pound

From Middle English pounde, ponde, pund, from Old English *pund (“an enclosure”). Related to Old English pyndan (“to enclose, shut up, dam, impound”). Compare also Old English pynd (“a cistern, lake”).

cog

(Police officer to a dog owner) "He'd better stay calm or I'll have the pound come and get him."

2002, 00:27:30 from the start, in 25th Hour:

(metonymic) The people who work for the pound.


head

en-noun

head (countable and uncountable, plural heads or head)

heads (plural)
head (plural)
heed (alternative obsolete)
hed (alternative obsolete)
'ead (alternative UK pronunciation-spelling)

→ Japanese: ヘッド (heddo)

Sranan Tongo: ede

Aukan: ede

Saramaccan: hédi

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *kap-
Proto-Indo-European *káput-
Proto-Germanic *haubudą
Old English hēafod
Middle English heed
English head
From Middle English hed, from Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; chief”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *káput.
The modern word comes from Old English oblique stem hēafd-; the expected Modern English outcome for hēafod would be *heaved (similar to the Middle English word). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, chef, chief, and Howth.
Cognate with Scots heid, hede, hevid, heved (“head”), Old English hafola (“head”), North Frisian hood (“head”), Dutch hoofd (“head”), German Haupt (“head”), Swedish huvud (“head”), Danish hoved (“head”), Icelandic höfuð (“head”), Latin caput (“head”), Sanskrit कपाल (kapāla, “skull”), Hindi कपाल (kapāl, “skull”).

頭

つぶり, tsuburi, つぃぶる, tsiburu, つぃぶるぃ, tsiburi

pää

principal operative part of a machine or tool

have one's head screwed on the right way

know one's head from a hole in the ground

run around like a chicken with its head cut off

would lose one's head if it wasn't attached

would lose one's head if it wasn't bolted on

would lose one's head if it wasn't glued on

would lose one's head if it wasn't screwed on

would lose one's head if it wasn't stuck on

would lose one's head if it wasn't tied on

would lose one's head if it weren't attached

you can't put an old head on young shoulders

you can't put a wise head on young shoulders

This song keeps going through my head.

“Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke[…]whom the papers are making such a fuss about.”

1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

(countable) The part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth, and main sense organs.

(figurative, metonymic) Mind; one's own thoughts.

Admission is three dollars a head.

[…] but here we are obliged to diſcloſe ſome Maxims, which Publicans hold to be the grand Myſteries of their Trade. […] And, laſtly, if any of their Gueſts call but for little, to make them pay a double Price for every Thing they have ; ſo that the Amount by the Head may be much the ſame.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter VII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VIII, pages 196–197:

(figurative, metonymic) An individual person.

We saw the last Campaign that an Army of Fourscore Thousand of the best Troops in Europe, with the Duke of Marlborough at the Head of them, cou'd do nothing against an Enemy that were too numerous to be assaulted in their Camps, or attack'd in their Strong Holds.

1708, Joseph Addison, The present state of the war, and the necessity of an augmentation, consider'd, page 33:

(social, countable, metonymic) A leader or expert.

The place of honor or command; the most important or foremost position; the front.

kärki

place of honour, or of command; the most important or foremost position

At 4pm, the phone went. It was The Sun: 'We hear your daughter's been expelled for cheating at her school exams...' / She'd made a remark to a friend at the end of the German exam and had been pulled up for talking. / As they left the exam room, she muttered that the teacher was a 'twat'. He heard and flipped—a pretty stupid thing to do, knowing the kids were tired and tense after exams. Instead of dropping it, the teacher complained to the Head and Deb was carpeted.

I was called into the head's office to discuss my behaviour.

Only true heads know this.

(music, slang, figurative, metonymic) A person with an extensive knowledge of hip hop.

I'd like to speak to the head of the department.

Police arrested the head of the gang in a raid last night.

“I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery.[…]”

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:


Germany

en-prop

Germany (countable and uncountable, plural Germanys or Germanies)

From Middle English Germanie, from Old English Germanie & Germania, from Latin Germānia (“land of the Germans”), from Germānī, a people living around and east of the Rhine first attested in the 1st century B.C.E. works of Julius Caesar and of uncertain etymology. The exonym was said by Strabo to derive from germānus (“close kin; genuine”), making it cognate with germane and german, but this seems unsupported. Attempts to derive it from Germanic or Celtic roots since the 18th century are all problematic, although it is perhaps cognate with the Old Irish gair (“neighbour”). Doublet of Germania.
In reference to a medieval kingdom, English Germany is usually an anachronism using the Roman name to describe the area or calquing various Latin terms like rex Teutonicorum ("king of the Teutons"), which were often derogatory exonyms rather than formal titles.

nowrap

1st century <small class='ce-date'>B.C.E.</small>

There had been a long bloody war in the empire of Germany for twelve years, between the Emperor, the Duke of Bavaria, the King of Spain, and the Popiſh Princes and Electors, on the one side; and the Proteſtant Princes on the other; and both ſides having been exhauſted by the war, and even the Catholicks themſelves beginning to diſlike the growing power of the houſe of Auſtria, it was thought that all parties were willing to make peace.

1759, A Military History of Germany; and of England. From the Year 1631 to the Year 1648. Being the Memoirs of an English Gentleman, who served in the army of Gustavus Adolphus; and afterwards in the Royal Army of King Charles I (1759), page 33:

I had frequently been told, that the Bohemians were the moſt muſical people of Germany, or, perhaps, of all Europe...

1775, Charles Burney, The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces, volume II, page 3:

When the race of Charlemagne ceaſed to govern in Germany, the princes and ſtates aſſociated to continue the empire; and that its majeſty might be viſible, and its laws enforced, they agreed to chooſe an emperor. From this emperor, all electors and princes, except thoſe before 1582, receive inveſtiture of their dominions; counts and free cities from the Aulic council. But this inveſtiture is no more than a ſign of ſubmiſſion to the majeſty of the empire, which is depoſited in the emperor. For as the conſtituted members of the empire are dependent on that collective union from which they derive protection, they therefore ſhew this dependence on the emperor, becauſe he repreſents the majeſty of that union, or of the empire; but in all other reſpects they are independent and free.

1790, Thomas B. Clarke, A Statistical View of Germany, in respect to the Imperial and Territorial Constitutions, Forms of Government, Legislation, Administration of Justice, and Ecclesiastical State, page 13:

There are few cities in Germany beſides Vienna which contain ſo rich and numerous a nobility as this does: there are fome houſes here which have eſtates of 100,000 guilders, or 10,000l. a-year.

1797, Colin MacFarquhar, George Gleig, editors, Encyclopædia Britannica, 3rd edition, A. Bell & C. MacFarquhar, "Mentz", page 396:

The principal state in this country, including

(historical) A nominal medieval kingdom forming part of the Carolingian and Holy Roman Empires; (metonymic, now uncommon) the Holy Roman Empire in its entirety; (metonymic, obsolete) the Austrian Habsburg empire in its entirety.


world

whirled (with both the wine–whine merger and fern–fir–fur merger)

whorled (with both mergers, Received Pronunciation only)

From Middle English world, weoreld, from Old English weorold (“world”), from Proto-West Germanic *weraldi, from Proto-Germanic *weraldiz (“lifetime, human existence, world”, literally “age/era of man”), equivalent to wer (“man”) + eld (“age”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English mounde (“world”), from Old French monde, munde (“world”). Cognate with Scots warld (“world”), Saterland Frisian Waareld (“world”), West Frisian wrâld (“world”), Afrikaans wêreld (“world”), Dutch wereld (“world”), Low German Werld (“world”), German Welt (“world”), Norwegian Bokmål verden (“(the) world”), Norwegian Nynorsk verd (“world”), Swedish värld (“world”), Icelandic veröld (“world”).

inh

a lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on

an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind

have the world by the tail on a downhill pull

the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world

the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

Running after God is the only life worth living. Even though the world believes that living for God is boring, we believe that there is nothing more exciting.

