"the southern Pacific islands and Australia, conceived as a continent," 1849, Modern Latin, from French Océanie (c. 1812). Apparently coined by Danish geographer Conrad Malte-Brun (1755-1826). Earlier in English as Oceanica (1832). Oceania was the name of one of the superstates in Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four." Oceanea was the name of James Harrington's 17c. ideal state, and the name later was applied to the British empire. Related: Oceanean.
city in Alaska, founded in the 1898 gold rush and originally Anvil City after the nearby Anvil Creek, it was later renamed for nearby Cape Nome, which, according to one story is from a misreading of a British cartographer's query, ?Name, written beside the peninsula on an 1849 map, and according to another is from a supposed native no-me meaning "I don't know," a plea of noncomprehension when asked what the name of the place was.
"god of the dead in Greek mythology;" also the name of his realm, the abode of the dead spirits, 1590s, from Greek Haidēs, in Homer the name of the god of the underworld, son of Kronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus and Poseidon. His name is of unknown origin. Perhaps literally "the invisible" [Watkins], from privative prefix a- + idein "to see" (from PIE root *weid- "to see"). The name of the god was extended in later Greek writing to his kingdom, also "the grave, death." Related: Hadal (adj.), 1964; Hadean.
royal palace in Rome, later the Italian presidential palace, 1838, from Mons Quirinalis in Rome (one of the seven hills, site of a former Papal palace), from Quirinus, said to be the divine name of Romulus, but rather one of the original trinity of Roman gods, assimilated to Mars. His feast (Quirinalia) was Feb. 17, the day Romulus was said to have been translated to heaven. Used metonymically for "the Italian civil government" (1917), especially as distinguished from the Vatican.
genus of parasitic plants native to Java and Sumatra, 1820, named for Sir T. Stamford Raffles (1781-1826), British governor of Sumatra, who introduced it to the West, + abstract noun ending -ia. He reports the native name was petimum sikinlili "Devil's betel-box." Raffles as the typical name of a gentleman who engages in burglary or other crime, an educated renegade, is from A.J. Raffles, hero of "The Amateur Cracksman" (1899) and later books by E.W. Hornung.
ancient kingdom in North Africa, later a Roman province roughly corresponding to modern Algeria, Latin, named for its inhabitants, the Numidians, whose name is related to nomad (n.). Related: Numidian.
Betwix Egipte and þe land þat es called Numid er xii day iourneez in desertes. Þe folk þat wones in þat cuntree er called Numidianes, and þai are cristned. Bot þai er blakk of colour. [John Mandeville's "Travels," c. 1425]
Cestre (1086), from Old English Legacæstir (735) "City of the Legions," from Old English ceaster "Roman town or city," from Latin castrum "fortified place" (see castle (n.)). A post-Roman name; the place was the base of the Second Legion Adiutrix in the 70s C.E. and later the 20th Legion Valeria Victrix, but the town's name in Roman times was Deoua (c. 150 C.E.), from its situation on the River Dee, a Celtic river name meaning "the goddess, the holy one."
