MÉRIDA

Ignacio González Almodóvar

Mérida is the capital of a region called Extremadura, in south western Spain.
The name Mérida is an evolution of the original name of the city, which was Emerita Augusta. This name means ‘the discharged soldiers of Augustus’, because the city was founded by the emeritos, who were retired soldiers of the army of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Emerita Augusta became one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire, since it was one of the three capitals of Hispania, the name given to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans. Because of that, Mérida preserves many ancient monuments and ruins.
However, the name of the city is not how the Latin word Emerita should have evolved. If that word had fully evolved like other Latin words (in which initial “e” and “i” disappear, “e” turns to the diphthong “ie” and the “t” turns to “d”), the name of the city would be *Mierda, which literally means ‘shit’ in Spanish.
Fortunately, when the city was conquered by the Muslims, the way of pronouncing its name changed to Márida, something quite similar to the current name, and that is the reason why nowadays the city has not such a funny name as it should have.