(metonymic, with "the") A majority of people.


drink

en-verb

drink (third-person singular simple present drinks, present participle drinking, simple past drank or (southern US) drunk or (nonstandard) drinked, past participle drunk or (chiefly archaic) drunken or (dialectal) drank or (all nonstandard, archaic or obsolete) drinked or drinken or dranken)

drinks (present singular third-person)
drinking (participle present)
drank (past)
drunk (Southern US past)
drinked (nonstandard past)
drunk (participle past)
drunken (archaic participle past)
drank (dialectal participle past)
drinked (archaic nonstandard obsolete participle past)
drinken (archaic nonstandard obsolete participle past)
dranken (archaic nonstandard obsolete participle past)
dhrink (alternative)
drank (alternative)
drinck (alternative)
drinke (alternative)
thrink (alternative)

Belizean Creole: jrink

desc

Chinese Pidgin English: drinkee, dlinkee

Sranan Tongo: dringi

Aukan: diingi

Saramaccan: diíngi

Tok Pisin: dringim

→ Esperanto: drinki

→ Ido: drinkar

From Middle English drinken, from Old English drincan (“to drink, swallow up, engulf”), from Proto-West Germanic *drinkan, from Proto-Germanic *drinkaną (“to drink”), of uncertain origin; possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrenǵ- (“to draw into one's mouth, sip, gulp”), nasalised variant of *dʰreǵ- (“to draw, glide”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian drinke (“to drink”), Low German drinken (“to drink”), Dutch drinken (“to drink”), German trinken (“to drink”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål drikke (“to drink”), Norwegian Nynorsk drikka (“to drink”).

der

Jack drank the whole bottle by himself.

(transitive, metonymic) To consume the liquid contained within (a bottle, glass, etc.).


Cayman Islands

the Cayman Islands (canonical)
Caiman Islands (alternative)

From Spanish Caymanes, variant of earlier Spanish Lagartos in reference to the early prevalence of marine and freshwater crocodiles on the islands. Spanish caimán and Portuguese caimão are of uncertain etymology, being variously attributed to Taíno kaimán, Kari'na acayouman, and Kongo.

(metonymic) Offshore bank accounts based in the Cayman Islands.


earth

en-noun

earth (countable and uncountable, plural earths)

earths (plural)
airth (alternative Scotland)
erd (alternative dialectal rare)
yearth (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-West Germanic *erþu, from Proto-Germanic *erþō (“dirt, ground, earth”) (compare West Frisian ierde, German Low German Eerd, Dutch aarde, Dutch Low Saxon eerde, German Erde, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian jord), related to *erwô (“earth”) (compare Old High German ero, perhaps Old Norse jǫrfi), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (compare Ancient Greek *ἔρα (*éra, “earth”) in ἔραζε (éraze, “to the ground, to earth”), perhaps Tocharian B yare (“gravel”).
Probably unrelated, but of unknown etymology, is Old Armenian երկիր (erkir, “earth”). Likewise, the phonologically similar Proto-Semitic *ʔarṣ́- – whence Arabic أَرْض (ʔarḍ), Hebrew אֶרֶץ (ʾereṣ) – is probably unrelated.

inh

earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one ſpeach.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 11:1, column 2:


room

en-noun

room (countable and uncountable, plural rooms)

→ Japanese: ルーム (rūmu)

→ Kikuyu: rumu

→ Maori: rūma

→ Scottish Gaelic: rùm

Etymology tree
Proto-West Germanic *rūm
Old English rūm
Middle English roum
English room
From Middle English roum, from Old English rūm (“room, space”), from Proto-West Germanic *rūm (“room”), from Proto-Germanic *rūmą (“room”), from Proto-Indo-European *rewh₁- (“free space”).
Cognate with Low German Ruum, Dutch ruimte (“space”) and Dutch ruim (“cargo load”), German Raum (“space, interior space”), Danish rum (“space, locality”), Norwegian rom (“space”), Swedish rum (“space, location”), and also with Latin rūs (“country, field, farm”) through Indo-European. More at rural.
In the standard language, it is ostensibly an exception to the Great Vowel Shift, which otherwise would have produced the pronunciation /ɹaʊm/, but /aʊ/ does not occur before noncoronal consonants in standard Modern English native vocabulary. The pronunciation /ɹaʊm/ does occur in, for example, Lancashire. However, German Raum did undergo diphthongization similar to the Great Vowel Shift. Doublet of Raum, a surname from German.

inh

rum (/ɹʊm/) (without the foot-strut split)

nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs

The room was on its feet.

He was good at reading rooms.

It was fun to watch her work the room.

(usually in the singular, metonymic) The people in a room.


gun

Sranan Tongo: gon

From Middle English gunne, gonne, possibly from Gunnhild, a female given name formerly used as a nickname for engines of war. The name is composed of the Norse elements gunnr and hildr, both meaning "battle".

is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me

you get more with a kind word and a gun than you do with a kind word alone

Some said that the cowboy was the fastest gun in the West.

[…] we had one lawman - Sheriff Dirty Herwick, "the slowest gun in the West." Dirty was a kindly man, a java addict whose knees knocked at the sight of blood. Back then, we winched our own car wrecks out of ravines and chased away mountain lions with kitchen brooms.

1991 12, “Ski”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 256:

"I must say, I quite enjoy having the best detective in the business, and the fastest gun in the West, on my payroll." "First of all," Clint said tightly, "I'm not the fastest gun in the West, and second, I'm not on your payroll." Royce held up both of his hands. "I didn't mean to offend you, sir[…]"

(Can we date this quote?), J.R. Roberts, Death in Denver, Speaking Volumes, →ISBN:

"They say he's the fastest gun in the whole goddamn world." "I thought Blackie was supposed to be the best," Harlow remarked. “That's what all you chaps keep tellin' me." "Blackie is the fastest gun in the Oklahoma Territory,"[…]

(Can we date this quote?), J.R. Roberts, Gundown in Paradise, Speaking Volumes, →ISBN:

They want to take on the fastest gun in town.

2015 February 26, Neil Hickey, Adventures in the Scribblers Trade: The Most Fun You Can Have, iUniverse, →ISBN:

"He's a fast gun out of Arizona."

2015 August 31, Raymond C. Merriam, Hell’S Partner, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN:

(colloquial, metonymic) A person who carries or uses a gun (rifle, shotgun or handgun), particuarly with reference to how quickly the person can draw and fire the gun.


read

en-verb

read (third-person singular simple present reads, present participle reading, simple past read, past participle read or (archaic, dialectal) readen)

reads (present singular third-person)
reading (participle present)
read (past)
read (participle past)
readen (archaic dialectal participle past)
read (infinitive)
read (first-person present singular)
read (first-person past singular)
read (present second-person singular)
read (past second-person singular)
reads (present singular third-person)
read (past singular third-person)
read (plural present)
read (past plural)
read (present subjunctive)
read (past subjunctive)
read (imperative present)
reading (participle present)
read (participle past)
readen (participle past)

From Middle English reden, from Old English rǣdan (“to counsel, advise, consult; interpret, read”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną (“advise, counsel”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁dʰ- (“to arrange”).
Cognate with Scots rede, red (“to advise, counsel, decipher, read”), Saterland Frisian räide (“to advise, counsel”), West Frisian riede (“to advise, counsel”), Dutch raden (“to advise; guess”), German raten (“to advise; guess”), Danish råde (“to advise”), Swedish råda (“to advise, counsel”), Persian رده (rade, “to order, to arrange, class”). In West Germanic the verb had a sense “interpret”, which developed further into “interpret letters” in English and “interpret by intuition, guess” on the continent. Compare rede.

lees

to look at and interpret letters or other information

atzeman

of text, etc., to be interpreted or read in a particular way

olvasd

to substitute (a corrected piece of text in place of an erroneous one); used to introduce an emendation of a text

At the moment I'm reading Milton.

