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45 entries found.

1650s, member of Tungusic race of Manchuria which conquered China in 1644 and remained its ruling class until the Revolution of 1912. From a native word in the Manchu language meaning literally "pure," used as the name of the tribe descended from the Nu-chen Tartars.

TWA

formed May 16, 1928, as Transcontinental Air Transport, merged 1930 with Western Air Express to form Transcontinental and Western Air Inc. (TWA). Name changed to Trans World Airlines 1950, but the moniker remained the same. Its last remnants were bought out by rival American Airlines in April 2001.

lusty (adj.)

early 13c., "joyful, merry;" late 14c., "full of healthy vigor," from lust (n.) + -y (2). Used of handsome dress, fine weather, good food, pleasing language, it largely escaped the Christianization and denigration of the noun in English. The sense of "full of desire" is attested from c. 1400 but seems to have remained secondary. Related: Lustily; lustiness.

krypton (n.)

inert gaseous element, 1898, coined by its discoverers (Sir William Ramsay and Morris W. Travers) from Greek krypton, neuter of adjective kryptos "hidden" (see crypt); so called because it remained undiscovered for so long and was so difficult to find. Scientific American (July 9, 1898) announced it as "the discovery of yet another element."

red cent (n.)

type of copper penny, 1839, American English, from red (adj.1) + cent. Pure copper pennies were issued 1793–1857, then replaced by ones of copper-nickel and, after 1864, bronze. The old cents were disused, but the phrase remained colloquial as a mere emphatic of cent, usually in the negative (don't have a ... not worth a ...). "Red" has been the color of copper, brass, and gold since ancient times.

D.C.

abbreviation of District of Columbia, apparently not widely used before 1820, but eventually it became necessary to distinguish the place from the many other "Washingtons" in America. The city and the district were named in 1791 (at first known as Territory of Columbia; the territory was organized as a "district" in 1801), but the towns within it (Washington, Georgetown, Alexandria) remained separate municipalities and at one time all took D.C. The district was effectively organized as a unitary municipality in 1871.

trough (n.)

Old English trog "wooden vessel, tray, hollow vessel, canoe," from Proto-Germanic *trugaz (source also of Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old Norse trog, Middle Dutch troch, Dutch trog, Old High German troc, German trog), from PIE *dru-ko-, from root *deru- "be firm, solid, steadfast," with specialized senses "wood, tree" and derivatives referring to objects made of wood. Originally pronounced in English with a hard -gh- (as in Scottish loch); pronunciation shifted to "-ff," but spelling remained.

mention (n.)

c. 1300, mencioun, "a note, a reference, a calling to mind by speech or writing," from Old French mencion "mention, memory, speech," from Latin mentionem (nominative mentio) "a calling to mind, a speaking of, a making mention," from root of Old Latin minisci "to think," related to mens (genitive mentis) "mind," from PIE root *men- (1) "to think." From late 15c. as "statement about or in reference to a person or thing," which by mid-18c. had diminished to "incidental or casual reference," though in military use a mention in the dispatches remained an important thing.

Pandora

1630s, in Greek mythology, the name of the first mortal woman, made by Hephaestus and given as a bride to Epimetheus, from Greek Pandōra "all-gifted" (or perhaps "giver of all"), from pan- "all" (see pan-) + dōron "gift" (from PIE root *do- "to give").

Pandora's box (1570s) refers to her gift from Zeus, which was foolishly opened by Epimetheus, upon which all the contents escaped. They were said to be the host of human ills (escaping to afflict mankind), or, in a later version, all the blessings of the god (escaping to be lost), except Hope, which alone remained.

abandon (n.)

"a letting loose, freedom from self-restraint, surrender to natural impulses," by 1822 as a French word in English (it remained in italics or quotation marks through much of the 19c.; the naturalized abandonment in this sense was attempted from 1834), from a sense in French abandon "abandonment; permission" (12c.), from abandonner "to surrender, release" (see abandon (v.)).

The noun was borrowed earlier (c. 1400) from Old French in a sense "(someone's) control;" and compare Middle English adverbial phrase at abandon, i.e. "recklessly," attested from late 14c. In Old French, the past-participle adjective abandoné came to mean "zealous, eager, unreserved."

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