Etymology
"Ben Nevis" is an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name "Beinn Nibheis". "Beinn" is the most common Gaelic word for "mountain", "Nibheis" is variously understood, though the word is commonly translated as "malicious" or "venomous". An alternative interpretation is that "Beinn Nibheis" derives from "beinn nèamh-bhathais", from "nèamh" "heavens, clouds" and "bathais" "top of a man's head". A literal translation would therefore be "the mountain with its head in the clouds", though "mountain of Heaven" is also frequently given.
As is common for many Scottish mountains, it is known both to locals and visitors as simply "the Ben".
Read more about this topic: Ben Nevis
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)