recording label launched 1960 by Berry Gordy Jr., from Mo(tor) Town, perhaps based on Motor City, a nickname for Detroit attested by 1911.
capital of Bosnia, founded 15c. and named in Turkish as Bosna-Saray, "Palace on the (River) Bosna," from saray (see caravanserai); the modern name is a Slavic adjectival form of saray.
large island in Indonesia, from Portuguese alteration of Brunei, which is today the name of a sultanate on the island. This is Hindi and probably ultimately from Sanskrit bhumi "land, region." Related: Bornean.
1880, typeface based on that used by celebrated Italian printer Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) of Parma. The modern type of this name is a composite of his many forms.
1932, proprietary name in U.S. for fluorocarbons used in refrigeration technology. "The name was apparently constructed from fre(eze) + -on used as an arbitrary suffix" [Flood].
"one who exerts controlling or mesmeric influence on another," by 1914, from the hypnotist character of that name in the novel "Trilby" (1894) by George Du Maurier.
in reference to a type of key-arrangement on a flute, 1845, from the surname of German musician Theobold Böhm (1794-1881), who invented the system in 1832. The surname is literally "Bohemian."
former kingdom in the western Pyrenees, now included in Spain and France, a pre-Latin name, probably based on Basque nava "plain," despite the region's mountainous topography. Related: Navarrese.
polyethylene terephthalate used as a textile fabric, 1951, proprietary name coined by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.; an invented word of no etymology, on the model of nylon, etc.
