What's in a Prague street name

Every street in Prague, one by one.

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I could talk about myself for ages, or I could point out that https://english.radio.cz/ed-ley-englishman-recording-stories-pragues-streets-one-one-8806941 is over two years old but still largely stands (other than the Twitter links).

Category: Students

  • Prague 4, day 473: Mendíků

    Mendíků was built in 1906. Let’s start this one in Latin, where a ‘menda’ is a defect, a blemish or an error. Meaning I’ve just worked out where ‘amend’ comes from. This, in turn, gives us ‘mendīcus’, a beggar. This is the source of the most common words for ‘beggar’ in Italian (mendicante), Portuguese (mendigo)…

  • Prague 1, day 211: náměstí Jana Palacha

    Originally published on X on 27 April 2024. Originally, this area was called Rejdiště (more on that in a few days); the square came into being in the 1870s and was called Na Rejdišti. During WW1, it was named náměstí císařovny Zity after Zita of Bourbon-Parma (1892-1989), the final Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary.…

  • Prague 1, day 125: Opletalova

    Originally published on X on 27 January 2024. Jan Opletal was born on either 31 December 1914 or 1 January 1915 to a poor family in Lhota nad Moravou, near Olomouc. He was the youngest of eight children. He had to work from a very early age to support his family, but also excelled at…