Argentine name for the Falkland Islands, from French Malouins, name for inhabitants of the French city of St. Malo, who attempted a colony there in 1764 under Louis-Antoine de Bougainville.
West African nation, independent from 1960, formerly a French colony, by 1783, named for the river through it, which is named perhaps from a local word meaning "navigable." Related: Senegalese.
ancient Greek city on the Aegean coast of Anatolia, the northernmost of the Ionian cities, from Greek Phōkaia; its people were noted in ancient times for their long sea-voyages and naval power. Colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia (modern Marseille, in France). Related: Phocaean.
African nation, former French colony (Tchad), independent since 1960, named for Lake Chad, which is from a local word meaning "lake, large expanse of water." An ironic name for a country largely desert. Related: Chadian.
ancient name for the northern part of Africa west of Egypt, attested in heiroglyphics from 2000 B.C.E., of unknown origin. In Greek use, sometimes meaning all of Africa. The modern nation acquired the name in 1934, when Italy, which then held it as a colony, revived the name as that of the colony, which became formally independent in 1951. Related: Libyan (adj. and n., both c. 1600), earlier as an adjective Lybic (1540s); as a noun, for the inhabitants and the country, Middle English had Libie. The combining form is Libyo-.
holder of any of the scholarships founded at Oxford in 1902 by British financier and imperialist Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902), for whom the former African colony of Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe) also was named. The surname is literally "dweller by a clearing," from Old English rodu "plot of land of one square rod." Related: Rhodesia; Rhodesian.
former name of Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, when it was the Dutch East Indies, a colony of the Netherlands; from Batavia, an ancient name for a region of Holland at the mouth of the Rhine, from Latin Batavi, a people who dwelt between the Rhine and the Waal on the island of Betawe. Related: Batavian.
former British colony in China, from Cantonese pronunciation of Chinese Xianggang, literally "fragrant port." Perhaps so called from the scent of incense factories or opium cargoes, or from the semi-fresh waters of the bay. The Cantonese word hong, literally "row, series" was the general English term for foreign trading establishments in China (warehouse viewed as a row of rooms).
French colony, from 1812 a U.S. state, named 1682 by French explorer la Salle for Louis XIV of France. The name originally applied to the entire Mississippi basin. Related: Louisianian. The Louisiana Purchase, accomplished in 1803, was so called by 1806.
