1936, network of defensive fortifications built along the northern and eastern borders of France before World War II, in which the French placed unreasonable confidence, named for André Maginot (1877-1932), French Minister of War under several governments in the late 1920s and early 1930s. After the fall of France in 1940, for the next 40 years or so the phrase was associated with a mental attitude of obsessive reliance on defense.
by 1779, named for Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, English astronomers who surveyed (1763-7) the disputed boundary between the colonial holdings of the Penns (Pennsylvania) and the Calverts (Maryland). It became the technical boundary between "free" and "slave" states after 1804, when the last slaveholding state above it (New Jersey) passed its abolition act. As the line between "the North" and "the South" in U.S. culture, it is attested by 1834.
masc. proper name, from Old Norse Eirikr, literally "honored ruler," from Proto-Germanic *aiza- "honor" + *rik- "ruler" (from PIE root *reg- "move in a straight line," with derivatives meaning "to direct in a straight line," thus "to lead, rule"). The German form is Erich.
fem. proper name, from Latin, literally "queen;" related to rex (genitive regis) "king" (from PIE root *reg- "move in a straight line," with derivatives meaning "to direct in a straight line," thus "to lead, rule"). Cognate with Sanskrit rajni "queen," Welsh rhyain "maiden, virgin." The capital city of Saskatchewan was named 1882 by the then-governor general of Canada, Marquess of Lorne, in honor of Queen Victoria.
trans-Atlantic shipping line begun by Samuel Cunard (1787-1865), shipowner, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, who won the first British transatlantic steamship mail contract in 1839 and the next year formed the British and North American Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company (reorganized 1879 as Cunard Steamship Company).
The family came to Pennsylvania with Penn in 1683, where their descendants are the Conrads; the shipping magnate's line took an older spelling; his grandfather was a Loyalist who fled to Canada after the Revolution.
masc. proper name, from French Frédéric, from German Friedrich, from Old High German Fridurih, from Proto-Germanic *frithu-rik, literally "peace-rule," from *rik- "rule" (from PIE root *reg- "move in a straight line," with derivatives meaning "to direct in a straight line," thus "to lead, rule") + *frithu- "peace" (source also of Old English friðu "peace, truce"), from suffixed form of PIE root *pri- "to be friendly, to love."
Related to the first half of Friday and the second half of afraid, also the second element in Siegfried, Godfrey, Geoffrey. Not a common name in medieval England, found mostly in the eastern counties.
