THE GAME OF THE NAME

              THE GAME OF THE NAME

Full moon of November, the Beaver Moon,

time for hunters to set their  traps,

time for the furry rodents to build

their damns and lodges before the frigid winter.

Beaver Moon, so named by the Indian tribes,

misnamed by Christopher  Columbus,

who thought in 1492 that  he had reached the Old World,

bumping into the back end of India.

But within the decade another Italian explorer,

Amerigo  Vespucci, knew that he had discovered

not the Old World but a New World.

In 1507, a German cartographer, Martin Waldseemuller,

named the new continent after Vespucci,

first name Amerigo, which in Latin became Americus,

and in the feminine form (like Asia and Africa) became America,

a name that neither of the famed explorers lived long enough  to hear..

Footnote: The Indians are now called Native Americans,

                another misnomer since they were here long before Amerigo.

                           December 11, 2012