etymythology for "Indian"?

[Dave Wilton]

This is from an old George Carlin routine. A funny man, but a lousy
etymologist. It's a chestnut, been floating around the internet for eons.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Mark A Mandel
> Sent: Friday, June 14, 2002 9:58 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: etymythology for "Indian"?
>
>
> Having just been guilty of passing on one or possibly two apparent
> etymythologies (Framingham), I would like to atone by seeking expert
> opinions on what I suspect of being another. This was just posted to
> rec.music.filk:
>         >>>>>
>
>     Being part Chippewa myself (mother's side), I want to
> toss in a gripe at
> the Politically Correct term "native American".  The name
> "Indians" did
> NOT -- as your schoolteachers glibly misinformed you -- come
> from Columbus
> mistaking American for India.  When Columbus sailed, the
> country we now call
> India was then called Hindustan: its people were called
> Hindustani, its
> language Hindi, its religion Hindu.  Furthermore, enough
> merchants had been
> there and back that the average educated European knew that
> the country had
> great wealth and a technology only a little behind Europe's.
> When Columbus
> landed (on the island of Hispaniola), he took one look at these
> Stone-Age-tech people -- who were friendly, simple, pious,
> and as naked as
> Adam and Eve in the Garden -- and knew damn well that this was not
> Hindustan.  He assumed that this was an outlying island, and
> Hindustan was
> only a little further over the horizon.  As for what to call
> these people,
> all he could come up with (in his bad Italian version of
> Spanish) was: "Una
> gente in Dios" -- literally, "a people in God", or "a Godly
> people".  The
> Spanish adventurers shorted the name to the last two words:
> In Dios.  To
> this day, the Spanish word for them is "Indios".  'Twas later English
> speakers who altered "Indios" to "Indians".  Frankly, there
> are a lot worse
> things to be called that "the Godly people" -- and a PC term based on
> historical ignorance is one of them.
>
>         <<<<<
>
> This sounds very suspicious to me, as if someone had noticed that
> "indios" could be split as "in Dios" and decided that the name had to
> have arisen that way. Of course, people who accept this sort of
> "obvious" explanation are not likely to be be dissuaded by expert
> opinion, but I'd like to try.
>
> -- Mark A. Mandel
>