• grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    6 months ago

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

    • Successful_Try543@feddit.deEnglish
      4·
      6 months 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
        4·
        6 months 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.nlEnglish
      2·
      6 months 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.