I’ve known since fifth grade or so when I read a lot pf books about France and Belgium for no real reason.
Any U.S. military person or other American who has been stationed in Europe would probably know the term. It’s used on the Armed Forces Radio and TV station when talking about the weather, for example. It’s very commonly used.
I’ve been familiar with tbe term since the 60’s.Its on par with Scandinavia. Not sure what constitutes the commonality amongst the three countries however.
Never heard of it till now.
Actually, “Benelux” reminds me of a Canadian musical group called Vibrolux… they had one very minor semi-hit called “Drown” years ago. (it peaked at #25 on the MuchMusic Top 30 Countdown)
F_X
I know what “Benelux” means now, but I wasn’t familiar with the term until a few years ago. I learned it while watching Letterman, of all shows. He was doing the “Know Your Current Events” game with the audience, when he gave the audience member different categories to choose from (“Know Your Cuts of Meat” was always the most popular one).
Anyway, on this particular show, one of the categories was “Know Your Benelux Countries.” Although (IIRC) Letterman didn’t explain what the term meant, I caught on when he showed a picture of the Belgian flag and asked the audience member to identify to which Benelux country that flag belonged.
I’d considered myself pretty well-educated about Western European history, so I was surprised that I hadn’t heard the term before that show.
grienspace: "I’ve been familiar with tbe term since the 60’s.Its on par with Scandinavia. Not sure what constitutes the commonality amongst the three countries however. "
OK, please fight my ignorance here.
Benelux is an Economic type conglomorate?
I thought Scandinavia was just a generic term for those countries north of Germany and east of Britain(with Iceland and the Faroes thrown in).
I thought Scandinavia was just a term for those countries that spoke a certain branch of the Germanic language tree(with Finland thrown in).
I thought Scandinavia was just a term for those countries where the Vikings came from.
I thought Scandinavia was just a term for those countries with a flag with a Scandinavian cross on it.
(Please take the last two with a pinch of salt.)
I tohught Scandinaiva was Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark(incl Greenland?)The Faroe Islands and Iceland.
I didn’t think Scandinavia was any kind of Free Trade Economic Bloc like Benelux.
In answer to the OP, I did know what Benelux meant.
Well I’m a geography major and had never heard the term before. I think I’m gonna go around the office, all Geog majors and ask them.
Technically speaking Scandinavia is just the Scandinavian peninsula. i.e. Norway and Sweden. However, in normal usage we throw in Denmark (it’s probably optional to include the Faroe Islands and Greenland) as well as the three countries have a long shared history and the languages are more or less the same.
If we include Finland and Iceland it’s called the Nordic countries.
Bizarre. I was an ace in geography, took various general international studies and economics classes in university, traveled Europe for nearly a year and '96, can name all the capitals and countries of the EU, etc, etc, etc, …and have been living and working in Europe since '98, but I did not hear this term until maybe two years ago.
Just how in the hell did this term completely elude me for all that time?
Gulp. One of the truly ignorant checking in.
Don’t laugh until I leave, ok?
I had never heard the term Benelux until today. Not alone in this, I know. Even if I’d thought it was a geographic thing, I’d have guessed incorrectly, since I’m severely geograhically challenged. But it’s worse than that.
I thought you were talking about Benneton, as in “The United Colors Of” clothing. So I thought the OP was about where their models were from or where they had factories…
Slinks off to look in the atlas to see why Denmark isn’t “really” Scandinavian.