southern Vietnamese city, capital of former South Vietnam, named for its river, which bears a name of uncertain origin.
capital of Portugal, Portuguese Lisboa, perhaps from a Phoenician word; the derivation from Ulysses probably is folk-etymology.
capital of Oman, from Arabic Masqat, said to mean "hidden" (it is isolated from the interior by hills).
"embracing and caressing a member of the opposite sex," 1825; see neck (v.). In architecture, "moldings near the capital of a column."
"Japanese," 1844, from Nippon, Japanese word for "Japan," literally "rising-sun place," from ni(chi) "the sun" + pon, hon "source," said to be from Chinese. As an adjective by 1859. Derisive slang shortening Nip attested from 1942, a U.S. World War II coinage.
also westernisation, 1873, noun of action from westernize (v.). Earliest reference is to Japan.
[The mikado's] late rapid and radical progress in westernization (to evolve a word that the Japanese will need) justifies great expectations of him. [Coates Kinney, "Japanning the English Language," The Galaxy, July-Dec. 1873]
1670s, saio "soybean-based Asian fish sauce," from Dutch soya, from Japanese soyu, variant of shoyu "soy," from Chinese shi-yu, from shi "fermented soy beans" + yu "oil." Etymology reflects Dutch presence in Japan before English and American merchants began to trade there.
video and trading card franchise, released in Japan in 1996, said to be from a contracted Romanization of Japanese Poketto Monsuta "pocket monsters," both elements ultimately from European languages. Apparently it is a collective word with no distinctive plural form.
so named 1868, from Japanese to "east" + kyo "capital;" its earlier name was Edo, literally "estuary."
from 330 C.E. to 1930 the name of what is now Istanbul and formerly was Byzantium, the city on the European side of the Bosphorus that served as the former capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, from Greek Konstantinou polis "Constantine's city," named for Roman emperor Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus (see Constantine), who transferred the Roman capital there.
