Celtic masc. proper name, ultimately from Greek eugenes "well-born" (see eugenics) via Gaelic Eòghann, Old Irish Eogán, Old Welsh Eugein, Ougein. In Medieval records, frequently Latinized as Eugenius; the form Eugene emerged in Scotland by late 12c. The Breton form Even led to modern French Ivain. Owenite in reference to the communistic system of social reformer Robert Owen (1771-1858) is attested from 1829.
resort town, capital of Monaco, Italian, literally "Charles's Mountain," founded 1866 and named for Charles III of Monaco (1818-1889). The car rally there dates to 1911. The Monte Carlo fallacy (by 1957) was named for the town's famous gambling casinos; it is the fallacy of thinking that the probability of a particular outcome rises with the successive number of opposite outcomes. Contrary to the Monte Carlo fallacy, if the roulette wheel stops on black 99 times in a row, the chances that the 100th spin will be red are still just under 50-50.
district in southwest London, Chelchuthe (1300), Old English Chelchede (1086), Celchyth (789), Caelichyth (767), probably literally "chalk landing place," from Old English cealc "chalk" (see chalk (n.)) + hyth "landing place." Perhaps chalk or limestone was unloaded here from Chalk near Gravesend in Kent. Chelsea Hospital was founded 1680s by Charles II as a home for aged veterans.
As a fem. proper name, not in the top 1,000 names in U.S. until 1969, then in the top 100 among girls born 1984 to 1998, peaking at number 15 in 1992.
The faction of the Russian Social Democratic Worker's Party after a split in 1903 that was either "larger" or "more extreme" (or both) than the Mensheviks (from Russian men'shij "less"); after they seized power in 1917, the name was applied generally to Russian communists, then also to anyone opposed to an existing order or social system. Bolshevism is recorded from 1917.
a late-developing letter in English. Called ipsilon in German, upsilon in Greek, the English name is of obscure origin. The sound at the beginning of yard, yes, yield, etc. is from Old English words with initial g- as in got and y- as in yet, which were considered the same sound and often transcribed as Ȝ, known as yogh. The system was altered by French scribes, who brought over the continental use of -g- and from the early 1200s used -y- and sometimes -gh- to replace Ȝ. The French also tended to substitute -y- for -i-, especially before -u-, -n-, or -m-, or at the end of words, to avoid confusion in reading (see U), might also partly explain this tendency in Middle English. As short for YMCA, etc., by 1915.
"religious system revealed by Muhammad," 1816, from Arabic islam, literally "submission" (to the will of God), from root of aslama "he resigned, he surrendered, he submitted," causative conjunction of salima "he was safe," and related to salam "peace."
... Islam is the only major religion, along with Buddhism (if we consider the name of the religion to come from Budd, the Divine Intellect, and not the Buddha), whose name is not related to a person or ethnic group, but to the central idea of the religion. ["The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity," Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2002]
Earlier English names for the faith include Mahometry (late 15c.), Muhammadism (1610s), Islamism (1747), and Ismaelism (c. 1600; see Ismailite). The Ismailites were not numerous in Islam, but among them were the powerful Fatimid dynasty in Egypt and the Assassins, both of which loomed large in European imagination. This use also is in part from Ishmaelite, a name formerly given (especially by Jews) to Arabs, as descendants of Ishmael (q.v.).
"pertaining to or derived from Julius Caesar, 1590s, originally and especially in reference to the calendar system that began with his reforms in 46 B.C.E. (superseded by the Gregorian). The masc. proper name is from Latin Iulianus, from Iulius. The Julianists were a sect of Monophysites who held the body of Christ to be incorruptible; they were named for their leader, Julian, bishop of Halicarnassus (early 6c.).
Julian period, a period of 7,980 Julian years proposed by Joseph Scaliger in 1582 as a universal standard of comparison in chronology, consisting of the years of the solar and lunar cycles and the cycle of the indiction multiplied into each other (28 x 19 x 15). The first years of these cycles coincided in the year 4713 B.C., from which the period is reckoned. The first year of the Christian era being found by calculation to correspond to the year 4714 of the Julian period, all previous and subsequent comparisons can be made by simple subtraction or addition. This period is still used in the computations of chronologists and astronomers. [Century Dictionary, 1899]
