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[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 97 points 6 days ago

Wow, I can't believe that's actually a real place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murderkill_River

I know -kill is a popular suffix for a stream or river anywhere there was a Dutch colony, but the murder- part threw me off for sure. According to that Wikipedia article at least, it comes from either "moeder" (mother) or "modder" (muddy) and would therefore either mean "mother river" or "muddy river".

[-] Rebels_Droppin@lemmy.world 39 points 6 days ago

It's right down the road from "Slaughter Beach"

[-] BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Funny you mention that, there literally is a slaughter beach in Florida. It just uses the Spanish word, matanzas. There's also slaughter high school and slaughter state forest, and fort slaughter

[-] BakerBagel@midwest.social 5 points 6 days ago

Had a lot of that when i lived in Ft. Wayne Indiana. A lot of stuff was called "Aboite" which supposedly came from the french word abattre or slaughter.

[-] Rebels_Droppin@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Oh wow didn't know there was one in Florida too!

[-] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

::checks watch::

Yup, time to fire up my Clutch playlist again.

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

You can't spell Slaughter Beach without laughter!

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 20 points 5 days ago

"We have places your family can hide in peace and security. Cape Fear, Terror Lake, New Horrorfield, Screamville..."

"Oooh, Ice Creamville!"

"No, Screamville."

screams

[-] Absaroka@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

From the link:

Dick Carter, Chair of the Delaware Heritage Commission, states that the name of Murderkill River is taken from the original Dutch for Mother River. Mother is moeder in Middle Dutch, and river is Kille. Later, under British rule, the word "River" was added to the waterway's name, effectively making it "mother river river."

The term "kill" is used in areas of Dutch influence in the Netherlands' former North American colony of New Netherland, primarily the Hudson and Delaware Valleys to describe a creek, river, tidal inlet, strait, or arm of the, sea such as Bronx Kill in New York and Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania.

Delaware's creeks and rivers are slow-moving and there is deep mud associated with marshy rivers. Dutch "modder" = mud, a false cognate to "mother." Modder Kill = Muddy Creek or Muddy River. The word is still used in Dutch, such as this Dutch video of a tractor stuck in mud ("vast in de modder").[12]

[-] Sabata11792@ani.social 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

So the killer misunderstood the ~~entomology~~ epistemology?

[-] mydoomlessaccount@infosec.pub 9 points 5 days ago

God, that must be so embarrassing

[-] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 days ago

The killer was misled by bugs?

[-] Sabata11792@ani.social 4 points 5 days ago

Aw crap. Let me make that worse.

[-] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago

That would be an ecumenical matter!

[-] serenissi@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I once found a canal with name roughly translating to murder canal. Back in the days when that area was not populated, killers used to drop dead bodies there to make those disappear. An unidentified (afaik) body was found a few years ago too.

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Modderkill River wouldn't be as bad I guess.

[-] FelixCress@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Say it to your modder.

[-] kamenlady@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago
[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

If you're a publisher that hates modders on the other hand...

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago

Nintendo lawyers have entered the chat

[-] CallMeButtLove@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Nearest town: Boatmurdered. Watch out for elephants.

[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

"Murderkill river" is such a Doom Doom Deadows-tier name...

[-] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah. I feel much safer here on the 13th floor of the Santa muerte apartments at 4444 reagan avenue, los Angeles, CA.

[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 19 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It's always in twos - one seems murdered, the other seems killed.

Someone needs so secure, contain, and protect this river.

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 days ago
[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

What seems to be your boggle?

[-] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

...remembering how they had been served at the Whore-Kill, they went some ten or twelve miles higher, where they landed again and traded with the Indians, trusting the Indians to come onto their stores ashore, and likewise aboard their sloop drinking and debauching with the Indians until they were at last barbarously murdered, and so that place was christened with their blood and to this day is called the Murderer-Kill, that is, Murderers Creek.[11]

— George R. Stewart, Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States

(this story of it's naming is now considered a folk tale)

[-] Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 days ago
[-] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Right next to Thrillkillcult Gorge

[-] adhocfungus@midwest.social 4 points 6 days ago

The next season of White Lotus is practically writing itself!

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I'm not convinced Katie Katro really wants to be a news reporter.

this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
577 points (99.5% liked)

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