Advertisement
caddy (n.)"small box for tea," 1792, from catty (1590s), Anglo-Indian unit of weight, from Malay (Austronesian) kati, a unit of weight. The catty was adopted as a standard mid-18c. by the British in the Orient and fixed in 1770 by the East India Company at a pound and a third. Apparently the word for a measure of tea was transferred to the chest it was carried in.
Related entries & more Advertisement
Estonia often said to be from a Germanic source akin to east, but perhaps rather from a native name meaning "waterside dwellers." Related: Estonian.
Related entries & more Zanzibar island off East Africa, from Zengi, name of a local people, said to mean "black," + Arabic barr "coast, shore." Related: Zanzibari.
Related entries & more Bangladesh nation formed 1971 from former East Pakistan, from Bengali for "Bengali country," from Bangla "Bengali" (see Bengal) + desh "country." Related: Bangladeshi.
Related entries & more frazzle (v.)c. 1825, "to unravel" (of clothing), from East Anglian variant of 17c. fasel "to unravel, fray" (as the end of a rope), from Middle English facelyn "to fray" (mid-15c.), from fasylle "fringe, frayed edge," diminutive of Old English fæs "fringe, border." Related: Frazzled, frazzling. Compare German Faser "thread, fiber, filament," Middle Dutch vese "fringe, fiber, chaff." Probably influenced in form by fray (v.).
Related entries & more Advertisement
chutney (n.)
Related entries & more "compound of fruits and spices used as a condiment in the East Indies," 1813, said to be from Hindi chatni "to lick."
baobab (n.)large tropical African tree (later transplanted and naturalized in the East and West Indies), 1630s, from Medieval Latin bahobab (1590s), apparently from a central African language.
Related entries & more grasp (v.)mid-14c., "to reach, grope, feel around," possibly a metathesis of grapsen, from Old English *græpsan "to touch, feel," from Proto-Germanic *grap-, *grab- (source also of East Frisian grapsen "to grasp," Middle Dutch grapen "to seize, grasp," Old English grapian "to touch, feel, grope"), from PIE root *ghrebh- (1) "to seize, reach" (see grab (v.)). With verb-formative -s- as in cleanse. Sense of "seize" first recorded mid-16c. Transitive use by 17c. Figurative use from c. 1600; of intellectual matters from 1680s. Related: Grasped; grasping.
Related entries & more Baluchistan historical country or region east of Persia between Afghanistan and the Arabian Sea, now forming southwestern Pakistan, from the people-name Baluchi (in English from 1610s) + -stan.
Related entries & more