town founded in 1833, named from a Canadian French form of an Algonquian word, which, according to Bright, is either Fox /sheka:ko:heki/ "place of the wild onion," or Ojibwa shika:konk "at the skunk place" (sometimes rendered "place of the bad smell"). The Ojibwa "skunk" word is distantly related to the New England Algonquian word that yielded Modern English skunk (n.). Related: Chicagoan (1847; Chicagoian is from 1859).
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."
a name of God in the Bible, c. 1600, from Hebrew, plural (of majesty?) of Eloh "God" (cognate with Allah), a word of unknown etymology, perhaps an augmentation of El "God," also of unknown origin. Generally taken as singular, the use of this word instead of Yahveh is taken by biblical scholars as an important clue to authorship in the Old Testament, hence Elohist (1830; Elohistic is from 1841), title of the supposed writer of passages of the Pentateuch where the word is used.
legendary Greek sculptor/goldsmith who created a beautiful statue of a woman he made and wished to life, from Greek Pygmaliōn. The story is centered on Cyprus and his name might be a Greek folk-etymology adaptation of a foreign word, perhaps from Phoenician. Notable in 20c. for the Pygmalion word, a British euphemistic substitute for bloody, from the notorious use of that word in Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" (1913: "Walk? Not bloody likely!"), the basis of the 1964 movie "My Fair Lady."
ancient southern constellation, from Latin, from Greek kētos "whale; large fish; sea-monster," a word of unknown origin.
South American country, probably named from a local native word subsequently confused with Mexican Spanish chile "chili pepper" (see chili). Suggestions are that the native word means "land's end" or else "cold, winter" which would make a coincidental convergence with English chilly. Related: Chilean. In 19c., often Chili, Chilian.