(transitive or intransitive) To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.

(transitive, metonymic) To read a work or works written by the named author.


tongue

en-noun

tongue (countable and uncountable, plural tongues)

tongues (plural)
tounge (alternative)
tung (alternative)
tong (alternative obsolete)
tonge (alternative obsolete)
toong (alternative obsolete)
toongue (alternative obsolete)
toung (alternative obsolete)
toungue (alternative obsolete)
tunge (alternative obsolete)

Australian Kriol: tang

Bislama: tang

Sranan Tongo: tongo

Tok Pisin: tang

Torres Strait Creole: tang

From Middle English tonge, tunge, tung, from Old English tunge, from Proto-West Germanic *tungā, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ (“tongue”) (compare West Frisian tonge, Dutch tong, Luxembourgish Zong, German Zunge, Yiddish צונג (tsung), Danish tunge, Norwegian Bokmål tunge, Swedish tunga, Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍉 (tuggō)), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s. Cognate with Old Irish tengae, Latin lingua, Tocharian A käntu, Tocharian B kantwo, Lithuanian liežùvis, Russian язык (jazyk), Polish język, Old Armenian լեզու (lezu), Avestan 𐬵𐬌𐬰𐬎𐬎𐬁 (hizuuā), Persian زبان (zabân), Ashkun žū, Kamkata-viri dić, diz, Prasuni luzuk, Sanskrit जिह्वा (jihvā́). Doublet of language and lingua.
It has been noted by many over the centuries that the word's spelling, were it true to pronunciation or etymology, would be tung (which is indeed a rare alternative spelling). The spelling with -ue at the end came about in the late Middle English period, seemingly to keep the word from being misread with a soft g (that is, /dʒ/) since -e was still needed to show the word-final vowel that has now been lost. The use of u to harden g is adopted from the Romance spelling principle, with one example indeed being the French cognate langue (“tongue”), whose u is unlikewise etymological.

puhe

uncountable: discourse, fluency of speech

(colloquial)

He was speaking in his native tongue.

[…] that great Towre, which is so much renownd
For tongues confusion in holie writ,

1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “The Ruines of Time”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:

When I pointed to any thing, she told me the Name of it in her own Tongue, so that in a few Days I was able to call for whatever I had a mind to.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV), page [178]:

To dwell on a heath without studying its meanings was like wedding a foreigner without learning his tongue.

1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, chapter 7, in The Return of the Native […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC:

“You should read Spanish,” he said. “It is a noble tongue. […]”

1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXXVI, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:

If you do not speak English I am at your disposal with 187 other languages along with their various dialects and sub-tongues.

1956, Cyril Hume, Forbidden Planet, spoken by Robby the Robot:

Many of them come from distant places and although they speak your tongue they are ignorant of your customs.

1958, Chinua Achebe, chapter 23, in Things Fall Apart, New York: Astor-Honor, published 1959, page 200:

My grandfather, accustomed to the multifarious conjugations of ancient Greek verbs, had found English, for all its incoherence, a relatively simple tongue to master.

2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, New York: Picador, Book 2, p. 99:


face

Sranan Tongo: fesi

→ Danish: fjæs

→ Norwegian:

Norwegian Bokmål: fjes

Norwegian Nynorsk: fjes

→ Swedish: fejs, fjäs

→ Wu: 番斯 (¹fe-sy)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-?
Latin faciēs
Late Latin facia
Old French facebor.
Middle English face
English face
From Middle English face, from Old French face, from Late Latin facia, from Latin faciēs (“form, appearance”). Doublet of facies. Displaced native onlete (“face, countenance, appearance”), anleth (“face”), from Old English anwlite, andwlita, compare German Antlitz; Old English ansīen (“face”), Middle English neb (“face, nose”) (from Old English nebb), Middle English ler, leor, leer (“face, cheek, countenance”) (from Old English hlēor), and non-native Middle English vis (“face, appearance, look”) (from Old French vis) and Middle English chere (“face”) from Old French chere.
In the sense of face as in reputation, influenced by Chinese 面子 (miànzi) or 臉／脸 (liǎn), both of which mean literally the front of the head and metaphorically one's public image. See lose face.

noncog

talk to the hand 'cause the face ain't listening

It was just the usual faces at the pub tonight.

He better not show his face around here no more.

(metonymic) A person; the self; (reflexively, objectifying) oneself.


Canberra

Canberra
History of Canberra#The name Canberra

Uncertain. Most commonly said to be from Ngunawal kamberra (“meeting place”). See more theories on Wikipedia.

A new tax policy was announced by Canberra today.

(colloquial, metonymic) The Australian federal government.


Ottawa

→ French: Ottawa

→ Japanese: オタワ

desctree

→ Russian: Оттава (Ottava)
→ Armenian: Օտտավա (Ōttava)

[ˈɔɾ̥əwa(ː)]

From Ojibwe odaawaa/ᐅᑡᐙ (“an Ottawa; a trader”), from Proto-Algonquian *atawewa (“to trade”).

Odawa (alternative)
Odaawaa (alternative)
Ottowa (alternative)

New vehicles will cut emissions by 5.3 megatonnes by 2010 as part of Ottawa's plans to meet Canada's Kyoto targets.

2005 April 5, “Ottawa, carmakers reach Kyoto deal”, in CBC News:

Literacy groups across the country demanded Wednesday that Ottawa put back the $17.7 million it cut from adult literacy programs last week.

2006 October 4, “Literacy groups demand $17M back from Ottawa”, in CBC News:

Ottawa announced the mission in Afghanistan will have a greater focus on reconstruction, development and security training, with an increase in aid of more than a half a billion dollars.

2008 June 10, “Ottawa boosting aid to Afghanistan by $550 million”, in CBC News:

(by synecdoche, metonymic) The federal government of Canada.


chat

en-noun

chat (countable and uncountable, plural chats)

Abbreviation of chatter. The bird sense refers to the sound of its call.

談話 /谈话

conversation to stop an argument or settle situations

The chat just made a joke about my poor skillz.

"Chat, should I pick up this sword before heading out?"

Chat, is this prime minister serious?

2024 September 11, Fatima Payman, 00:48 from the start, in Skibidi Senator Payman + 100,000 aura (video), archived from the original on 2024-09-12:

(Internet, uncountable, with or without "the") A chat room, especially (in later use) one accompanying a videoconference or live stream.

(metonymic, originally video games) The entirety of users, viewed collectively, in a chat room, especially the chat room accompanying a live stream.


Putrajaya

From Malay Putrajaya; from Sanskrit पुत्र (putra, “son”) + जय (jayá, “victory”).


New Delhi

In a statement issued on 3 November, New Delhi said that it will study the recommendations on institutional changes outlined in the report of the UN Secretary General's panel that had stopped short of definitive recommendations on new permanent members.

2005, Foreign Policy Annual, 2001-2009: Events, Gyan Publishing House, →ISBN, page 420:

India claimed a diplomatic victory over Pakistan after Islamabad failed to win support for a U.N. resolution on Kashmir that New Delhi said violated its sovereignty. A group of countries led by Pakistan withdrew the resolution, which urged ...

1995, Asian Bulletin, Volume 20, Issues 1-6, APACL Publications [Asian Peoples' Anti-Communist League], unnumbered page

As Russia accords considerable priority to its strategic partnership with India, it has to reckon with the Indian factor and is therefore subject to pressure from New Delhi in its relations with China.

