Latinized form of the name of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Norðhymbre, which lay north of the river Humber (Latin Humbri fluminis, c. 720), an ancient pre-English river name of unknown origin. It was the leading power of England during part of the 7c. and 8c. Related: Northumbrian. The Northumbrians seem at times to have referred to the Mercians as Southumbrians. The English county name of Northumberland is attested from c. 1200 (North-humbre-lond).
also psycho-graphic, "of or pertaining to psychography," 1856, from psychograph "supernatural photographic image or device" (1854) from psycho- + -graph. Also see psychography. Related: Psychographics.
—What next? Among the new patents announced is one to Adolphus Theodore Wagner, of Berlin, in the kingdom of Prussia, professor of music, for the invention of a "psychograph, or apparatus for indicating a person's thoughts by the agency of nervous electricity." [Arthur's Home Magazine, May 1854]
central European kingdom, mid-15c., Beeme, from French Boheme "Bohemia," from Latin Boiohaemum (Tacitus), from Boii, the Celtic people who settled in what is now Bohemia (and were driven from it by the Germanic Marcomans early 1c.; singular Boius, fem. Boia, perhaps literally "warriors") + Proto-Germanic *haimaz "home" (see home (n.)). Attested from 1861 in meaning "community of artists and social Bohemians" or in reference to a district where they live (see bohemian).
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]
late 14c., in Bible translations, the Hebrew word shibboleth, meaning "flood, stream," also "ear of corn," as used in Judges xii.4-6. During the slaughter at the fords of Jordan, the Gileadites took it as a password to distinguish their men from fleeing Ephraimites, because Ephraimites could not pronounce the -sh- sound. (Modern commentators have decided the Hebrew word there probably was used in the "river" sense, in reference to the Jordan).
Hence the figurative sense of "watchword or test-word or pet phrase of a party, sect, school, etc." (by 1630s), which evolved by 1862 to "outmoded slogan still adhered to."
Elsewhere in history, a similar test-word was cicera "chick pease," used by the Italians to identify the French (who could not pronounce it correctly) during the massacre called the Sicilian Vespers (1282). There have been, and will be, others.
During training exercises on Pavuvu and Guadalcanal, the need to improve battlefield security is to be implemented not by a simple password, but by an identification procedure described as "sign and countersign." The ground rules are to sequentially interrogate an unknown friend or foe with the name of an automobile, preferably one with an "L" in its vocalization. The response is to be a cognomen for another automobile uttered in the same manner. This insures the "friend" entering our lines will reply with the correct countersign in a dialect distinctly American; call out "Cadiwac" or "Chryswer," and you're dead. [Perry Pollins, "Tales of a Feather Merchant: The World War II Memoir of a Marine Radioman," 2006]
globular fruit of a tree of Indonesia, 1580s, from Malay (Austronesian) durian, from duri "thorn, prickle." So called for its rind.
The durian is deemed by the Siamese the king of fruits. Its smell is offensive to European sense, and I have heard it compared to the stink of carrion and onions mingled. But the exquisite flavour of the fruit renders even its fragrance attractive to its habitués, and it is the only fruit which has ever a considerable money-value in the Siamese market. [Sir John Bowring, "The Kingdom and People of Siam," London, 1857]
Moorish kingdom, after 1492 a Spanish province, named for its city, which was founded in 8c. by the Arabs on the site of Roman Illiberis. The name is said to be from Latin granatum "pomegranate," either from fruit grown in the region or from some fancied resemblance. Others connect the name to Moorish karnattah, said to mean "hill of strangers." The Roman name is said to be Iberian and represent cognates of Basque hiri "town" + berri "new," and it survives in the name of the surrounding Sierra Elvira. Related: Granadine.
late 14c., "pertaining to the animal spirit of man," that is, "pertaining to the merely sentient (as distinguished from the intellectual, rational, or spiritual) qualities of a human being," from Latin animalis, from animale "living being" (see animal (n.)).
From 1540s as "pertaining to sensation;" by 1630s as "pertaining to or derived from beasts;" 1640s as "pertaining to the animal kingdom" (as opposed to vegetable or mineral); 1650s as "having life, living."
Animal rights is attested from 1879; animal liberation from 1973. Animal magnetism originally (1784) referred to mesmerism.
large island west of Italy, Latin, from Greek Sardō, Sardōn; perhaps named for the local Iberian people who had settled there; the original form and meaning of the name is lost. A Punic (Phoenician) stelle from 7c. B.C.E. refers to it as Shardan.
The oblique cases in Greek are sometimes Sardonos, etc. Related: Sardinian, which in 19c. sometimes was shortened to Sard. The historical Kingdom of Sardinia was formed in 1720 from the island and parts of Piedmont and Savoy; it became the nucleus of the modern nation of Italy.
late 14c., protectour, "a defender, guardian, one who defends or shields from injury or evil," from Old French protector (14c., Modern French protecteur) and directly from Late Latin protector, agent noun from protegere (see protection). Related: Protectoral; protectorial; protectorian. Fem. forms protectrix, protectryse both attested from mid-15c. Protectee is attested from c. 1600.
In English history, "one who has care of the kingdom during the king's minority or incapacity, a regent" (as the Duke of Somerset during the reign of Edward VI); Lord Protector was the title of the head of the executive during part of the period of the Commonwealth, held by Oliver Cromwell (1653-58) and Richard Cromwell (1658-59).
