by 1856 in reference to the process for decarbonizing and desiliconizing pig iron by passing air through the molten metal, named for engineer and inventor Sir Harry Bessemer (1813-1898) who invented it.
1871, nonsense word (perhaps based on jabber) coined by Lewis Carroll, for the poem of the same name, which he published in "Through the Looking-Glass." The poem is about a fabulous beast called the Jabberwock.
medieval northern Spanish kingdom, named for a river that runs through it, probably from a PIE root meaning "water." Related: Aragonese (late 14c., Arragounneys); Middle English also had a noun Aragoner.
West African nation, named for the river through it, which was so called by 14c. Portuguese explorers, said to be a corruption of a native name, Ba-Dimma, meaning "the river." Related: Gambian.
material which in thin sheets produces a high degree of plane polarization of light passing through it, 1936, proprietary name (Sheet Polarizer Co., Union City, N.J.). As a type of camera producing prints rapidly, it is attested from 1961.
1935, trade name in Britain for what in the U.S. is called Plexiglas or Lucite, irregularly formed from Latin perspect-, past participle stem of perspicere "look through, look closely at" (see perspective).
masc. proper name, from French Ernest, which is of German origin (compare Old High German Ernust, German Ernst), literally "earnestness" (see earnest (adj.)). Among the top 50 names for boys born in U.S. from 1880 through 1933.
annual awards for distinguished work in U.S. journalism, letters, music, etc., 1918, named for U.S. journalist Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911), publisher of the New York Globe, who established the awards in 1917 through an endowment to Columbia University.
African nation, named for the river that runs through it, which is from a Bantu word meaning "mountains" (i.e., the river that flows from the mountains). As an adjective, Congoese is native English (1797) but has been supplanted by Congolese (1900), from French Congolais.
city in Minnesota, U.S., founded 1850s and named for French pioneer explorer Daniel Greysolon, sieur du Luth, "the Robin Hood of Canada," the leader of the coureurs de bois, who passed through the region in 1678 on a mission into the wilderness.