2004 November 1, Joseph Y.S. Cheng, “Challenges to China's Russian Policy in Early 21st Century”, in Journal of contemporary Asia:

(figurative, metonymic) The government of India.


dish

dish (countable and uncountable, plural dishes)

Tok Pisin: dis

From Middle English dissh, disch, from Old English disċ (“plate; bowl; dish”), from Proto-West Germanic *disk (“table; dish”) (whence also Proto-Slavic *dъska, whence Bulgarian дъска́ (dǎská), Polish deska, Russian доска́ (doská)), Russian чан (čan)) from Latin discus. Doublet of dais, desk, disc, discus, disk, and diskos.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots disch (“dish; plate”), Dutch dis (“table”), German Low German Disk, Disch (“table”), German Tisch (“table”), Danish disk (“dish; counter”), Swedish disk (“dish; counter”), Icelandic diskur (“dish; plate”), Finnish tiski (“desk, counter; dish”).
Compare the identical meaning expansion (vessel for food, then also content of such a vessel, then also specific type of food): Bulgarian блю́до (bljúdo), Russian блю́до (bljúdo). For the roundness aspect compare Polish rondel (“pan, saucepan”) (< Latin rotundus (whence also English round)).

doublet

a vegetable dish

this dish is filling and easily made

Let's carve him a dish fit for the gods

1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

(metonymic) A specific type of prepared food.


hide

hides (plural)
hyde (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English hyde, from Old English hȳd, from Proto-West Germanic *hūdi, from Proto-Germanic *hūdiz, from Proto-Indo-European *kéw(H)tis (“skin, hide”) (compare Latin cutis (“skin, rind, hide”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kew(H)- (“to cover”), ultimately the same root as the above etymology. More at sky.
Cognates
See also West Frisian hûd, Dutch huid, German Haut, Welsh cwd (“scrotum”), Latin cutis (“skin”), Lithuanian kutys (“purse, money-belt”), Ancient Greek κύτος (kútos, “hollow vessel”), σκῦτος (skûtos, “cover, hide”).

cog

to save his own hide

better watch his hide

The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of money and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide—as I think he will.

1957, Ayn Rand, Francisco d'Anconia's speech in Atlas Shrugged

(metonymic, uncountable, informal, usually US) One's own life or personal safety, especially when in peril.


sleep

en-noun

sleep (countable and uncountable, plural sleeps)

From Middle English slepe, sleep, sleepe, from Old English slǣp (“sleep”), from Proto-West Germanic *slāp, from Proto-Germanic *slēpaz (“sleep”).

There are only three sleeps till Christmas!


string

string (countable and uncountable, plural strings)

Tok Pisin: string

→ Dutch: string

→ Finnish: stringit

→ French: string

→ German: String

desc

מחרוז//מַחְרֹזֶת

→ Hebrew: מחרוז /מַחְרֹזֶת (makhrózet) (semantic loan)

→ Japanese: ストリング (sutoringu)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: streng (semantic loan)

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: streng (semantic loan)

→ Polish: stringi

→ Portuguese: estrém; string

→ Swedish: string

From Middle English string, streng, strynge, from Old English strenġ, from Proto-West Germanic *strangi, from Proto-Germanic *strangiz (“string”), from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- (“rope, cord, strand; to tighten”).
Cognate with Scots string (“string”), Dutch streng (“cord, strand”), Low German strenge (“strand, cord, rope”), German Strang (“strand, cord, rope”), Danish streng (“string”), Swedish sträng (“string, cord, wire”), Icelandic strengur (“string”), Latvian stringt (“to be tight, wither”), Latin stringō (“I tighten”), Ancient Greek στραγγαλόομαι (strangalóomai, “to strangle”), from στραγγάλη (strangálē, “halter”), Ancient Greek στραγγός (strangós, “tied together, entangled, twisted”).

cog

στραγγαλόομαι

弦

any similar long, thin and flexible object

弓弦

ゆづる, yuzuru, ゆみづる, yumizuru, ゆんづる, yunzuru

(music, metonymic, countable) A stringed instrument.


door

doors (plural)
doore (alternative obsolete)
durre (alternative obsolete)

Belizean Creole: doa

Sranan Tongo: doro

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

non-rhotic, dough–door merger, African-American Vernacular

dour (in one pronunciation, with the pour–poor merger)

From Middle English dore, dor, from Old English duru (“door”), dor (“gate”), from Proto-West Germanic *dur, from Proto-Germanic *durz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwṓr, from *dʰwer- (“doorway, door, gate”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots door (“door”), Saterland Frisian Doore (“door”), West Frisian doar (“door”), Dutch deur (“door”), German Low German Door, Döör (“door”), German Tür (“door”), Tor (“gate”), Danish and Norwegian dør (“door”), Icelandic dyr (“door”), Latin foris and foras, Ancient Greek θύρα (thúra), Albanian derë pl. dyer, Central Kurdish دەرگە (derge), derî, Persian در (dar), Russian дверь (dverʹ), Hindi द्वार (dvār), Armenian դուռ (duṙ), Irish doras, Sanskrit द्वार (dvāra), Lithuanian durys.

a creaking door hangs long on its hinges

at church every time the doors swing open

close the stable door after the horse has bolted

don't let the door hit you on the way out

let the door hit you where the good Lord split you

His house is three doors down.

He went five doors up the road to the bank.

We walked three doors up the street where we stopped in front 71 Richard D. Kutz.

2012 June, Richard D. Kutz, Up the Park, First Books, →ISBN, page 71:

"...The storage room is about, oh, three doors down, on the left. I'll point it out as we go by. Pay attention so you know where you have to come back to. Only then it'll be — let me see — about five doors down on your right."

2015 February 2, Laurel Deedrick-Mayne, A Wake For The Dreamland, FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 24:

A woman pushes a stroller in the direction of the synagogue, and another, just one door down from Pessie's apartment, is unloading groceries from her minivan.

2024 March 26, Julia Dahl, Run You Down: A Novel, Macmillan + ORM, →ISBN:

(metonymic, chiefly in the plural) A building with a door, especially a house.


violin

→ Japanese: バイオリン (baiorin)

→ Korean: 바이올린 (baiollin)

From Italian violino (“little viola”), from viola + -ino (forming diminutives).

The violins are seated with sufficient elbow room.

She is first violin in the London Symphony Orchestra.

(music, metonymic) A violinist in an orchestra or group.


power

en-noun

power (countable and uncountable, plural powers)

powers (plural)
powre (alternative obsolete)

→ German: Power

/ˈpʌʊ̯.(ə)ɹ/

From Middle English power, poer, from Old French poeir, from Vulgar Latin potēre, from Latin posse, whence English potent. Compare French pouvoir. Displaced the native Old English anweald.

հզորություն

physics: measure of the rate of doing work or transferring energy

(social) The ability to coerce, influence, or control.

(metonymic, chiefly in the plural) The people in charge of legal or political power, the government.

zotërim

control, particularly legal or political

vallanpitäjät

In the 19th century, Britain and France were major colonial powers.

Britain is no longer the maritime power that it once was.

Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.

2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8:

(metonymic) A strong or influential nation, company, or other such body.

The threatning words of duke Robert comming at the last to king Henries eares, caused him foorthwith to conceiue verie sore displeasure against the duke, in so much that he sent ouer a power of men into Normandie, which finding no great resistance, did much hurt in the countrie, by fetching and carieng spoiles and preies.

1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC:

Then when our powers in points of ſwords are ioin’d
And cloſde in compaſſe of the killing bullet,
Though ſtraite the paſſage and the port be made,
That leads to Pallace of my brothers life,
Proud is his fortune if we pierce it not.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:

(metonymic, archaic) An army, a military force.


URL

/ˌjuːˌɑːɹˈɛl/

ΟΕΠ

ομοιόμορφος εντοπιστής πόρων (omoiómorfos entopistís póron)

Google itself has even been accused of profiting from the work of cybersquatters who buy URLs that are near to famous ones, but which often get mistyped–a practice known as typosquatting.

2010 September 14, Kit Eaton, “From URLs to Apple Apps: A Brief History of Cybersquatting”, in Fast Company:

This illegal activity involves buying a URL that’s a misspelling of a popular kids site, e.g. bobthebiulder.com, and then serving hardcore porn ads.

2011 June 14, Michael Agger, “Google Kids: The Sequel”, in Slate:

For a few days leading up to Christmas that year, Howe set up a kiosk in a mall that sold domain names to average shoppers. They sold about 50 of them to people who were persuaded to buy a url and a hosting package for a present instead of a traditional gift for families and friends.

2012 December 31, Alyson Shontell, “Meet Page Howe, A Man Who Made Millions Selling 2 Of The World's Most Expensive Domain Names”, in Business Insider:

Some of them appear to be simple website squatting, buying URLs in hopes that someone else will pay a premium for the real estate later […]

2013 November 16, Ben Richmond, “Some of the Fraudulent Obamacare Sites Work Better Than the Real Thing”, in Motherboard:

She bought a URL from GoDaddy and Defense of Democracy was born.

2023 May 30, Sarah Jones, “The Revolt of the Other Mothers”, in Intelligencer:

Uniform Resource Locator
Uniform Resource Locator#English

Initialism of Uniform Resource Locator: the address of a web page, FTP site, audio stream or other Internet resource.


plate

→ Maori: pereti

→ Hindi: प्लेट (pleṭ)

From Middle English plate, from Old French plate, from Medieval Latin plata, from Vulgar Latin *plat(t)us, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat, wide”). Compare Spanish plato.
(foot): Cockney rhyming slang, from "plates of meat" for "feet".

der

He stole a car and changed the plates as soon as he could.

(especially Australia; metonymic, plural only) Vehicle license plates, registration plates.


blade

From Middle English blade, blad, from Old English blæd (“leaf”), from Proto-West Germanic *blad, from Proto-Germanic *bladą, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥h₃-o-to-m, from *bʰleh₃- (“to thrive, bloom”).
See also West Frisian bled, Dutch blad, German Blatt, Danish blad, Irish bláth (“flower”), Welsh blodyn (“flower”), Tocharian A pält, Tocharian B pilta (“leaf”), Albanian fletë (“leaf”). Similar usage in German Sägeblatt (“saw blade”, literally “saw leaf”). Doublet of blat. More at blow.

teh

typically sharp-edged working end of a knife or other cutting tool

Paul: Give the Harkonnen a blade and let him stand forth.
Shaddam IV: If Feyd wishes, he can meet you with my blade in his hand.

1984, 2:08:29 from the start, in Dune (Science Fiction), →OCLC:

The (typically sharp-edged) part of a knife, sword, razor, or other tool with which it cuts.


brass

en-noun

brass (usually uncountable, plural brasses)

From Middle English bras, bres, from Old English bræs (“brass, bronze”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps representing a backformation from Proto-Germanic *brasnaz (“brazen”), from or related to *brasō (“fire, pyre”). Compare Old Norse and Icelandic bras (“solder”), Icelandic brasa (“to harden in the fire”), Swedish brasa (“a small controlled fire”), Danish brase (“to fry”); French braser ("to solder"; > English braise) from the same Germanic root. Compare also Middle Dutch braspenninc ("a silver coin", literally, "silver-penny"; > Dutch braspenning), Old Frisian bress (“copper”), Middle Low German bras (“metal, ore”).
In the military sense an ellipsis of the brass hats.

unc

uncertain

gloss

"to solder"; > English <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">braise</i>

"a silver coin", literally, "silver-penny"; > Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">braspenning</i>

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

The brass are not going to like this.

The brass is not going to like this.

I don't want to keep the brass waiting, Chief.

2004 November 9, Bungie, Halo 2, spoken by Avery Johnson (David Scully), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: The Armory:

(military, business or other organizations, uncountable, used as a singular or plural noun, metonymic) High-ranking officers: the brass hats.


field

→ Japanese: フィールド (fīrudo)

From Middle English feeld, feld, from Old English feld, from Proto-West Germanic *felþu, from Proto-Germanic *felþuz (“field”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“field, plain”) or *pleth₂- (“flat”) (with schwebeablaut).
Cognate with Scots feld, feild (“field”), North Frisian fjild (“field”), West Frisian fjild (“field”), Dutch veld (“field”), German Feld (“field”), Swedish fält (“field”). Related also to Old English folde (“earth, land, territory”), Old English folm (“palm of the hand”). More at fold.

veld

land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; open country

fushë

sports: area reserved for playing a game

Euclidean domain ⊂ principal ideal domain ⊂ unique factorization domain

Noetherian domain ⊂ integral domain ⊂ commutative ring

This racehorse is the strongest in a weak field.

A place where competitive matches are carried out.

(metonymic) All of the competitors in any outdoor contest or trial, or all except the favourites in the betting.

pole závodníků

all of the competitors in any outdoor contest or trial, or all except the favourites in the betting


crown

→ Japanese: クラウン (kuraun)

→ Korean: 크라운 (keuraun)

→ Maori: karauna

From Middle English coroune, from Anglo-Norman corone, from Latin corōna (“crown, wreath”), from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē). Doublet of corona, korona, koruna, krona, króna, and krone. Displaced native Old English corenbēag (“crown”); and Middle English kinehelm, kynehelm, from Old English cynehelm (“crown”).
* (paper size): So called because originally watermarked with a crown.

doublet

A parliament may be diſſolved by the demiſe of the crown.

1765, William Blackstone, “Of the Parliament”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 181:

(metonymic) The sovereign (in a monarchy), as head of state.


hoop

en-noun

hoop (countable and uncountable, plural hoops)

From Middle English hoop, hoope, from Old English hōp (“mound, raised land; in combination, circular object”), from Proto-Germanic *hōpą (“bend, bow, arch”) (compare Saterland Frisian Houp (“hoop”), Dutch hoep (“hoop”), Old Norse hóp (“bay, inlet”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kāb- (“to bend”) (compare Lithuanian kabė (“hook”), Old Church Slavonic кѫпъ (kǫpŭ, “hill, island”)). More at camp.

cog

Articles ranging from Chris Johnson's "For Europeans, hoops is the second-most beautiful game" for The Globe and Mail to Adam Minter's "China Is Hoops Country" for Bloomberg Opinion have detailed the rise in basketball in a wide range of countries, including the most populous ones in the world.

2018 July 30, Bruce Y. Lee, “How This Sport Is Changing Kids' Health Around The World”, in Forbes:

(US, in the plural, metonymic) The game of basketball.

koris

''(in the plural)'' the game of basketball

The stewards ordered Des Coleman, the senior hoop (jockey) present, to ride and he got the horse home in a photo-finish.

2011, James Morton, Susanna Lobez, Kings of Stings: The Greatest Swindles from Down Under:

(Australia, metonymic, slang, by extension) A jockey.


suit

desc

→ Kashubian: sut (Canada, United States)

→ Swahili: suti

From Middle English sute, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suite and Old French sieute, siute (modern suite), originally a participle adjective from Vulgar Latin *sequita (for secūta), from Latin sequi (“to follow”), because the component garments "follow each other", i.e. are worn together. See also the doublet suite. Cognate with Italian seguire and Spanish seguir. Related to sue and segue.

Be sure to keep your nose to the grindstone today; the suits are making a "surprise" visit to this department.

You had an army / Of suits behind you

1996, Ani DiFranco, “Napoleon”, in Dilate:

Two smartly dressed suits walked up to the doctor. "Are you alright Dr. La Perouse?"

2016, A.K. Brown, Jumpstart (Champagne Universe Series: Book 1), page 29:

Suits didn't wear suits any more—they wore Tibetan prayer beads coiled around their wrists. But they slithered in a suitlike way.

2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN:

(derogatory, slang, metonymic) A person who wears matching jacket and trousers, especially a boss or a supervisor.

bílý límeček

slang: person who wears matching jacket and trousers

slipsnisse

person who wears a tie, usually referencing bureaucrats and the like


Brussels

From Dutch Brussel and French Bruxelles, from Proto-Germanic, composed of the words *brōk (“marsh”) + *sali (“building, room”). The metonymic meaning of Brussels as the European Union stems from the fact that the EU headquarters is based in Brussels.

(metonymic) The administrative apparatus of the European Union.


CD

en-noun

CD (countable and uncountable, plural CDs)

Abbreviation of various terms and phrases.

سِي دِي

abbreviation of compact disc — see also compact disc

Mariah Carey's new CD has some R'n'B influences.

Initialism of compact disc; a disc once commonly used to store data, and especially for the distribution of music and software.

(metonymic, dated) An album; a collection of musical recordings (or, occasionally, other audio such as spoken word).


Athens

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Athens.wav

From Middle English Athens, from Old French Athenes, Atenes, from Latin Athēnae pl (acc. Athēnās), from Ancient Greek Ἀθῆναι pl (Athênai), the plural form of Ἀθήνη (Athḗnē, “Athena”) (q.v.), the goddess. More at Athena. Doublet of Athina.


Paris

Paree (alternative deliberate humorous misspelling)
Parish (alternative)
Parris (alternative)
Parrish (alternative)
Pares (alternative)

desctree

→ Arabic: بارِيس (bārīs), بَارِيز (bārīz) — dated, پَارِيس (pārīs) — rare
→ Afar: Baaríis
→ Somali: Baaríis

→ Hindi: पेरिस (peris)

→ Urdu: پَیرِس (pairis)
→ Punjabi: پَیرَس (pairas)

From Middle English Parys, Paris, from Old French Paris, from the Late Latin name of an earlier settlement, Lutetia Parisiorum (“Lutetia of the Parisii”), from Latin Parīsiī, a Gaulish tribe, from Transalpine Gaulish *parios (“cauldron”), from Proto-Celtic *kʷaryos, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷer-. Doublet of Parizh.

der

General American, Canada, Mary–marry–merry merger


Moscow

Ultimately from Old East Slavic Москов- (Moskov-), originally referring to the Moskva River, probably from Proto-Slavic *mosky (“swamp, dampness, moisture”). Perhaps related to Czech moskva (“raw bread”), Slovak mozga (“puddle”), Polish Mozgawa, and more distantly Latvian mazgāt (“to wash, rinse”), Sanskrit मज्जति (májjati, “to sink”), Latin mergō (“to dive”), all from Proto-Indo-European *mesg- (“to plunge, dip”). Cognate with Russian промозглый (promozglyj, “dank”). Doublet of Moskva.

Moscow doubtless wants to make trouble for the Western Powers so far as she can without losing their recognition or encouraging actual hostility. She wants peace and trade and an opportunity for internal economic reconstruction above everything just now. It seems doubtful whether she expects to Bolshevize China, though she wants China fully independent of Western imperialism and friendly to her.

1927 May, Quincy Wright, “Bolshevist Influences in China”, in Current History, volume XXVI, number 2, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 302, column 2:

I could not agree with the tactics or approach of those who, like Chiang Kai-shek in a speech on July 3, 1950, wanted the U.N. to charge the Russians with the full responsibility for this Korean conflict and to demand that Moscow put an end to it. This kind of bluster is certain to lead into an impossible dilemma. If these suggestions had been followed and the Soviets had ignored the order, as in all likelihood they would have done, either the United Nations would have stood convicted of weakness or World War III would have been on.

1956, Harry S. Truman, Memoirs of Harry S. Truman: Years of Trial And Hope, volume II, Doubleday & Company, →OCLC, pages 345–346:

The translation of Khrushchev's letter reached me later that day, and I read it with care and with growing disappointment. It seemed designed for propaganda purposes rather than serious diplomacy. Khrushchev roundly denounced "colonizers" and "imperialism" as the major causes of past wars. Of course, he did not mention the Soviet Union's attack on Finland, the obliteration of the Baltic states, or the "colonization" of Eastern Europe by Moscow after World War II.

1971, Lyndon Johnson, “Thawing the Cold War”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 464–465:

Moscow said "Nyet!"

1987, Shelomoh Naḳdimon, First strike: the exclusive story of how Israel foiled Iraq's attempt to get the bomb, page 40:

Yet, a few US newscasters will go on the air at 6 pm or later and say, "Moscow said tonight.["] ... A careful writer would make his script read, "Moscow said today. ..."

1997, Mervin Block, Writing Broadcast News: Shorter, Sharper, Stronger, →ISBN, page 154:

In addition, Moscow argued that Georgia had violated international law by introducing its forces into South Ossetia, a move Moscow said Tbilisi had committed itself not to do under the earlier CIS-sponsored peacekeeping arrangements.

2009, Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Star, The Guns of August 2008: Russia's War in Georgia, →ISBN, page 184:

(metonymic, politics) The government of Russia or the Soviet Union.


London

en-proper noun

London (countable and uncountable, plural Londons)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: London

→ Chinese: 倫敦 /伦敦 (Lúndūn)

From Middle English London, from Old English Lunden, from Proto-Celtic via Latin Londinium – see for details. Doublet of Londinium.

Londens

of, from or pertaining to London in the UK

(metonymic) The government of the United Kingdom, otherwise known as Westminster.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A census-designated place in Tulare County, California, with a population of approximately 1,800.

unincorporated community
unincorporated community

An unincorporated community in Kimble County, Texas, with a population of approximately 180.

An unincorporated community in Kanawha County, West Virginia.

Jefferson County
Jefferson County#English

An unincorporated community in Dane County and Jefferson County, Wisconsin.


Stockholm

From Swedish Stockholm, compound of stock (“log”) + holme (“islet”), possibly referring to logs put outside of the Stockholm shores to prevent ships from invading.


Ankara

From Turkish Ankara and Ottoman Turkish آنقره (Ankara), from Byzantine Greek and Ancient Greek Ἄγκυρα (Ánkura), from ἄγκυρα (ánkura, “anchor, hook”) in reference to the bend in the Çölova River before it merges with the Cubuk to become the Ankara but probably also calquing a local name ultimately derived from Hittite [script needed] (Ankuwaš), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enk- (“elbow, bend, curve”). The river and province are named for the city. Doublet of Angora, angle, and anchor.


pint

From Middle English pinte, from Old French pinte, assumed from Vulgar Latin *pincta (“a mark used to indicate a level of quantity against a larger measure”), from Latin picta (“painted”), from Latin pingō (“paint”, verb). Doublet of pinto and Pinto.

halstuoppi

closest equivalent in traditional Finnish units

Please leave three pints tomorrow, milkman.

A couple of pints please, barman.

Finn: You must have a terrible thirst on you tonight. I've never seen a man drink two pints at the same time.

1998, Kirk Jones, Waking Ned, Tomboy films:

(UK, metonymic) A glass of beer or cider, served by the pint.

μισόλιτρο n (misólitro, literally “half a litre”)


monopoly

From Latin monopōlium, from Ancient Greek μονοπώλιον (monopṓlion, “a right of exclusive sale”), from μόνος (mónos, “sole”) + πωλέω (pōléō, “I barter, sell”). By surface analysis, mono- + -poly.

uder

(metonymic) The holder (person, company or other) of such market domination in one of the above manners.


fork

Sranan Tongo: forku

→ Dutch: fork

→ Japanese: フォーク (fōku)

→ Kannada: ಫೋರ್ಕ್ (phōrk)

→ Korean: 포크 (pokeu)

→ Maori: paoka

→ Tamil: போர்க் (pōrk)

→ Telugu: ఫోర్క్ (phōrk)

From Middle English forke (“digging fork”), from Old English force, forca (“forked instrument used to torture”), from Proto-West Germanic *furkō (“fork”), from Latin furca (“pitchfork, forked stake; gallows, beam, stake, support post, yoke”), of uncertain origin. The Middle English word was later reinforced by Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French forque (= Old French forche whence French fourche), also from the Latin. Doublet of fourche and furcate. Cognate also with North Frisian forck (“fork”), Dutch vork (“fork”), Danish fork (“fork”), German Forke (“pitchfork”). Displaced native gafol, ġeafel, ġeafle (“fork”), from Old English.
In its primary sense of “fork”, Latin furca appears to be derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerk(ʷ)-, *ǵʰerg(ʷ)- (“fork”), although the development of the -c- is difficult to explain. In other senses this derivation is unlikely. For these, perhaps it is connected to Proto-Germanic *furkaz, *firkalaz (“stake, stick, pole, post”), from Proto-Indo-European *perg- (“pole, post”). If so, this would relate the word to Old English forclas pl (“bolt”), Old Saxon ferkal (“lock, bolt, bar”), Old Norse forkr (“pole, staff, stick”), Norwegian fork (“stick, bat”), Swedish fork (“pole”).

tienhaara

figurative: point in time of making a decision

afsplitsing

computer science: splitting of a process

odnož

computer science: copying and separately developing a project

bifurcació

computer science: a separately developed project based upon a copy of an existing project

a three-prong spear somewhat resembling a pitchfork

a thunderbolt with three forks

this fork of the river dries up during droughts

(metonymic, analogous to any prong of a pronged tool) One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.

haara

one of the parts into which anything is furcated

(figuratively, decision-making) A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths.

