A reader passes along this puzzle:
Find cases where the name of inhabitants of a city, region, or country in English has nothing to do etymologically with the name of that geographic entity in English. The most prominent example of this would be Rio de Janeiro and “Carioca.” Interestingly, the inhabitants of the state of Rio de Janeiro are called “fluminense.” Besides these examples, I only know one other major South American city with a similar name pair.
Clearly, something like “Liverpudlian” won’t qualify. It turns out those Liverpudlians have a nickname “Scousers” but I am really after the primary name (there is no “Rio-de-Janeirenhos” -– you have to use Carioca). In any event, the list that immediately comes to mind is pretty limited, but I am sure there are plenty of those around. I expect for instance that it is common in Brazil, so some Brazilian may pitch in. In any case, I don’t think the definition should be very restrictive, because that way we could learn about interesting cases.
Any thoughts? I can think of one example — involving the name for the inhabitants of a country — that should be pretty obvious, but I can’t think of others.