Beitragvon Sekade » 29. April 2003, 10:37
Der Nachname ist EVEREST - was sonst bei diesem Rätsel (CUS)!
Nachzulesen im Buch „The Great Arc“ von John Keay (Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2000) auf Seite 3:
The name, incidentally, was pronounced not ‘Ever-rest’ (like
‘cleverest’), but ‘Eve-rest’ (like ‘cleave-rest’). That was how
the family always pronounced it, and the Lieutenant would
not have thanked you for getting it wrong. Years later a fellow
officer would make the mistake of calling him a ‘Kumpass
Wala’. No offence was meant. ‘Kumpass Wala’, or ‘compasswallah’,
was an accepted Anglo-Indian term for a surveyor.
Everest, however, accepted nothing of the sort. He detested
what he called ‘nicknames’ and, though it was not perhaps
worth a dawn challenge, he demanded – and received – abject
apologies. Getting on the wrong side of George Everest was
an occupational hazard with which even British India would
only slowly come to terms.