Similarly, German boarhounds were renamed Great Danes (possibly as a reference to an earlier breed known as grand danois in French). Great Danes may be Great, but they’re not Danish.

The canine-themed nationalism went in both directions. Certain long-legged hunting hounds bred in Germany were initially called Englischer Hundes, or ‘English dogs’, because their mix included English breeds. In Germany, they were renamed Deutsche Dogges, or ‘German dogs’, even before the world wars.

Badge of dishonour

As well as the deliberately altered place-origin words, some everyday words are altered forms of place names that English speakers found difficult to pronounce. For example, ‘doolally’ is one of the many silly-sounding words used in British English. Yet it has serious origins.

This piece of military slang term referred to a military camp in the town of Deolali, set up in 1861. British soldiers would depart from Deolali for Britain during the winter and spring, the only seasons when the weather made this feasible. The soldiers who arrived in Deolali outside of these months faced a long wait to return home. This wait was in squalid conditions where soldiers had little to do, and many were still grappling with the horrors of the combat they’d experienced. The combination of boredom, squalor, and likely PTSD led to high rates of suicide and psychological stress. So Deolali, and then its Anglicised version ‘doolally’, became a general term for derangement, especially of the temporary kind.