Talk:Columbia

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Disambiguation

This disambiguation page is within the scope of WikiProject Disambiguation, an attempt to structure and organize all disambiguation pages on Wikipedia. If you wish to help, you can edit the page attached to this talk page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project or contribute to the discussion.DisambiguationWikipedia:WikiProject DisambiguationTemplate:WikiProject DisambiguationDisambiguation articles

We'll...this is sort of like a disambiguation page, but then it contains commentary that would be valuable so it's not really a disambiguation page. I suggest a custom note instead. --Jiang 10:45, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

That works. - Furrykef 18:43, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Shouldn't the content about the historical concept of Columbia be moved to its own article, so that this can be a real disambiguation page? JoaoRicardo 03:55, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I think the country Columbia should be the first thing mentioned here, rather than the "poetic name" for America bit.

If such a country existed, that would be a good idea. Perhaps you're thinking of Colombia. --Sneftel 20:47, 7 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's a variant spelling of the same word, I guarantee 95 percent of people searching Columbia want that country. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.182.130.241 (talk) 00:21, 28 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There is no authority prescribing correct spelling in the English language. Judgements about correct spellings in English are descriptive and statistical based on usage, informed by the etymology of the word. The fact that people are arriving on this page searching for the country as "Columbia" is evidence that plenty of English speakers use the spelling Columbia. There is a strong etymological argument that the correct spelling of the country in English should be Columbia (derived from Christopher Columbus) not not Colombia (from the Spanish spelling Cristóbal Colón). Furthermore, there is no expectation that speakers of one language should be able to impose their spelling of a country on the speakers of another language. Should we write Brasil instead of Brazil? Therefore, the note at the beginning of this page should refer to an alternative spelling not a misspelling. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.1.24.223 (talk) 10:20, 21 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

D.W. Cummings, author of the reference book "American English Spelling," says the name Columbus is derived from the Latin word for dove, Columba. But since Columbus's name in Spanish used an o after the l, it was probably decided to keep the name of the Spanish-speaking country with an o. The infraction is most common in the news media. The U is a misspelling if what you want is to refer to the country. --Silent1961 (talk) 03:36, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I question the complete validity of the word Columbia having its origin as a poetic name for the United States in its female personification because I don't believe the Canadians in British Columbia would have been too happy about naming their province "British United States (fem.)" I don't have a deeper source, but I will keep looking for more historical references to the origin of the use of the word Columbia.

I moved the historical content about Columbia as a name for the USA to

so this could serve as a true Disambiguation page instead of a mini-article. I also made Historical Columbia a stub because it is fairly brief while it is an important term/topic. I wasn't sure what to call the new page so anyone feel free to move it. --Gpyoung 4 July 2005 03:24 (UTC)

Well, looking at the article on British Columbia, it appears that BC was named after the Columbia River. Looking at that article, it appears the river was named after a ship, which could have been named after anything, plausibly including the United States. Therefore, it makes sense that British Columbia could mean the "British [portion of the territory around the] United States [River]", or "British United States" for short, if you substitute "United States" for "Columbia". - Nat Krause^(Talk!) 07:58, 4 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I know this discussion is long over, but I followed those links. The

talk) 10:42, 22 March 2008 (UTC)[reply

]

Columbia/Colombia

Just a suggestion: How about "Not to be confused with Colombia" at the top, such as the one on the Colombia page? This one-letter difference confused me for a while, so I'm assuming others might make the mistake as well. I would make the change myslef, but I've never edited a page before and I would rather not mess anything up. 69.234.104.249 23:21, 27 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As I'm a bit concern about the "originality" of Columbia, I'd like the mention of an "original Columbia" removed as it's stating this originality without using any reference.

Columbia → Columbia (disambiguation) and

]

Survey

Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one-sentence explanation, then sign your opinion with ~~~~

• Support as per nomination, makes sense to me. John (Jwy) 04:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose - the historical use of Columbia is not overwhelmingly more common than the others - Columbia, South Carolina is a very notable city for example. The disambiguation page should certainly be here. — sjorford++ 08:15, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose There are multiple common uses of Columbia--there is no clear evidence that the use described at Historical Columbia qualifies as primary. older ≠ wiser 12:54, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose per the others.—jiy (talk) 21:49, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not moved. —Nightstallion (?) 09:47, 12 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A couple of things that still need to be done:

1. Take a closer look to determine which entries really aren't plausible for a "Columbia" page. Most of these I could make a case for keeping, but "Columbia Valley Gardens", for example, seems to be an unlikely one for people to search for with just "Columbia"
2. Merge Columbian into this article.
3. Fix the Columbia automobile link, page, and associated pages. That article seems to have been turned into a dab page at some point although there are only two WP articles really associated with it; both companies should probably be linked to from this page, and the name returned to referring to only one of the companies.

--NapoliRoma (talk) 19:00, 17 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just to emphasize: although I admire the diligence of the anon editor 208.10.62.253 (but please, a few comprehensive edits instead of 150 in a row is generally a better idea), dab pages should not be collections of "things with xxx in their name."

