1975, proprietary name.
1769, short for stella polaris, Modern Latin, literally "the pole star" (see polar). The ancient Greeks called it Phoenice, "the Phoenician (star)," because the Phoenicians used it for navigation. Due to precession of the equinoxes the pole was a few degrees off (closer to Beta Ursae Minoris), but evidently Polaris was close enough. Also see pole (n.2). The Old English word for it was Scip-steorra "ship-star," also reflecting its importance in navigation. As the name of a U.S. Navy long-range submarine-launched guided nuclear missile, it dates from 1957.
proprietary name of a brand of canvas sneakers, 1917, registered by United States Rubber Co., N.Y. Based on Latin ped-, stem of pes "foot" (see foot (n.))
"We wanted to call it Peds, but ... it came too close to ... other brand names. So we batted it around for awhile and decided on the hardest-sounding letter in the alphabet, K, and called it Keds, that was in 1916." [J.Healey, in R.L. Cohen, "Footwear Industry," x.93]
fem. proper name, from Norse; it is cognate with Old High German Ansitruda, from ansi "god" (see Aesir) + trut "beloved, dear."
ancient Greek settlement in Thrace on the European side of the Bosphorus, said to be named for its 7c. B.C.E. founder, Byzas of Megara. A place of little consequence until 330 C.E., when Constantine the Great re-founded it and made it his capital (see Constantinople).
fem. proper name, from Latin, from Greek Ioudith, from Hebrew Yehudith, fem. of Yehudha, literally "son of Judah" (see Judah). Judy is a pet form of it.
masc. proper name, biblical son of Saul, from Hebrew Yonathan, short for Yehonathan, literally "the Lord has given" (compare Nathan). Also compare John.
As a pre-Uncle Sam emblem of the United States, sometimes personified as Brother Jonathan, it dates from 1816. Traditionally it is said to be from George Washington's use of it in reference to Gov. Jonathan Trumbull Sr. of Connecticut (1710-1785), to whom he sometimes turned for advice (see II Samuel i.26); hence "a New Englander," and eventually "an American." But this story is only from the mid-19c. and is not supported by the record. There is some evidence that Loyalists and British soldiers used Jonathan to refer to the Americans in the Revolution, perhaps because it was a common New England name at the time (see Albert Matthews, "Brother Jonathan Once More," Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Transactions, 32 (1935), p. 374). As a variety of red apple it dates from 1831, so called because it was introduced in the U.S.
Late Latin, literally "lamb of God." From c. 1400 in English as the name of the part of the Mass beginning with these words, or (later) a musical setting of it. Latin agnus "lamb" is from PIE *agwh-no- "lamb" (see yean). For deus "god," see Zeus. The phrase is used from 1620s in reference to an image of a lamb as emblematic of Christ; usually it is pictured with a nimbus and supporting the banner of the Cross.
surname, Old French diminutive of Elias (French Elie; see Elijah) + -ot. It absorbed the Anglo-Saxon proper names Æðelgeat and Ælfweald "Elf-ruler."
