Lederer on Language: How in the world did our great country get its name?

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) generally gets credit for finding America. In grade school, many of us learned this ditty:

In fourteen hundred ninety two,Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

And he did. On his first voyage, he sighted the Bahamas and made land on Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). On three subsequent voyages (1493, 1498, 1502), healso explored the coast of South America. But Columbus never realized that he had sailed to the New World. He died in 1506, blissfully certain that he had reached Asia.

An Italian, Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), working in Spain for the Medici family, helped outfit the ships for Columbus’s first voyage. He wrote, “Perhaps there is a continent or a very large country populated by human beings and animals as yet unseen.” Vespucci made two voyages to the New World, although never to North America. When he returned to Spain, hewrote about the wonders he had seen, and his narratives were widely read.

His accounts were widely read, even in the Duchy of Lorraine, where Dutch cartographer Martin Waldseemüller (1470?-1520) was drawing a new map of the world. Waldseemüller decided to write the name America across the face of the new continent on his map. He wished to honor Vespucci as the first to recognize that South America was a separate continent, not part of Asia. He wrote, “And Amerigo Vespucci has found another, fourth part [separate from Europe, Africa, and Asia], for which I see no reason why anyone could properly disapprove of a name derived from that of Amerigo, the discoverer, a man of sagacious genius.” Waldseemüller published a thousand copies of his map in 1507. As far as we know, only one survives, now housed in the Library of Congress.

DEAR RICHARD: Your recent “The true story of Santa Claus, the Abdominal Snowman” prompted me to share a few additional thoughts about Santa Claus. The song “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” was first sung by Gene Autry in 1949. I enjoyed it then and still enjoy it, but there are several thought-provoking issues that I can’tignore:

You may recall that Santa knows if you’ve been good or bad. Well, “all of the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.” This certainly was a bad situation happening right under Santa’s nose. So why did he let them get away with it?

Still the part that I have trouble understanding is “Rudolph with your nose so bright won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?” How would Rudolph answer that? If he replies, “yes,” he issaying and agreeing that he “won’t guide Santa’s sleigh.” If he replies “no,” he is telling Santa he is not going to guide his sleigh tonight. This confusion would have been avoided if Santa had used will instead of won’t.

Finally, there’s the story about a Russian communist known as Rudolph the Red. One day he and his wife were looking out their window at the weather and the possibility of anapproaching storm. Rudolph told his wife they should cover their outside furniture before the rain came. She replied there would be only wind but no rain. Opinionated Rudolph insisted that his wife not challenge him and that it would certainly rain, bellowing “Rudolph the Red knowsrain, dear!” -Gene Roeglin, Rancho Santa Fe

Thank you for sharing the classic pun about Rudolph the Red. As for the “Won’t you guide my sleight tonight?” construction, it’s an example of the volatility of negative statementsin our English language: “Let’s see if we can’t arrange a meeting” and “I really miss not seeing you.” Logically both statements shouldn’t include the negative element not.

DEAR RICHARD: What is the correct way to spell the abbreviation for the word until? I see it every day as till and ’til. I say ‘til is the proper spelling. -Neil Proffitt, Oceanside

Until, till, and ’til all indicate the time when a particular situation or period ends or when something will happen. Until and till are both standard. ‘Til, with one l, is an informal and poeticshortening of until. To summarize, use until for formal contexts, till for everyday conversation, ’til for informal or creative expressions. In general, the safest choice is until.

Please send your questions and comments about language to richardhlederer@gmail.com website: verbivore.com