Places - Notes on proper nouns - The stuff in the back

Dreyer's English - Benjamin Dreyer 2022

Places
Notes on proper nouns
The stuff in the back

ANTARCTICA

One of the seven continents, situated around the South Pole. Two c’s.

ARCTIC

Relating to the North Pole or the area near it. I know; it’s confusing. Also two c’s.

CINCINNATI

City in Ohio. Not “Cincinatti.”

COLOMBIA

South American country. Two o’s.

Columbia, with a u, is, among other things, a New York university, a recording company, a Hollywood movie studio, the District also known as Washington, the Gem of the Ocean (as in that old patriotic song) and the female representation of the United States.

GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL

Magnificent Beaux Arts structure located at the junction of Forty-Second Street and Park Avenue in New York City—a junction and not an intersection because the streets meet but do not cross.

That the building is often referred to as Grand Central Station does not make that its name. That said, if you’re going to characterize a busy and/or crowded place by saying “It’s like Grand Central Station in here!,” you should go ahead and do that because that’s what everyone does, and there are occasions when idiom outweighs*7 accuracy.

MISSISSIPPI

Some people, myself included, can’t ever spell it correctly without singing the 1916 song that still popped up in elementary school music classes when I was a tot (much later than 1916). Do you know it too?

ROMANIA

The spellings Roumania and Rumania are obsolete.

TUCSON, ARIZONA

Not “Tuscon.”