Just as another example, newspapers from a city or school named "Columbia" should probably not be here, as the key element of their name is the newspaper's name, not the city/school name.--NapoliRoma (talk) 18:19, 26 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest moving the article currently at "

]

Edits

The previous version of this page contained several duplications and confusingly overlapping sections. There are still some duplications on this page, but they are intentional, in order to facilitate use. The main point of the edit, however, has been to clarify the relationships between the various institutions named "Columbia" by indenting those that are named after a city, county, or other institution under the heading for which it is names. A few exceptions (e.g. not placing "Columbia River" and all of its derived names under "Columbia Rediviva") have been due to the undue weight of the derivatives.

As a possible benefit, it should now be easy for anyone who wants to trim this page to delete or move items that are only secondarily named "Columbia" (e.g., sports teams or newspapers named after a city called "Columbia", or many of the items named for Columbia University). I have not undertaken any such deletions myself, however. RandomCritic (talk) 14:20, 28 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The thing is huge;so much so it makes it difficult to use. Maybe I'll take up the trimming process in my "free time." Thanks for you work! (John User:Jwy talk) 14:40, 28 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As an experiment, I made the below minimal list of links that *have* to be in a Columbia disambiguation page, because they all are, or might be, called "Columbia" simply; I removed everything that was Columbia XYZ or XYZ Columbia.

I suppose the list is really too short, and the ideal would be larger than this and smaller than the current list; but there should be some consistent principles developed for trimming the list to a smaller size, and determining what sorts of entries of the Columbia XYZ type should remain. Any thoughts? RandomCritic (talk) 13:47, 29 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Columbia may also refer to:

• Columbia, another name for the 2-4-2 classification of steam locomotives, named for an early locomotive of this type called Columbia
• 327 Columbia, an asteroid discovered in 1892
• Al Columbia, American artist, writer and cartoonist
• Columbia (Amtrak station), Columbia, South Carolina
• Columbia (Arrow Lakes sternwheeler)
• Columbia (barque), 310 tons, 6 guns, in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia River and Pacific Northwest Coast
• Columbia (electoral district) in British Columbia
• Columbia (sheep)
  , an American breed of sheep
• Columbia (Star Trek), any of three fictional starships in the Star Trek syndication
• Columbia (supercomputer), named for the Space Shuttle
• Columbia (supercontinent)
• Columbia (yacht), any of several America's Cup race winners/contenders
• Columbia, Tyne and Wear, a neighborhood in Washington, Tyne and Wear County, United Kingdom
• Columbia 350
  , aircraft (now known as the Cessna 350)
• Columbia 400
  , aircraft (now known as the Cessna 400)
• Columbia class cruiser
  , a group of two protected cruisers used by the United States Navy, 1890-91
• Columbia Rediviva, a privately-owned sloop after which the Columbia River (and by extension British Columbia) is named
• Columbia River, named for the sailing ship Columbia Rediviva
• Columbia District, aka the Columbia Department, named for the river and its basin, and the namesake of British Columbia
• CSS Columbia, a U.S. Confederate (and later U.S. Navy) ironclad ram during the time of the Civil War
• HMCS Columbia, any of several commissioned vessels of the Canadian Navy
• Lightship Columbia
  , WLV-604, the first lightship on the Pacific coast of the United States, docked in Astoria, Oregon
• MV Columbia, a large passenger and automobile ferry in the Alaska Marine Highway System fleet
• Space Shuttle Columbia, named for the Space Shuttle
• SS Columbia
  , a historic excursion steamer docked in Ecorse, Michigan, United States
• USS Columbia, any of several ships of the US Navy

Unlinked:

• Columbia, a song on the 1994 Oasis album Definitely Maybe
• Columbia, a song by Paul van Dyk on the 2000 album Out There and Back
• Columbia, a song on the 2005 album Bloom (Eric Johnson album)
• Columbia, a fictional character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Columbia, the airplane piloted by
  Clarence Duncan Chamberlin
  as the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic
• Columbia, the Command/Service Module for the Apollo 11 mission
• Columbia, a fictional spaceship in Wally Wood's comic story Dark Side of the Moon, published in 1950
• Columbia, a battlestar (fictional spaceship) from both versions of the Battlestar Galactica TV series

I am a Rocky fan, but do we really want that to be the sole reference to a name that actually became popular due to a much more influential and popular character, who's impact on the World arguably overshadows use of this name due to derivations from Christopher Columbus? If we are trying to trim this long list down to the bare essentials, I propose we loose some of the later derivitives, or shunt them off to a subordinate list, and mention the original "French Maid". While the name saw great use due to the explorer, it had entered common use long before that, due to popular entertainment. (Yes, I am aware our article has a one letter difference. We have already referenced several uses here that are clearly alluding to fictional stock character, but are spelt the same as the hemispherical/National personification; are you really going to require me to provide reference, here, in definance of the Style Guide?) 71.235.31.212 (talk) 09:02, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

For some reason British Columbia doesn't have an entry here... Sincerely, --86.81.201.94 (talk) 18:42, 18 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I'm a Canadian, and I've never, ever heard it called just "Columbia". Clarityfiend (talk) 02:40, 19 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

]

If that was all you did, that would be fine. But it wasn't. - BilCat (talk) 03:04, 22 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

BilCat, I'm not totally following you. I was trying say that it being a "name" and a personification for the US are both historic.

my version:

• an historical name and goddess-like female national personification for the United States of America

your version:

• the historical female personification of the United States of America, and a poetic name for the Americas

your version reads as only the personification is historic. But the two go hand-in-hand and are (both) disused today. Could you explain your objection without being so terse. MB 04:25, 22 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]