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blasto- before vowels blast-, word-forming element used in scientific compounds to mean "germ, bud," from Greek blasto-, combining form of blastos "sprout, germ," which is of unknown origin.
Related entries & more Yukon territory of northwestern Canada, named for the river, from Athabaskan, perhaps Koyukon yookkene or Lower Tanana yookuna, said to mean "big river."
Related entries & more anhinga (n.)fishing bird of the American tropics (also called the snake-bird, water-turkey), 1769, from a Tupi word which is said to mean "snake-bird."
Related entries & more microbe (n.)
Related entries & more popular name for a bacterium or other extremely small living being, 1878, from French microbe, "badly coined ... by Sédillot" [Weekley] in 1878 from Latinized form of Greek mikros "small" (see micro-) + bios "life" (from PIE root *gwei- "to live"). Intended to mean literally "a small living being," the use of bios is incorrect, as in modern science generally (see bio-); in Greek the compound would mean "short-lived."
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Kamchatka Siberian peninsula, 1730, named for a native people, the Kamchadal, from Koryak (Chukotko-Kamchatkan) konchachal, which is said to mean "men of the far end" [Room]. Related: Kamchatkan.
Related entries & more Geechee (n.)patois of coastal black communities in the southeastern U.S., from the Ogeechee River in Georgia. The name is perhaps from Muskogee and could mean "River of the Uchees," referring to a neighboring people.
Related entries & more Akita type of dog, named for a prefecture in northern Japan. The place name is said to mean literally "field of ripe rice," from aki "autumn, fall" + ta "field of rice."
Related entries & more smaik (n.)"mean or contemptible fellow," mid-15c., Scottish, now archaic, current c. 1450-c. 1900, perhaps cognate with Old High German smeichari, from smeken "to flatter."
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