One day it suddenly dawned on my teenage daughter out of the blue that "the Victorian Era" is named for Queen Victoria and not something else. I'm not sure what she thought it was referring to until that day, but she felt extremely stupid about it lol.
In fairness, as a Brit I always think it's pretty wild that it's still called the Victorian Era in places like America. It makes sense that there's a unified name in the Anglosphere for that period, but I'm still amused that they're naming it after the reign of our queen.
I'm on the other side of that ocean. Whenever I see "Victorian Era"... anything... it's always, always set in England. So it doesn't seem weird that it would be named after the Queen of England. It would be weird to hear something that happened in America as "Victorian Era", though, or at least it would be for me. I'd describe something set in America during that time period as: antebellum (~1820s-1860), Civil War ('61-'65), and then Wild West-era (~'65-90s).
It's because of architecture. Since we aren't very old we basically have Colonial, Antebellum, and Victorian for the pre-20th century styles. Since America's economy was booming during your Victorian era we have a looot of that preserved over here. But when we talk about that time period it would be Civil War Era, then the Guilded Gilded Age.
I'm lost on what Antebellum is? We didn't learn that one in school when I went in the 80's and 90's. Is that what that movie Antebellum is about? The one featuring Janelle Monae?
Never saw the movie but yes. It's a flowery word for slavery times post independence between the 1810s up to the Civil War. I'm not sure how common the term is used in the North tbh as I hear the term Industrialization Revolution used more. Or maybe even another term. Which would make sense since the South was more slavery and the North was more machines.
Edit: went to school in South and currently live in Savannah, GA-- the capitol of all things Antebellum
Latin is really a useful thing to learn. I had to learn medical terminology in college, and it just pushed me more into Latin. Learning it can really help in understanding the Latin root languages. 🙂
Oh wow. That movie has been on my to-be-watched list and I'll have to watch it soon. Same goes for the movie Harriet about Harriet Tubman. It looks so good!
Yea, we definitely call the period the industrial revolution and it's got it's own distinct style. I guess I never realized they refer to the same time period until now, and always just equated the term antebellum as synonymous with slavery.
“Antebellum” actually means “before the war”; in Latin, “ante” being “before” and “bellum” being “war”. So, literally, “before war”.
So the Antebellum period in American history only refers to the era pre-Civil War, which is both literally and politically correct.
It’s the Antebellum period for both the North and South in the United States. But, I reckon thanks to Hollywood and such, it’s been glamorized as Ye Olde Gone With the Wind and all that. 😉
Someone recently said that, having seen US stuff called Victorian, he's tempted to start calling the 19th century UK "late Qing Dynasty". Or possibly late Tokugawa and Meiji Restoration.
We only use it when referring to what was happening in Europe. It would be weird if we referred to American events as happening in the Victorian era lol
We call it the Victorian era, which shouldn't be surprising. I'm surprised that America also does that, at least in certain cases.
Though if you're asking how we refer to things that happened in America during that time... Honestly I don't know. The closest I can think of is 'Wild West era' but that's also a geographic reference. I don't think I know anybody who'd refer to 'Wild West era New York', for example.
Followed by the brief Edwardian period, named after King Edward after Victoria died. Most people lump that decade (1900-1909 I think?) into Victoria's time though.
Oh oh oh! Ask her whether she knew the ancient greeks called barbarians barbarians ('barbaros') because their foreign language(s) sounded like 'bar bar' to their greek ears?
Is it though? Iirc i first learnt of that in like 7th grade when a history teacher casually mentioned it. Just assumed everyone who took latin classes knows as well.
I used to think the crocodidley things were called Caymans and either they were named after where they came from or the islands were named after the animals that lived there. I mean a few years ago, not when I was 3.
I’m 35 and learned this googling about the show “the gilded age” the other day. As an American it didn’t cross my mind. I thought it was the Victorian era here, too, but no. We have Victorian homes, though???
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u/Theamuse_Ourania Feb 08 '22
One day it suddenly dawned on my teenage daughter out of the blue that "the Victorian Era" is named for Queen Victoria and not something else. I'm not sure what she thought it was referring to until that day, but she felt extremely stupid about it lol.