Names
Originally named Communitas Ragusina (Latin for "Ragusan municipality" or "community"), in the 14th century it was renamed Respublica Ragusina, first mentioned in 1385 (Latin for Ragusan Republic). In Italian it is called Repubblica di Ragusa; in Croatian, it is called Dubrovačka Republika.
The Croatian name Dubrovnik is derived from the word dubrava, an oak grove; by a strange folk etymology, the Turks have corrupted this into Dobro-Venedik, meaning Good-Venice. It came into use alongside Ragusa as early as the 14th century. The Latin, Italian and Dalmatian name Ragusa derives its name from Lausa (from the Greek ξαυ: xau, "precipice"); it was later altered in Rausium (Appendini says that until after AD 1100, the sea passed over the site of modern Ragusa, if so, it could only have been over the Placa or Stradun) or Rausia (even Lavusa, Labusa, Raugia and Rachusa) and finally into Ragusa.
The official change of name came into effect when so ordered by the Yugoslav government after the Second World War. The name Ragusa was to be changed as it was Italian or at least looked like it. However, the name Ragusa comes directly from the Illyrian tongue and was in use back to that period of regional history. A similar-looking place name in Sicily is in fact different -- the U in the place name is in fact a U with grave accent mark, a diacritic that does not exist in any of the Slavonic languages.
Read more about this topic: Republic Of Ragusa
Famous quotes containing the word names:
“Our foreparents were mostly brought from West Africa.... We were brought to America and our foreparents were sold; white people bought them; white people changed their names ... my maiden name is supposed to be Townsend, but really, what is my maiden name? What is my name?”
—Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977)
“I would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“If marriages were made by putting all the men’s names into one sack and the women’s names into another, and having them taken out by a blindfolded child like lottery numbers, there would be just as high a percentage of happy marriages as we have here in England.... If you can tell me of any trustworthy method of selecting a wife, I shall be happy to make use of it.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)