name of a region in north central India, from Sanskrit gondavana, from vana "forest" + Gonda, Sanskrit name of a Dravidian people, said to mean literally "fleshy navel, outie belly-button."
The name was extended by geologists to a series of sedimentary rocks found there (1873), then to identical rocks in other places. Because the fossils found in this series were used by geologists to reconstruct the map of the supercontinent which broke up into the modern southern continents of the globe about 180 million years ago, this was called Gondwanaland (1896), from German, where it was coined by German geologist Eduard Suess in 1885.
type of football, 1864, from Rugby, name of the public school where the game was played, which is named for its location in the city of Rugby in Warwickshire, central England. The place name is Rocheberie (1086), probably "fortified place of a man called *Hroca;" with second element from Old English burh (dative byrig), replaced by 13c. with Old Norse -by "village" due to the influence of Danish settlers. Otherwise it might be *Rockbury today. Or first element perhaps is Old English hroc "rook."
The Rugby Union was formed in 1871. Slang rugger for "rugby" is by 1893, with -er (1).
(plural) "central and northern European Jews" (as opposed to Sephardim, the Jews of Spain and Portugal), 1839, from Hebrew Ashkenazzim, plural of Ashkenaz, name of the eldest son of Gomer (Genesis x.3), also the name of a nation mentioned in Jeremiah li.27. Perhaps the people-name is akin to Greek skythoi "Scythians" (compare Akkadian ishkuzai) and altered by folk etymology.
They were identified historically with various peoples; in the Middle Ages especially with the Germans, hence the word came to be used for "Jews of Germany and Poland," who far outnumbered the Sephardim and differed from them in pronunciation of Hebrew and in customs but not in doctrine. Related: Ashkenazic.
name for a person with bright yellow hair, 1540s, from goldy (adj.) "of a golden color" (mid-15c., from gold (n.)) + plural of lock (n.2). The story of the Three Bears first was printed in Robert Southey's miscellany "The Doctor" (1837), but the central figure there was a bad-tempered old woman. Southey did not claim to have invented the story, and older versions have been traced, either involving an old woman or a "silver-haired" girl (though in at least one version it is a fox who enters the house). The identification of the girl as Goldilocks is attested from c. 1875. Goldylocks also is attested from 1570s as a name for the buttercup.
"kind of woolen fabric," mid-15c., perhaps from French tiretaine "strong, coarse fabric" (mid-13c.), from Old French tiret "kind of cloth," from tire "silk cloth," from Medieval Latin tyrius "cloth from Tyre" (see Tyrian).
If this is the source, spelling likely influenced in Middle English by tartaryn "rich silk cloth" (mid-14c.), from Old French tartarin "Tartar cloth," from Tartare "Tartar," the Central Asian people (see Tartar). Specific meaning "woolen or worsted cloth woven with crossing stripes of colors" is from c. 1500, formerly a part of the distinctive dress of Scottish Highlanders, each clan having its particular pattern.
1590s, "one who is characterized by strict adherence to method," from method + -ist. With a capital M-, it refers to the Protestant religious denomination founded 1729 at Oxford University by John and Charles Wesley. The name had been used at least since 1686 for various new methods of worship; it was applied to the Wesleys by their fellow-students at Oxford for their methodical habits in study and religious life. Johnson (1755) describes them as "One of a new kind of puritans lately arisen, so called from their profession to live by rules and in constant method." Related: Methodism.
1590s, in reference to in North Africa or western Asia, "company of travelers, pilgrims, merchants, etc., going together for security," from French caravane, from Old French carvane, carevane "caravan" (13c.), or Medieval Latin caravana, words picked up during the Crusades, via Arabic qairawan from Persian karwan "group of desert travelers" (which Klein connects to Sanskrit karabhah "camel").
Used in English for "any large number of persons traveling together with much baggage" (1660s), hence "a large covered carriage for conveying passengers" (1670s) or later for traveling shows or used as a house by Gypsies. In modern British use (from 1930s), often a rough equivalent of the U.S. camper or recreational vehicle.
1839 in South African English, rant, "rocky ridge overlooking a river valley," from Afrikaans, from Dutch rand "edge, margin, rim," from Proto-Germanic *randaz "edge, rim, crust" (source also of Old English rand "brink, bank," Old High German rant "border or rim of a shield," German Rand "edge, border, margin," Old Norse rönd "shield-rim, shield," Swedish rand "stripe, edge, verge").
As a unit of currency, adopted by the Republic of South Africa in 1961 (see Krugerrand). Johnson's dictionary has rand "Border; seam: as the rand of a woman's shoe." The Old English cognate survived into Middle English as rand "strip or border of land."
1864, name given by English zoologist Philip L. Sclater (1829-1913) to an ancient continent or land bridge, now sunk in the Indian Ocean, connecting Africa, Madagascar, India, and Southeast Asia, which he hypothesized to explain the geographical distribution of mammals around it, especially the lemur, hence the name (with -ia). The premise was considered scientifically untenable by 1880 and the phenomena now are accounted for otherwise, but Lemuria in some ways by chance anticipated Gondwanaland (1896) in the continental drift model.
Earlier Lemuria was the name of the Roman feast of the Lemures, evil spirits of the dead in Roman mythology. The head of each household ritually exorcised them every 9th, 11th, and 13th of May. Related: Lemurian
type of coniferous tree noted for its slow growth and hard timber, late Old English ceder, blended in Middle English with Old French cedre, both from Latin cedrus, from Greek kedros "cedar, juniper," a word of uncertain origin.
True cedars are those native to Lebanon and the Levant, western North Africa, and the Himalayas, but the name has been applied to many more or less similar trees in North America and the tropics. Cedar oil was used by the Egyptians in embalming as a preservative against decay and the word for it was used figuratively for "immortality" by the Romans. Cedar chest, one made of cedar wood to protect contents from moths and other insects, is attested from 1722. Related: Cedrine.
