and defined by the Latin.
>
> The name "German" apparently is not attested before that in

English, except

> perhaps it seems as "the German Ocean" which the OED calls a direct
> translation from Ptolemy "for the sea east of Great Britain, the

North Sea."

>
> So it would appear in this case that book learning supplied a name

long before the name was even used.

Names of seas seem unlike river names. River names are mostly
opaque, at least in English, whereas names of (tidal) seas are mostly
transparent!

Richard.