"shallow, flat vessel containing hot water in which another vessel is placed to heat its contents gently," by 1733 (in a cookery book, earlier, 1724 as the name of a meat dish cooked in one), from French bain-marie, from Medieval Latin balneum Mariae, literally "bath of Mary."
According to French sources, perhaps so called for the gentleness of its heating; others credit the name to the supposed inventor, Mary the Jewess, mentioned in early gnostic writings and looked on since 4c. C.E. as a founder of alchemy. Middle English had balne of mary (late 15c.). French bain was used by itself in English in various sense 15c.-17c.; it is from baigner "to bathe" (12c.), from Latin balneare, from balneum "bath" (see balneal).
(1755-1793), queen consort of Louis XVI; as the name for a decorative style of France in that period, by 1887. She likely did not say "let them eat cake" (see cake (n.)). The city of Marietta, Ohio, U.S., founded in 1788, was named for her in honor of Louis XVI's financial support of the American Revolution.
name taken from 1718 by French author François Marie Arouet after his imprisonment in the Bastille on suspicion of having written some satirical verses; originally de Voltaire. The signification is uncertain.
1898, of an atomic nucleus, "capable of spontaneous nuclear decay releasing ionizing emissions," from French radio-actif, coined by Pierre and Marie Curie from radio-, combining form of Latin radius "ray" (see radius) + actif "active" (see active). Of processes, etc., "involving or produced by radioactivity," by 1903.
"unit of radioactivity," 1910, named for French physicist Pierre Curie (1859-1906), who, with his wife, Marie (1867-1934), discovered radium. The family name in Old French means "kitchen."
