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SIMON'S BOLIVIA

2/8/2018

2 Comments

 
When the country of Bolivia was founded in 1825, they named it in honor of Simon Bolivar, a courageous soldier who fought in multiple Latin American independence wars. That's all fine and dandy, but it's interesting where the surname Bolivar comes from. Linguists trace all people with that last name back to a village in central-north Spain called La Puebla de Bolivar. The Bolivar part of that used to be written Bolibar, which is a blend of the words bolu, which was just another surname, and ibar, which meant "river". This in turn comes from the Proto-Basque word ibar, meaning "river". Yup! Basque! That weird enclave language with no other relatives, spoken in central-north Spain? Ha! And you thought it was Spanish this whole time! Nope, I never said a language; it was Basque. The truth is, the name for a Spanish-speaking country comes from a tiny European town from a linguistic oddity. Sorry, but that word really deserved a gloating surprise ending. Oh, the Bolivar is also the Venezuelan currency.
2 Comments
CuriousBasque
2/9/2018 06:26:19 am

Hello there, nice blog!

Just a small correction, it's not that Bolívar used to be written Bolibar, both are still contemporary spellings today, only that Bolívar follows Spanish orthography, whereas Bolibar follows Basque rules. In Basque today, it is spelled Bolibar.

Also, "ibar" actually means valley (a fluvial valley, while "aran" means valley in general), and "bolu" is an archaic word for windmill, so Bolibar (and in turn Bolívar) means "fluvial valley with windmills".

Greetings!

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Adam link
2/9/2018 07:58:19 am

Hello, thanks for commenting!

I also noticed that "bolu" meant "mill", but most etymological signs indicated that the river was after a last name, only with possible connections to that word. "Ibar" had a parallel definition of "river" for a bit (which is almost synonymous anyway), and I concede that the transition from "Bolivar" to "Bolibar" was poorly done. I meant that the name comes from "Bolibar" originally. Excellent points raised, thank you!

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    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic, a senior studying government and linguistics at Harvard University, where I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy trivia, politics, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, art history, and law. 
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