How is Switzerland “CHE”?
I think just CH, no E
I went to Ramstein AB in West Germany in the 1980s. They told us if you see a communist vehicle on the road and report it, you’d get a three-day pass.
So I’m driving on the A6 between Kaiserslautern and Ludwigshafen and I see an old beat-up box with a CH sticker on it. Czechoslovakia, am I right?!!?
I reported it, only to find out it was Switzerland. How do you get CH from Swiss?
Wiki:
***The country code for Switzerland is “CH”, which stands for “Confoederatio Helvetica”, the Latin name for the Swiss Confederation. This abbreviation is used across various contexts, including Swiss domains, license plates, coins, and stamps, as well as in international standards like ISO 3166 and the Olympics.***
What a disappointment! I had already planned out my three days off on the drive back to the Base SPs.
The abbreviation “CH” for Switzerland comes from its Latin name, Confoederatio Helvetica. This translates to “Helvetic Confederation”.
Here’s a breakdown:
Helvetia: This refers to the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe that inhabited the region before the Roman era.
Confoederatio Helvetica: This Latin name was adopted after the formation of the federal state in 1848, and it has remained in use ever since.
So, the “CH” is derived from the first two letters of Confoederatio Helvetica. It’s a historical reference that has become a widely recognized symbol of Switzerland.