"Canada" etymology.

[diegaa]

Last time i´ve been to Montreal, I met this guy who told me that the name of Canada came from the spanish.
He said that as the spanish were looking for gold around the XVI century in the new world, they had written in the map "Acá Nada" (meaning "here, nothing"), as there wasnt any gold in the territoty.
It sounded BS, but you never know. Canadians, is this true?

 

[goober]

http://canadaonline.about.com/od/history/a/namecanada.htm

Comes from "kanata," the Huron-Iroquois word for village.

 

[Deleted member 6835]

http://canadaonline.about.com/od/history/a/namecanada.htm

Comes from "kanata," the Huron-Iroquois word for village.

exactly. the town i live in is called Kanata. its in Ottawa..

 

[diegaa]

Thank u guys on the responses

 

[raftermania]

wrong. our country was named after a brand of beer.

 

[Phil]

wrong. our country was named after a brand of beer.

Gee, that's interesting, because I always thought your country WAS a brand of beer

 

[Andres]

"Acá Nada".
Acá is an argentinian slang word for "Aquí", die. It was BS

 

[diegaa]

No, andres, it is not an argie slang word.
From the Real Academia Española´s site.

http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltObtenerHtml?IDLEMA=553&NEDIC=Si

Check out the first definition. If it were an argie word it would have to say "coloq." at the begging of the definition.

 

[Mr.Federer]

It's an indian village name...nothing to do with spanish people.

 

[Dedans Penthouse]

Gee, that's interesting, because I always thought your country WAS a brand of beer

Wasn't "Canada" a song by Tony Orlando and Dawn?

 

[diegaa]

Wasn't "Canada" a song by Tony Orlando and Dawn?

no, it was the leading song of the south park movie. :mrgreen: