Mersin

Have you ever wondered why a grammatical error is called a “solecism” in English? The word comes from the ancient city of Soloi, just west of today’s Mersin. Legend has it that the Greek spoken by the people of Soloi sounded so broken to Athenian ears that the city’s name became the name for a slip of language… A neighbor’s fame reaching all the way into the grammar books can hardly be called a compliment.