main street | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

31 entries found.

London street near Covent Garden, developed with homes from early 17c., the name (attested from 1680s) is from bow (n.1) in reference to its curved shape. Seat of a metropolitan police court from 1740; hence Bow Street runners, voluntery police force established here in 1750.

Downing Street

short street in London, named for British diplomat Sir George Downing (c. 1624-1684). It contains the residence of the prime minister (at Number 10), hence its metonymic use for "the British government," attested from 1781.

Grub-street (n.)

1620s, "originally the name of a street in Moorfields in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called grubstreet" [Johnson]. The place was renamed 1830 to Milton Street (after a local developer) then erased entirely 1970s by the Barbicon complex.

Carnaby Street (n.)

street in Soho, London (Westminster), in mid-1960s lined with fashionable boutiques and clothing shops, hence used figuratively from 1964 for "(contemporary) English stylishness." It was named for Karnaby House, built 1683, from a surname or transferred from Carnaby in Yorkshire, which is from a Scandinavian personal name + -by (see by).

Buffalo

city in western New York state, U.S., of disputed origin (there never were bison thereabouts), perhaps from the name of a native chief, or a corruption of French beau fleuve "beautiful river." Buffalo wings finger food so called because the recipe was invented in Buffalo (1964, at Frank & Teressa's Anchor Bar on Main Street).

Broadway

common street name, c. 1300 as "a wide road or street," from broad (adj.) + way (n.); the allusive use for "New York theater district" is first recorded 1881.

STP (n.)

commercial motor oil additive, probably an initialism (acronym) of scientifically treated petroleum. As the street name of a type of psychedelic drug, attested from 1967.

Moluccas

island group of Indonesia, the Spice Islands, attested in French by 1520s as Moluques, from Malay Maluku "main (islands)," from molok "main, chief," perhaps so called for their central location in the archipelago.

Braun

German manufacturing company, named for founder Max Braun, mechanical engineer in Frankfurt am Main (1921).

Scotland Yard (n.)

used for "London Metropolitan Police," 1864, from the name of short street off Whitehall, where from 1829 to 1890 stood the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Force, hence, the force itself, especially the detective branch. After 1890, it was located in "New Scotland Yard."

Trending words