f | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

57 entries found.

masc. proper name, variant of Lloyd.

New York village established 1645 by English Puritans (now a neighborhood in Queens), an English corruption of Dutch Vlissingen, name of Dutch town where the Puritans had taken refuge, literally "flowing" (so called for its location on an estuary of the West Scheldt), and thus perhaps distantly related to flush (v.1).

Flynn

surname, from Irish flann "red." Rhyming phrase in like Flynn is 1940s slang, said to have originated in the U.S. military, perhaps from alleged sexual exploits of Hollywood actor Errol Flynn (1909-1959).

Fogarty

surname, from Old Irish fogartach "banished."

Fokker (n.)

German monoplane of World War I, 1913, from name of Anton "Anthony" H.G. Fokker (1890-1939), Dutch engineer and inventor who started his aircraft manufacturing business in Germany in 1912.

Formica (1)

proprietary name (1922) of a product manufactured originally by Formica Insulation Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. (founded 1913). According to the company, the material (originally marketed as an industrial insulator) was so called because it could be used for mica, i.e., in place of mica, a more expensive natural insulator. Primarily used in consumer goods since c. 1945.

Formosa

old name of Taiwan, given by the Portuguese, from Portuguese Formosa insula "beautiful island." The adjective is from the fem. of Latin formosus "beautiful, handsome, finely formed," from forma "form, shape" (see form (n.)). Related: Formosan (1640s).

Fort Sumter

military installation in South Carolina, U.S., begun in 1827, named for U.S. Revolutionary War officer and Congressman Thomas Sumter (1734-1832), "The Carolina Gamecock." The family name is attested from 1206, from Old French sommetier "driver of a pack horse" (see sumpter). The U.S. Civil War is held to have begun with the firing of rebel batteries on the government-held fort on April 12, 1861.

Fox

name of an Algonquian people (confederated with the Sac after 1760), translating French renards, which itself may be a translation of an Iroquoian term meaning "red fox people." Their name for themselves is /meškwahki:-haki/ "red earths." French renard "fox" is from Reginhard, the name of the fox in old Northern European fables (as in Low German Reinke de Vos, but Chaucer in The Nun's Priest's Tale calls him Daun Russell); it is Germanic and means literally "strong in council, wily."

Frances

fem. proper name, from French, from Old French Franceise (Modern French Françoise), fem. of Franceis (see Francis).

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