first attested 1515 in Modern Latin (Oceanus Orientalis Indicus), named for India, which projects into it; earlier it was the Eastern Ocean, as opposed to the Western Ocean (Atlantic) before the Pacific was surmised.

"spell of warm, dry, hazy weather after the first frost" (happening anywhere from mid-September to nearly December, according to location), 1774, North American English (also used in eastern Canada), perhaps so called because it was first noted in regions then still inhabited by Indians, in the upper Mississippi valley west of the Appalachians, or because the Indians first described it to the Europeans. No evidence connects it with the color of fall leaves, or to a season of renewed Indian attacks on settlements due to renewed warm weather (a widespread explanation dating at least to the 1820s).

It is the American version of British All-Hallows summer, French été de la Saint-Martin (feast day Nov. 11), etc. Also colloquial was St. Luke's summer (or little summer), period of warm weather occurring about St. Luke's day (Oct. 18). An older and simpler name for it was autumn-spring (1630s).

1815 as a name for a distinct region that had been partly settled by Europeans; 1910 as the name of a nation.

Indian tribe of the American Midwest, the name is a rough translation of their own name, Apsaruke.

South American republic, founded 1825, named for Simon Bolivar (1783-1830), statesman and soldier.

Modern French form of the masc. proper name represented in Modern English by Peter (q.v.). The city in South Dakota, U.S., was named for Pierre Chouteau (1789-1865) who set up an Indian trading post there in 1837.

"of or pertaining to the Caribs," also "of the sea between the West Indies and the South American mainland," by 1750s, from Carib, indigenous people's name for themselves, + -ean.

"the Indian subcontinent, central Asia south of the Himalayas," formerly sometimes used generally for "Asia;" since 1947 specifically in reference to the Republic of India, Old English India, Indea, from Latin India, from Greek India "region of the Indus River," later used of the region beyond it, from Indos "Indus River," also "an Indian," from Old Persian Hindu, the name for the province of Sind, from Sanskrit sindhu "river."

The more common Middle English form was Ynde or Inde, from Old French (hence Indies). The form India began to prevail again in English from 16c., perhaps under Spanish or Portuguese influence.

type of American grape, 1857, the name taken from the river in the Carolinas, in which region the grape was found. The river is named for the Katahba Indian group and language (Siouan), from their word katapu "fork of a stream," itself a Muskogean loan-word meaning "separate."

South American country, named for the river, which is said to be from Guarani para "water" + guay "born." This is said to have been the name of a local chieftain who treated with the first Spanish explorers. Related: Paraguayan (1690s).