A sophist etymology of “Isle of Dogs”

1. Islas Canarias < Canariae Insulae. Pliny, Natural History:
   

   We also learn from the same source that the people who inhabit the adjoining forests, which are full of all kinds of elephants, wild beasts, and serpents, have the name of Canarii; from the circumstance that they partake of their food in common with the canine race, and share with it the entrails of wild beasts.

2. Canary Wharf < Islas Canarias. Survey of London:
   

   a scheme for the West Wood Wharf was settled in 1936. A two-storey warehouse was built in 1937 to serve a berth with a new ‘false’ quay, all let to Fruit Lines Limited, a subsidiary of Fred Dessen & Company (whose principals were Fred Olsen & Company, of Oslo), for their Canary Islands and Mediterranean fruit trade. The warehouse was designed by Asa Binns and built by John Mowlem & Company. The whole project cost £86,694. Following a request from Fred Dessen & Company, the site was named Canary Wharf.

3. Canary Wharf ∈ Isle of Dogs
4. And so by coincidence or not, Isle of Dogs < Canariae Insulae. Unfortunately London’s Dogville has been called that way since at least the 16th century, when there is no known connection of the then unplace with the Canaries nor any reason for there to be one.

More bogus etymology here.

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