from Sanskrit Simhapuram "Lion City," from simhah "lion" (compare Singh) + puram "city," from PIE *tpolh- "citadel, fortified high place" (see polis). The name is perhaps folk-etymology, or metaphoric of something, as no lions are found there. Related: Singaporean. The Singapore sling cocktail is attested from 1930; said on the island to have been invented there 1915 by a barman named Ngian Tong Dron.

federation comprising the southern end of the Malay peninsula (except Singapore) and the northwestern part of Borneo, from Malay + Latinate ending -ia. Originally an early 19c. British geographers' name for the Indonesian archipelago. Related: Malaysian.

city in north-central France, Roman Senones, the capital of the Gaulish people of the same name.

capital of Afghanistan, named for its river, which carries a name of unknown origin.

Russian capital, named for the Moskva River, the name of which is of unknown origin. Moscow mule vodka cocktail is attested from 1950.

southern Vietnamese city, capital of former South Vietnam, named for its river, which bears a name of uncertain origin.

so named 1868, from Japanese to "east" + kyo "capital;" its earlier name was Edo, literally "estuary."

from 330 C.E. to 1930 the name of what is now Istanbul and formerly was Byzantium, the city on the European side of the Bosphorus that served as the former capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, from Greek Konstantinou polis "Constantine's city," named for Roman emperor Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus (see Constantine), who transferred the Roman capital there.

Canadian capital, founded 1827 as Bytown, named for English officer John By, who oversaw construction of the canal there; renamed 1854, when it became capital, for the Ottawa River, which took its name from the Algonquian people who lived in Michigan and Ontario. Their name is said to be from adawe "to trade."

capital of Colombia, founded 1530s, the name is from Chibcha (an indigenous language) Bacata, native name of a settlement of the Muisca people that stood there when the Spanish arrived.