Sometimes, you google a four word phrase, and a webpage pertaining exactly to that phrase comes up. In this case, the phrase was “countries named after food.” The list, on jameslab6, is sort of corny:
1) Chile
2) Turkey
3) Greece
4) Wales
Yes, yes, but we weren’t asking about countries with homonyms that mean food, now were we? And these aren’t even all countries!
So let’s build the internet’s collective conscious and add Cameroon to the list. According to Wikipedia, Cameroon takes its name from the Portuguese word for prawns (camarões), abundant in the country’s Wouri River’s (500 years ago, anyway).
Yeah, prawns! Neat-o. If anyone is privy to other food-related country name etymology, dish it.
Bonus: the Swahili word for corn is mahindi, after the Hindus of India, who back in the day shipped the cereal to the east coast of Africa. And the Turkish word for Egypt and corn is misir, for similar reasons (yes, derived from maize). Corn is really important!
Geography for Chefs [james6lab]
Cameroon [Wikipedia]
[Photo: you see the resemblance, don’t you? (Alibaba + UT Maps]
