Vauxhall

[Marmora Man]

Not sure if this is a "true dit, no sh1t" but ....

I have read that in Russia the word for Railway Station is BOK3an [can't quite reproduce the cryllic alphabet here] - pronounced "vokzal" which sounds remarkably like Vauxhall. This is because in the 19 century a Russian delegation came to inspect the new British railways and were taken to Vauxhall. They thought "Vauxhall" was a generic term for a railway station and called the Russia equivalents 'vokzals' when they were built.

As I said not sure if this is true but I do hope so.

[computedshorty]

Vauxhall is an overground station in London.

It's namesake is the Moscow Metro.

[woodrot]

s'true

[Loz]

I've heard the story years ago and, at the time, checked it with a Russian-speaking friend (her mum was Russian). She said it was generally accepted as fact, though never quite proven.

[computedshorty]

My Vauxhall Astra Merit 1300 was not made in England but, production began at Opel's West German plant at Bochum as car awarded as the best produced that year.

Then it got hit from behind.

[Peckhamrye]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall

[civilservant]

Not surprising - I've heard it said that a very high proportion of Russian words are loanwords, mostly from French but also many from English. Some examples here http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Russian/Loanwords