plunk for | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

Malvinas

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.

Aline

fem. proper name, French, short for Adeline.

Dora

fem. proper name, short for Dorothy, Dorothea.

Tina

fem. proper name, short for Cristina, etc.

Tori

fem. proper name, originally short for Victoria.

Rastus

also 'Rastus, masc. proper name, short for Erastus. As a stereotypical name of an American slave or derogatory for "black man," by 1881, perhaps from its use in the stories of Joel Chandler Harris.

Rwanda

African nation, by 1834, Ruanda, probably via French, named for indigenous people there, whose word for themselves is of unknown origin. The spelling with -w- seems to have predominated after c. 1970.

Tex

nickname for a Texan, by 1903, from Texas.

Chad

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 such a desert country. Related: Chadian.

Bosnia

named for the River Bosna, which is perhaps from an Indo-European root *bhog- "current." As a name or adjective for someone there, Bosniac (1756, from Russian Bosnyak) is older in English than Bosnian (1788).

Trending words