river in ancient Palestine; the crossing of it is symbolic of death in high-flown language as a reference to Numbers xxxiii.51. Also a type of pot or vessel (late 14c.), especially a chamber-pot, but the sense there is unknown. The modern nation-state dates to 1921. Related: Jordanian.

Old English cyningdom; see king (n.) + -dom. Cognate with Old Saxon kuningdom, Middle Dutch koninghdom, Old Norse konungdomr. The usual Old English word was cynedom; Middle English also had kingrick (for second element, see the first element in Reichstag). Meaning "one of the realms of nature" is from 1690s.

Kingdom-come (n.) "the next world, the hereafter" (1785), originally slang, is from the Lord's Prayer, where it is an archaic simple present subjunctive ("may Thy kingdom come") in reference to the spiritual reign of God or Christ.

abbreviation of United Kingdom, attested from 1883.

supernatural kingdom, "Elfland," c. 1300, from Old French fairie; see fairy.

"withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union," 2012, from Britain + exit.

Old English East-Seaxe "East Saxons," who had a 7c. kingdom there. See east, Saxon.

also Nabatean, c. 1600, "one of the Arab peoples dwelling in ancient times east and south of Palestine," builders of the rock city of Petra in modern Jordan, from Latin Nabataeus, Greek Nabataios; their name is of unknown origin.

village on the west bank of the Jordan River, perhaps from an alteration of Hebrew shalo "to be peaceful." The American Civil War battle fought in western Tennessee (April 6-7, 1862) was so called for being fought around the little Shiloh log church (Methodist), which was destroyed in the battle.

central European nation, from Medieval Latin Marchia austriaca "eastern borderland." German Österreich is "eastern kingdom," from Old High German ostar "eastern" (from Proto-Germanic *aust- "east," literally "toward the sunrise," from PIE root *aus- (1) "to shine," especially of the dawn) + reich "kingdom, realm, state" (from Proto-Germanic *rikja "rule," from PIE root *reg- "move in a straight line," with derivatives meaning "to direct in a straight line," thus "to lead, rule"). So called for being on the eastern edge of Charlemagne's empire. Related: Austrian.

Anglo-Saxon kingdom in southern England, literally "(land of the) West Saxons;" see west + Saxon. Modern use in reference to southwestern England (excluding Cornwall) is from Hardy's novels.