Norris wrote:
> And thanks very much
> to Steven for the translation because all now falls into place.
>
> Also written on the frame was BONDUN who was a builder based at Bondun's
> Lightweights, 12 Kingsbury Green Parade, London NW9.
> so while Alf Hetchin was looking through his Latin primer for all those exotic
> names, Mr Bondun browsed the Google book of the day and came up with Innanzo
> Tutto.
Innanzitutto while meaning "above all" or "first of all" would not be used by an Italian to describe something as being "above all" or "first of all" as it is an adverb, not a adjective. The person who came up with the name must therefore be complemented for his imagination, but... as Norris said, likely the result of leafing through a dictionary or primer as described.
I have my own such story when it comes to pulling out a dictionary when naming a bike. When I built my first frame back in the early 80's, my intention was to put my family name on the downtube and to use a file to put in an 'M' on the fork crown. Once I complete the brazing, I began my rudimentary attempt at pantographing the fork crown. Needless to say, cast fork crowns don't take to being filed too easily. After completing the central 'V' portion of one 'M' I decided that the amount of work needed would mean that I would miss my paint slot, so I decided to stick to a simpler 'V' on each side. Given the 'V's were already there, I decided that I needed to come up with another name. As the frame, in my eyes, was not consistent with any real national school of design (i.e. not typically British, French or Italian) I took out the only other foreign dictionary that I could find: a Danish one. I needed to find a name that began with a 'V' and was preferably between 7 and 9 characters long. Lo and behold, there is a word that starts with 'Vel' as in velocipede and could actually be appropriate for a bicycle, or so I thought. My frame was therefore christened Vellystig. According to my dictionary it is the Danish equivalent for voluptuous. Too bad that is seems that no Dane is familiar with the word (or perhaps it is my poor pronunciation: vel-lue-stee.)
Does anybody else have any more of these unusual names that beg explanation?
-- Steven Maasland Moorestown, NJ
PS: For those in the US who have been thrown by the name of the newest Volkswagen, the Touareg, you would be surprised how simple it comes to most Europeans who have been exposed to the Paris-Dakar car rally and or studied the Sahara desert.