How these always start: Some incidental tickle in my brain.
Reading an article about Tesla. http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/Maserati-Ghibli-takes-on-Model-S-2014-04-03
Triggers: "Italian" vs. "Californian" Immediately think of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and the GT California Always wondered about that. Was there an Italian fixation on California, or is California a more generic name than I thought?
I'm originally a Californian and kind of surprised that I've never thought about the origin of the name before. I put my several years of high school Spanish to work and... nothing. Then again I just learned that "Sierra Nevada" means "snowy mountains" last year. I didn't say I had a good education. [Cue Prop 13 agitation]
But I note that California does sound kind of like "caliphate", and Spain did have a long period under Muslim control...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_California
Ah, the name is likely a reference to a fictional place in the novel "Las sergas de Esplandián". Always surprised to learn about popular fiction before the 1600s or so. My ignorance rides so very high.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Sergas_de_Esplandi%C3%A1n
There's a mention of the Island of California. Baja was the first California, and was misidentified as an island originally. (That part I knew from 4th grade. Thanks, Ms. Ratio.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_California
But I wanted to know more about the fictional island, so backed up to the page about the book and found:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calafia
A fascinating wikipedia page overflowing with incidental information. Black women! Amazons! Constantinople! Cortes read this! Fantastic.
Oh, and I note one key sentence: "The name of Calafia was likely formed from the Arabic word khalifa"
AKA caliph, as in caliphate. Reading 1,001 Arabian Nights finally pays off.
By some miracle I stop at this point, leaving the page open to read in full later. Ordinarily I'd have 5 more pages open by now and this 30 minute wander would probably go on closer to 3 hours.