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1531 entries found.

in Greek mythology, the name of a region in the far southeast corner of the Black Sea (in what is now Georgia), the homeland of Medea and associated with Jason and the quest for the Golden Fleece. Related: Colchian.

Pittsburgh

city in Pennsylvania, U.S., founded 1754 by the French and called Fort Duquesne in honor of Michel-Ange Duquesne (1702-1778), governor of New France; captured by the British 1758 and renamed in honor of British statesman William Pitt the Elder (1708-1778). The Scottish -burgh is unusual in the U.S. (compare Edinburgh) and may be from the Scottish officers who led its capture in the Seven Years War. The spelling varied with -burg in 19c., but when the U.S. Board on Geographic Names regularized all -burgh spellings to -burg, the Pittsburghers protested, and the -h officially was restored in 1911

Inverness

literally "mouth of the (River) Ness (probably from an Old Celtic word meaning "roaring one"), from Inver-, element in place names in Scotland of Gaelic origin, usually of places at the confluence of a river with another or the sea, from Old Irish *in(d)ber- "estuary," literally "a carrying in," from Celtic *endo-ber-o-, from *endo- "in" (from PIE *en-do-, extended form of root *en; see in) + from *ber- "to carry," from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry," also "to bear children."

Montmartre

district in Paris, from Latin Mons Martyrum "Martyrs' Mount," in reference to St. Denis, first bishop of Paris, who was beheaded here with two companions in 258. The older name was Mons Mercurii. The modern cemetery there was opened in 1825.

Stepin Fetchit

type of stereotypical black roles in Hollywood, or in popular culture generally, from stage name (a play on step and fetch it) of popular black vaudeville actor Lincoln Theodore Perry (1902-1985), who first appeared in films under that name in "In Old Kentucky" (1927). Perry said he took the name from a racehorse on which he'd won some money.

Hepplewhite

as a modifier, by 1878, in reference to style of furniture introduced in England by cabinetmaker George Hepplewhite (died 1786). The proper name is from Heblethwaite, near Sedbergh in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Soviet Union

informal name of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; in use in U.S. newspapers by October 1919.

Che

nickname of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Ernesto Guevara (1928-1967), given to him by Cuban exiles in Guatemala in mid-1950s, from his dialectal use of Argentine che, a slang filler word in speech.

Appaloosa

breed of horses favored by Indian tribes in U.S. West, 1849, either from Opelousa (perhaps from Choctaw api losa "black body") in Louisiana, or from the name of the Palouse Indians, who lived near the river of that name in Idaho, whose name is from Sahaptin palou:s "what is standing up in the water."

Pontiac

Ottawa tribal leader (c. 1720-1769), his name is given in native (Algonquian) form as bwandiag. The city in Michigan, U.S., settled in 1818, was named for him as he is said to be buried nearby. The automobile brand was begun in 1926, discontinued 2010.

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