History
The name IJssel (older Isla, Isala, from *Īsalō), is thought to derive from a Proto-Indo-European root *eis- "to move quickly" (cf. Old Norse eisa ("to race forward"), Latin ira ("anger")). In the Middle Ages, the Zuiderzee had not yet formed, and in its place there was an inland lake known as Vlies (Lat. Flevo), and the IJssel flowed through the surrounding lakelands. However, since the formation of the Zuiderzee and obstruction from the Afsluitdijk, the IJssel no longer flows into its estuary, the Vlie, now restricted in meaning and referring only to the strait separating the islands of Vlieland (itself named after the Vlie strait) and Terschelling. It is hypothesised that the now-poldered tidal inlets of Medemblik and IJ (near Amsterdam) once were branches of river IJssel.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.”
—Pierre Bayle (1647–1706)