(metonymic) Either of the (figurative) paths thus taken.

(figuratively, by abstraction, from a physical fork) (software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally.

(metonymic) Any of the pieces/versions (of software, content, or data sets) thus created.


semiconductor

Near-synonyms: chip, microchip, integrated circuit

The company supplies semiconductors to laptop, server, and smartphone manufacturers.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Wednesday said its revenues increased more sharply in the first quarter of 2024 than in any previous quarter since 2022 following a surge in demand for microchips driven by the artificial-intelligence boom. TSMC, which supplies semiconductors to top companies including Apple and Nvidia, posted a 16.5% increase in its first-quarter sales to NT$592.64 billion ($18.54 billion), in a sign the global chip market has now started recovering from the major slump that hit sales in 2023.

2024 April 10, Louis Goss, “Chip maker TSMC posts sharpest increase in sales since 2022 following AI boom”, in MarketWatch, retrieved 2024-05-08:

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo proudly held up the progress of American industry on semiconductor manufacturing Sunday, declaring the U.S. has “outinnovated” China as the two nations fight to advance their domestic technology manufacturing.

2024 April 21, Nick Robertson, “Gina Raimondo says ‘we’ve outinnovated China’ amid chips war”, in The Hill:

semiconductor device
w:semiconductor device

(business, metonymic) Ellipsis of semiconductor device.


trash

en-noun

trash (countable and uncountable, plural trashes)

From Middle English trasch, trassh, probably a dialectal form of *trass (compare Orkney truss, English dialectal trous), from Old Norse tros (“rubbish, fallen leaves and twigs”), perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *þrakjaz (“dirt”). Pokorny instead derives it from Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”).
Compare Norwegian trask (“lumber, trash, baggage”), Swedish trasa (“rag, cloth, worthless fellow”), Swedish trås (“dry fallen twigs, wood-waste”). Compare also Old English þreax (“rottenness, rubbish”).

cog

one man's trash is another man's treasure

(chiefly Canada, US, metonymic) A container into which things are discarded.


Budapest

From Hungarian Budapest, from Buda + Pest.

After information about the secret proceedings between Berlin and Budapest leaked, Rome approached Budapest to get details on the concessions granted with the envisaged German–Hungarian commercial contract.

2016, Per Tiedtke, chapter 8, in Germany, Italy and the International Economy 1929–1936: Co-operation or Rivalries at Times of Crisis?, Europe: Tectum Verlag, →ISBN, page 265:


switch

→ Gulf Arabic: سويچ (swīč)

→ German: Switch

Perhaps from Middle Dutch swijch (“twig”), first attested in c. 1592. The mechanical device for altering the direction of something sense is first attested in c. 1797, pertaining to pivoted rails on minecart railways, which were once wooden.

камута́тар

system allowing the interconnection of telephone lines

(firearms, slang) Synonym of Glock switch.

(slang, metonymic) A Glock pistol equipped with a Glock switch.


jib

Attested since the 1660s, of uncertain origin, perhaps a shortening of gibbet.

(metonymic, cinematography, film) A crane used for mounting and moving a video camera.

кран

crane for mounting, moving a video camera


Bangkok

Bankok (alternative archaic)
Bancock (alternative obsolete)
Bangkock (alternative obsolete)


Berlin

en-prop

Berlin (countable and uncountable, plural Berlins)

Baden-Württemberg · Bavaria · Brandenburg · Hesse · Lower Saxony · Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania · North Rhine-Westphalia · Rhineland-Palatinate · Saarland · Saxony · Saxony-Anhalt · Schleswig-Holstein · Thuringia

The practical implication of this decision in the world of 1948 is clear: The United States would indeed support the veterans of the Vlasov Army, the eastern SS collaborators, and other groups that had permitted themselves to become pawns of Berlin during the war.

2014, Christopher Simpson, “three”, in Mark Crispin Miller, editor, Blowback: America’s Recruitment of Nazis and Its Destructive Impact on Our Domestic and Foreign Policy, New York: Open Road Media, →ISBN, page 79:


Copenhagen

Norwegian Bokmål: Copenhagen

/ˌkəʊpənˈheɪɡən/

/ˌkəʊpənˈhɑːɡən/

From Low German Kopenhagen, a calque (perhaps modified by folk etymology) of Danish København. Compare Hague).

Copenhagen (disambiguation)
Copenhagen County
Copenhagen, Louisiana


Dublin

From Middle Irish Dublind, from dub (“black”) + lind (“pond”).

(metonymic) The government of the Republic of Ireland.


plastic

en-noun

plastic (countable and uncountable, plural plastics)

plastics (plural)
plastick (alternative)

→ Japanese: プラスチック (purasuchikku)

→ Korean: 플라스틱 (peullaseutik)

→ Swahili: plastiki

From Latin plasticus (“of molding”), from Ancient Greek πλαστικός (plastikós), from πλάσσω (plássō, “to mold, form”). Doublet of plastique.

I knew the war between cash and credit cards was over and plastic had won, hands down, when even Mickey D's started taking credit and debit cards.

It's all about fast cars and cussing each other / but it doesn't matter cause I'm packing plastic / and that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic.

(colloquial, metonymic) Credit or debit cards used in place of cash to buy goods and services.


bar

bar (countable and uncountable, plural bars)

→ Albanian: bar m

→ Arabic: بَار m (bār)

→ Armenian: բար (bar)

→ Bulgarian: бар (bar)

→ Burmese: ဘား (bha:)

→ Chichewa: bála

→ Cantonese: 吧 (baa¹)

→ Czech: bar m

→ Danish: bar c

→ Dutch: bar m

→ Esperanto: baro

→ Estonian: baar

→ French: bar m
→ Romanian: bar

→ Galician: bar m

→ Georgian: ბარი (bari)

→ German: Bar f

→ Greek: μπαρ n (bar)

→ Gulf Arabic: بار (bār)

→ Hebrew: בָּר (bar), בָּאר (bár)

→ Hungarian: bár (also via German)

→ Icelandic: bar m

→ Irish: beár m

→ Italian: bar m

→ Japanese: バー (bā)

→ Khmer: បារ (baa)

→ Korean: 바 (ba)

→ Lithuanian: bãras m

→ Macedonian: бар m (bar)

→ Malagasy: ba

→ Mandarin: 吧 (bā)

→ Norwegian:

Bokmål: bar m

Nynorsk: bar m

→ Persian: بار (bâr)

→ Polish: bar m

→ Portuguese: bar m

→ Russian: бар m (bar)

→ Serbo-Croatian: ба̑р m, bȃr m

→ Slovene: bȃr m

→ Spanish: bar m

→ Swahili: baa

→ Swedish: bar c (see there for further descendants)

→ Thai: บาร์ (baa)

→ Turkish: bar

→ Xhosa: íbhári

→ Zulu: ibha

From Middle English barre, from Old French barre (“beam, bar, gate, barrier”), from Vulgar Latin *barra, of uncertain origin. Doublet of barre.

der

He was called to the bar.

