• grue@lemmy.world
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      2 years ago

      How’d that get its name? It sounds almost like a corruption of French “acheter mer” (“to buy sea”).

      • Successful_Try543@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Achter means in a local sense ‘at the back’ or ‘behind’ and meer means either ‘more’ or means ‘sea’ (e.g. IJsselmeer).

        So it referrs to either “more land behind” the city of Alkmaar or or a sea behind the city.

        • Bashnagdul@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          2 years ago

          Lake, meer means lake. Achtermeer is best translated as back lake, or behind lake. Assuming achter in this case is used as this. It could also mean the lake of Acht. Since Acht could also be the name of a location. See Markermeer.

      • Bob@feddit.nldeleted by creator
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 years ago

        Achter is like aft or after (as in behind); meer is like mere (as in a lake). Aftermere would be an English bastardisation of the name.