massachusetts | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

40 entries found.

U.S. state; the word is plural, originally (1614) a name for the Algonquian native people who lived around the bay, from Algonquian Massachusett "at the large hill," in reference to Great Blue Hill, southwest of Boston. Related: Massachusettensian.

Chappaquiddick

place in Dukes County, Massachusetts; from a native New England Algonquian language, literally "island adjacent to the mainland."

MIT

originally M.I.T., abbreviation of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, attested from 1892. The school was founded 1861.

Smith & Wesson

proprietary name of a type of firearm, 1860, from the gunsmith firm of Horace Smith (1808-1893) and Daniel B. Wesson (1825-1906) in Springfield, Massachusetts.

short-sleeve (n.)

1630s, from short (adj.) + sleeve. First recorded in an ordinance of Massachusetts Bay colony, forbidding "short sleeves, whereby the nakedness of the arme may be discovered."

Nantucket

island off Massachusetts, early forms include Natocke, Nantican, Nautican; from an obscure southern New England Algonquian word, perhaps meaning "in the middle of waters." Its identity as a summer resort for the wealthy dates to 1950s. Related: Nantucketer.

Bunker Hill

battle site in Massachusetts, U.S., it rises on land assigned in 1634 to George Bunker, who came from the vicinity of Bedford, England. The name dates from 1229, as Bonquer, and is from Old French bon quer "good heart."

junto (n.)

1640s, alternative formation of junta at a time when English considered Spanish nouns to properly end in -o. In U.S. history the Essex Junto (1802) were a group of extreme Massachusetts Federalists, adherents of Hamilton during the John Adams presidency and later bitter opponents of the policies of Jefferson and Madison.

Beverly Hills

city in southern California, U.S., 1911, earlier Beverly (1907), named for Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, summer home of then-U.S. President Taft, which ultimately is named for the Yorkshire town Beverly, which means, in Old English, "beaver lodge."

Bartlett

U.S. name for a variety of pear, 1835, named for Enoch Bartlett, who first distributed them in the U.S. The quotation collection is named for U.S. bookstore owner John Bartlett of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who first printed his "A Collection of Familiar Quotations" in 1855.

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