Tautologies in names are pretty funny, like the Sahara Desert, which basically means “Desert Desert,” or the country of East Timor, which in Malay means “East East.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Proper Noun Tautologies”
We’ve talked before on the show about names that are tautologies, that is, they’re repetitive.
Like Sahara Desert is really repetitive because the name specifically translates as deserts.
Desert.
Gobi Desert also, desert desert.
Right, right, exactly.
Go down the El Camino Real.
It’s like going down the the, the royal road.
And La Brea Tar Pits, which literally means the tar tar pits, right?
But one that I wasn’t aware of is East Timor.
East Timor?
Yeah.
Dimor in Indonesian and Malay means east.
Oh, so east-east.
East-east.
That’s a good one.
Yeah.
