A lot of cinema industry names end with "wood". For example, Kollywood, Bollywood, Tollywood, Hollywood, etc.
Is there any reason for this?
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2You might have forgotten to mention Holy Wood.– bersFeb 15, 2018 at 11:15
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19Why do so many cinema industries have “ollywood” in their name?– Pieter BFeb 15, 2018 at 13:05
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And Vinewood...– IS4Feb 15, 2018 at 13:25
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3The point is not that they end in -wood but that they end in -ollywood. "Wood" on its own wouldn't indicate a whole lot, since it's a fairly common ending in English placenames.– David RicherbyFeb 15, 2018 at 13:54
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6As it turns out there are a LOT more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hollywood-inspired_nicknames– user38407Feb 15, 2018 at 14:07
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2 Answers
The name Hollywood was coined by H. J. Whitley, the “Father of Hollywood.” Whitely bought 500 acres from E. C. Hurd; Hurd’s wife’s friend (stay with me here), Daeida Wilcox, co-opted the name “Hollywood” from her neighbor, Ivar Weid, who lived in what was then called Holly Canyon.
According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the "Father of Hollywood," on his honeymoon in 1886 he stood at the top of the hill looking out over the valley. Along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed. The Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, "I holly-wood," meaning 'hauling wood.' H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood. "Holly" would represent England and "wood" would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States.
2) Bollywood: 3
The name "Bollywood" is a portmanteau derived from Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood (in California), the center of the American film industry.
3) Tollywood: 3
Dating back to 1932, "Tollywood" was the earliest Hollywood-inspired name, referring to the Bengali film industry based in Tollygunge (in Calcutta, West Bengal), whose name is reminiscent of "Hollywood" and was the centre of the cinema of India at the time.[18] It was this "chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming syllables," Holly and Tolly, that led to the portmanteau name "Tollywood" being coined.
4) Kollywood: 4
Kollywood is a colloquial term used to describe this industry, the word being a portmanteau of Kodambakkam and Hollywood.
So basically, the "wood" part comes from the hauling wood part and everyone else formed by it by creating a portmanteau between the Hollywood and something with themselves.
answered Feb 15, 2018 at 9:59
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5Pinewood... in [or these days near-ish to] a pine wood, literally. I'm still working on getting the London film industry dubbed Brollywood– TetsujinFeb 15, 2018 at 10:28
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10To those who are going to comment with ollywood names, See List of Hollywood inspired nicknames. We don't want 20 comments specifying each industry name. Feb 15, 2018 at 10:30
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3I checked the references for 1) and noticed the diary containing the story about the Chinese man "hauling wood" was actually that of Margaret Virginia Whitley Davis. To be precise, the first reference doesn't support the Chinese man story whatsoever, but the second [Wikipedia] link does contain a link to the diary entry in question (the only actual source of such a story I can find). Feb 15, 2018 at 13:59
They are inspired from Hollywood, Los Angeles. Wikipedia gives a full list of Hollywood inspired nick names.
Hollywood-inspired nicknames, most starting with the first letter(s) of the location and ending in the letters "-ollywood" or "-wood", have been given to various locations around the world with associations to the film industry - inspired by the iconic Hollywood in Los Angeles, California, whose name has come to be a metonym for the motion picture industry of the United States. Some of the following names, however, did in fact exist before Hollywood.
Hollywood is a real place whereas the names like Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood do not exist in maps. They just indicate the names of the film industries.
These nicknames are usually formed by the Nickname of the Portmanteau of the place they are located or the language and -ollywood.
Bollywood : Bombay + Hollywood. How did the word "Bollywood" originate? discusses the derivation of the how the word was formed in detail.
Kollywood : Kodambakkam + Hollywood
Mollywood : Malayalam + Hollywood
Tollywood (Bengali) : Tollygunge + Hollywood
Tollywood (Telugu) : Telugu + Hollywood
Ollywood = Odiya + Hollywood
Many industries are also nicknamed inspired from Hollywood which are found in the article linked above.
