• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    61 month ago

    How’d that get its name? It sounds almost like a corruption of French “acheter mer” (“to buy sea”).

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      4
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      Achter means in a local sense ‘at the back’ or ‘behind’ and meer means either ‘more’ or means ‘sea’ (e.g. IJsselmeer).

      So it referrs to either “more land behind” the city of Alkmaar or or a sea behind the city.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        41 month ago

        Lake, meer means lake. Achtermeer is best translated as back lake, or behind lake. Assuming achter in this case is used as this. It could also mean the lake of Acht. Since Acht could also be the name of a location. See Markermeer.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          2
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          TY. Funny how German and Dutch switch meaning here:

          • meer – der See
          • zee – das Meer, die See.
    • Bob
      link
      fedilink
      English
      21 month ago

      Achter is like aft or after (as in behind); meer is like mere (as in a lake). Aftermere would be an English bastardisation of the name.