You might say I'm crazy or odd

[Green_Lantern]

But I could read about the etymology of words for hours.

I've also developed an interest in the etymology of the names of countries.

[rurallib]

1. I am somewhat.

Met a man teaching a programming class once who was like you. We had dinner one night and talked for hours about words and their origins.

[mysuzuki2]

2. Crazy or odd?

You really don't have to choose - you can be both at the same time!

[Iggo]

3. You wanna help me out with the whole Germany/ Alemania/ Deutchland thing?

I've lived long enough to see "Peking" become "Beijing" (in fact, I took a year of Chinese and I can see it's not that far of a leap from "Jung Gwo" to "China"), but those three distinctly different names for one country (Germany) are really stretching my ability to understand.

[LiberalEsto]

5. The Italians call Germans Tedescos

and the Estonians call them Sakslased (from the word Saxon).

[provis99]

6. Tyskland, Duitsland, Nimecchyna, Purutia, and my favorite:

Germany in Navaho: Béésh Bich’ahii Bikéyah (metal cap wearer land)

[Green_Lantern]

8. Germany...

Deutschland comes from the Old German word "diutisc" meaning folk or of the people.

The name Germany came from the imperial Roman name for the area Germania meaning neighbor.

The many names of Germany developed from the fact that Germany wasn't a unified nation until the 19th century...it was a bunch of different tribes with different names for the region.

[freshwest]

4. Neither. Your coming to some realization might help others besides yourself.

[RedCloud]

7. You might say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one