"to reach the maximum level," by 1986, colloquial, from maximize or related words. Related: Maxed; maxing. As a noun, by 1811 in reference to a kind of gin said to be the best, apparently an abbreviation of French maxime.
1975, proprietary name (Sony), from Japanese beta-beta "all over" + max, from English maximum.
German manufacturing company, named for founder Max Braun, mechanical engineer in Frankfurt am Main (1921).
measure of speed relative to the speed of sound (technically Mach number), 1937, named in honor of Austrian physicist Ernst Mach (1838-1916).
also g-spot, 1981, short for Gräfenberg spot, named for German gynecologist Ernst Gräfenberg (1881-1957), who described it in 1950.
1925, proprietary name of cameras made by firm of Ernst & Leitz Gesellschaft, Wetzlar, Germany. From Leitz + ca(mera).
in physics, in reference to the work of German physicist Max Planck (1858-1947); such as Planck's constant, attested in English from 1901.
masc. proper name, from French Ernest, which is of German origin (compare Old High German Ernust, German Ernst), literally "earnestness" (see earnest (adj.)). Among the top 50 names for boys born in U.S. from 1880 through 1933.
"mistake," 1954, apparently a reduplication of boob "stupid person," which had acquired a secondary sense of "foolish mistake" (1934). In 1930s it was the nickname of Philadelphia gangster Max "Boo-Boo" Hoff.
