U.S. car rental company, according to company history founded 1946 at Willow Run Airport in Detroit by U.S. businessman Warren Avis and named for him.
Persian masc. proper name, in classical history a son of Xerxes II, also a son of Darius, from Greek Artaxerxes, from Old Persian Artaxšaca, literally "having a kingdom of justice," from arta- "justice" + xšaca "kingdom."
masc. proper name, from Latin Junius, name of a Roman gens. In U.S. history, the pseudonym of the author of a famous series of letters in the "Public Advertiser" from 1768-1772 critical of crown policy. Related: Junian.
"Englishman who exemplifies the coarse, burly form and bluff nature of the national character," 1772, from name of a character representing the English nation in Arbuthnot's satirical "History of John Bull" (1712). Via a slurred pronunciation of it comes jumble (n.), London West Indian and African slang word for "a white man," attested from 1957.
"descendant of Dutch settlers of New York," 1831, from Diedrich Knickerbocker, the name under which Washington Irving published his popular "History of New York" (1809). The pen-name was borrowed from Irving's friend Herman Knickerbocker, and literally means "toy marble-baker," from German knicker, schoolboy slang for "marble," apparently an agent-noun from the imitative verb knikken "to snap."
his name is Latinized from his native Italian Cristoforo Colombo, in Spanish Cristóbal Colón.
America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else, and most of the exploration for the next fifty years was done in the hope of getting through or around it. [S.E. Morison, "The Oxford History of the United States," 1965]
1972, rough acronym from American Sign Language, which was known by that name since 1960, but its history goes back to 1817, evolving from French Sign Language (introduced at American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Conn.) and indigenous sign languages, especially that of Martha's Vineyard. [See "Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language," Nora Ellen Groce, Harvard University Press, 1985]
1086, Loncastre, literally "Roman Fort on the River Lune," a Celtic river name probably meaning "healthy, pure." In English history, the Lancastrians or House of Lancaster in the War of the Roses were the branch of the Plantagenets descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Lancastrian (1650s) is the usual adjective with places of that name; Lancasterian (1807) was used of the teaching methods popularized early 19c. by educator Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838).
The surname is from Old English scearra "shears" (see shears) + mann "man" (see man (n.)); hence "shearer of woolen garments." As a type of U.S. medium tank used in World War II, 1942, named for U.S. Civil War Gen. William T. Sherman (1820-1891). In U.S. history the Sherman Acts (1890) were named for U.S. Sen John Sherman (1823-1900) of Ohio, brother of the general.
also Keltic, 1650s, in archaeology and history, "pertaining to the (ancient) Celts," from French Celtique or Latin Celticus "pertaining to the Celts" (see Celt). In reference to the language group including Irish, Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, etc., from 1707. Of modern peoples or their other qualities, by mid-19c. The Boston basketball team was founded 1946. Celtic twilight is from Yeats's name for his collection of adapted Irish folk tales (1893).
