louis | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

56 entries found.

place outside Paris, of uncertain origin; perhaps from Latin versus "slope." Louis XIII built a hunting lodge there; made into a palace 17c. by Louis XIV.

bechamel (n.)

white sauce used in cookery, 1769, from French béchamel, named for Louis XIV's steward, Louis de Béchamel, marquis de Nointel (1630-1703), who perfected it. Gamillscheg identifies him as a great gourmet of the time ("eines bekannten Feinschmeckers des 17. Jhdts.").

mycosis (n.)

"the presence of fungi as parasites in the body," 1841, from French (Jean-Louis Alibert, 1835); medical Latin; see myco- + -osis. Related: Mycotic.

Braille (n., adj.)

"system of embossed printing used as an alphabet for the blind," 1853, from Louis Braille, French musician and teacher, blind from age 3, who devised it c. 1830.

jellyroll (n.)

also jelly-roll, "cylindrical cake containing jelly or jam," 1873, from jelly (n.) + roll (n.). As slang for "vagina; sexual intercourse" it dates from 1914 ("St. Louis Blues").

amoral (adj.)

"ethically indifferent," 1882, a hybrid formed from Greek-derived a- "not" (see a- (3)) + moral, which is from Latin. Apparently coined by Robert Louis Stevenson as a differentiation from immoral.

polarize (v.)

1811, "develop polarization in," in optics, from French polariser, coined by French physicist Étienne-Louis Malus (1775-1812) as a term in optics, from Modern Latin polaris "polar" (see polar). Transferred sense of "to accentuate a division in a group or system" is recorded from 1949 in Arthur Koestler. Related: Polarized; polarizing.

Chevy (n.)

by 1938, popular form of Chevrolet, U.S. automobile brand, which was founded by Louis Chevrolet and William Durant in 1911; acquired by General Motors in 1917.

Fornax (n.)

goddess of ovens in ancient Rome, from Latin fornax "furnace, oven, kiln" (from PIE root *gwher- "to heat, warm"). The dim constellation (representing a chemical furnace) was created by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de La Caille in 1752.

lavalier (n.)

kind of ornament that hangs around the neck, 1873, from French lavallière, a kind of tie, after Louise Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière, Duchesse de La Vallière (1644-1710), mistress of Louis XIV from 1661-1667.

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