also air port, "facility for commercial air transport," used regularly from 1919 (used once, by Alberto Santos-Dumont, in reference to airships, in 1902), from air (n.1) meaning "aircraft" + port (n.1). First reference is to Bader Field, outside Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S., which opened in 1910. An older word for such a thing was aerodrome.
by 1779, named for Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, English astronomers who surveyed (1763-7) the disputed boundary between the colonial holdings of the Penns (Pennsylvania) and the Calverts (Maryland). It became the technical boundary between "free" and "slave" states after 1804, when the last slaveholding state above it (New Jersey) passed its abolition act. As the line between "the North" and "the South" in U.S. culture, it is attested by 1834.
"having a long, slender form, quick or easy in movement" (as an animal suited to ranging), 1845, from range (v.) + -y (2). Also "adapted for ranging" (1868). Of landscapes, "hilly," 1862, Australian English (probably from range (n.)). Of persons of a long, slender form by 1899. Related: Ranginess.
As a rule, we hold that the Jersey should be "growthy," deep-flanked, and loose-jointed, and should have, generally, the characteristics which farmers know as "rangy." [American Agriculturalist, November 1876]
1660s, a variant of patron used in foreign contexts, from Dutch patroon (a French loan-word) or French patron "master, patron," from Old French (see patron; also see -oon); used from 1758 in parts of New York and New Jersey colonies for "landholder," especially one with certain manorial privileges (abolished gradually in the early republic) under the old Dutch governments by the charter of 1629.
"television drama based on real events," by 1957, American English, from documentary + drama. The first so-called appears to have been written as a stage play, "We Call to Mind," a "dramatic presentation of the development of education and its significance in American life," written by Philip C. Lewis and produced by the Tenafly, New Jersey, Citizens Education Council and the Tenafly Drama Workshop after the defeat of a school budget.
used allusively from 1985, in reference to John Rambo, hero of Canadian-American author David Morrell's novel "First Blood" (1972), popularized as portrayed by Sylvester Stallone in the Hollywood movie version (1982), a U.S. Vietnam veteran, "macho and self-sufficient, and bent on violent retribution" [OED]. The family name is an old one in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (where Morrell supposedly first heard it), originally Swedish, sometimes said to represent Swedish place name Ramberget, or to be from French Huguenots who took refuge in Sweden.
also fiddlehead, "one with a head as hollow as a fiddle," 1854 (fiddleheaded), from fiddle (n.) + head (n.). As a name for young fern fronds, from 1877, from resemblance to a violin's scroll. Earliest use is nautical, "carved ornamental work at the bow of a ship in the form of a scroll or volute" (1799).
There are three kinds of heads,—1st The Figure-head is one on which is placed the figure of a man, woman, or the like, &c.; 2d, The Billet-head, or Scroll-head is one finished with two scrolls or volutes ...; and 3d, the Fiddle-head, which is finished with only one scroll or volute, having the spirals turning inwards to the vessel. [Peter Hedderwick, "Treatise on Marine Architecture," Edinburgh, 1830]