(law, metonymic, "the Bar", "the bar") Collectively, lawyers or the legal profession; specifically applied to barristers in some countries, but including all lawyers in others.

"the Bar"; "the bar"; "the Bar"; "the bar"


The Hague

From the French translation (confused with La Hague) of Dutch Den Haag, short form of 's-Gravenhage, from Middle Dutch des Graven hage (1400s), literally, "the Count's hedge[-enclosed hunting grounds]",

International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice

(metonymic) The International Criminal Court or International Court of Justice.


Jakarta

/d͡ʒəˈkɑː(ɹ)tə/

From Indonesian Jakarta, from Sanskrit जयकर्ता (jayakartā, “that which causes victory”).

In an effort to make sure the referendum would not take place or that the Timorese would at least approve the outcome desired by Jakarta, the Indonesians launched yet another campaign of terror and killings, the violence dramatically increasing in the months before the UN agreement and culminating in the weeks after the vote on August 30.

2010, Edward Herman, David Peterson, The Politics of Genocide, New York: Monthly Review Press, →ISBN, page 90:


Kiev

From Russian Ки́ев (Kíjev), from Old East Slavic Кꙑевъ (Kyjevŭ), which folk-etymology derives from the name of city's legendary founder Kyi. Other proposals derive it from Proto-Slavic *kyjь (“stick, club, hammer”) (compare to Russian кий (kij)). See also at the article about Old East Slavic Кꙑевъ (Kyjevŭ).

Alternative form of Kyiv:
(metonymic) The government of Ukraine.

Alternative form of Kyiv:
The government of Ukraine.


Lisbon

As the capital of Portugal, from French Lisbonne, from Arabic لِشْبُونَة (lišbūna), from Latin Olisīpō, the origin of which is uncertain. Older spellings include Ulixbona and Ulixbuna (in the Visigothic era); Ὀλισσιπών (Olissipṓn) or Ὀλισσιπόνα (Olissipóna) (by Greek writers), Olisippo (by Pliny the Elder), and Ulyssippo (by Pomponius Mela of Hispania), the last of which relates to the first-century Roman folk etymology that it was founded by and named after Ulysses; another common folk etymology is the Phoenician 𐤏𐤋𐤉𐤑 𐤏𐤁𐤀 (ʿlyṣ ʿbʾ /ʿaliṣ-ʿuboʾ/, “safe harbour”), but there is not much evidence for such words. Another possibility, based on hydronymy of the area, derives the name from Paleo-Hispanic's appellation for the Tagus, Lisso or Lucio.
In other senses, with reference to the Portuguese city.
More at Lisbon.


Riyadh

From Arabic الرِّيَاض (ar-riyāḍ, literally “the meadows”).

bor

(metonymic) the government of Saudi Arabia


Rome

→ Hindi: रोम (rom)

→ Thai: โรม (room)

From Middle English Rome, from Old English Rōm, from Proto-West Germanic *Rūmu, from Proto-Germanic *Rūmō and influenced by Late Latin Rōma (“Rome, Constantinople”), from Classical Latin Rōma (“Rome”). In Roman mythology, the name was said to derive from Romulus, one of the founders of the city and its first king.
The name appears in a wide range of forms in Middle English, including Rom, Room, Roome, and Rombe as well as Rome; by early modern English, it appeared as Rome, Room, and Roome, with the spelling Rome occurring in Shakespeare and common from the early 18th century on. The final spelling was influenced by Norman, Middle French, Anglo-Norman, and Old French Rome. Doublet of Roma and Rum.

der

Rom (alternative archaic)
Roome (alternative archaic)
Room (alternative archaic)
Rhoome (alternative archaic)
Romme (alternative archaic)
Rowme (alternative archaic)
Roym (alternative archaic)
Rum (alternative archaic)
Roma (alternative uncommon)

do not sit in Rome and strive with the Pope

At first, Berlin tried to amend the agreement to restore a German trade surplus, but Rome refused.

2016, Per Tiedtke, chapter 2, in Germany, Italy and the International Economy 1929–1936: Co-operation or Rivalries at Times of Crisis?, Europe: Tectum Verlag, →ISBN, page 99:


Seoul

From Korean 서울 (Seoul, literally “capital city”), originally from Claude-Charles Dallet's French-based romanization of Korean, reinforced by the 1959 South Korean Ministry of Education romanization of Korean, which transcribed the Korean vowel ㅓ (/ʌ/) with the digraph "eo" and which was official until 1984.
Note that English Seoul predates the Revised Romanization romanization of Seoul. The two romanization systems simply produce identical forms.

bor

To that end, Seoul and Taipei signed a reciprocal driver’s license agreement in February, with immediate effect, to make driving easier for visitors on each side, he said.

2022 June 21, “Seoul representative taking more ‘systematic’ approach”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-06-20, Taiwan News, page 2:

After years of friction, Seoul and Tokyo are trying to collaborate more closely with each other and Washington to counter the looming geopolitical threats of China’s economic and military rise and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. The Biden administration has welcomed their efforts.

2023 May 7, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “Japanese prime minister visits Seoul, resuming ‘shuttle diplomacy’”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-07, Asia:


Hanoi

From Vietnamese Hà Nội, which is a Sino-Vietnamese word, 河內.

Ha Noi (alternative)
Hà Nội (alternative)


Frankfurt

Francfort (alternative obsolete)
Frankfort (alternative obsolete)

The poor third-quarter results from Frankfurt had the broadest impact because they spotlighted the vulnerability of the listed German universal banks to the financial crisis spreading from Asia.

1998, Franfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH Information Services, German Brief, volume 10:

Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt am Main#English

The largest city in Hesse, in central Germany; in full, Frankfurt am Main.

(metonymic) The German financial industry.

Despite this risk, little has happened in the six months since Frankfurt cut interest rates causing one to wonder how different Draghi is from his predecessor.

2014 May 9, Dan O'Brien, “Trichet like a broken record when what we need is fresh thinking”, in Irish Independent:


Tehran

Diacriticless transliteration of Iranian Persian تِهران (tehrân), from Classical Persian تَهران (tahrān). See there for more.

translit

Teheran (alternative dated)
Tehrân (alternative)


Tokyo

Borrowed from Japanese 東(とう)京(きょう) (Tōkyō, literally “eastern capital”), as opposed to Kyoto in the west, from Middle Chinese 東 (tuwng, “east”) + 京 (kjaeng, “capital”).

ja-r

Tokio (alternative obsolete)
Tōkyō (alternative Japanese alt-of romanization)
Tôkyô (alternative Japanese alt-of romanization)

Tokyo required certain military technologies and some raw materials that its main European ally already possessed, and also needed new markets for its Southeast Asian products in order to keep the local economies alive.

2017 June 8, Rotem Kowner, “When economics, strategy, and racial ideology meet: inter-Axis connections in the wartime Indian Ocean*”, in Journal of Global History, volume 12, number 2, Cambridge University Press, →DOI, page 231:

Meanwhile, Japan must bolster its own defenses and substantially increase defense spending to meet new threats. Tokyo should swallow some of its suspicions and move more quickly to rebuild frayed ties with South Korea. It should make cooperation with the United States a cornerstone of its engagement throughout the Indo-Pacific and with NATO. It is a full agenda and there is no time to lose.

2022 July 1, The Japan Times Editorial Board, “Groundbreaking NATO summit means work for Japan”, in The Japan Times, archived from the original on 2022-07-01, Editorials:


Warsaw

en-proper noun

Warsaw (countable and uncountable, plural Warsaws)


Wellington

en-prop

Wellington (countable and uncountable, plural Wellingtons)

Wellingtons (plural)
wellington (alternative)

From earlier Weolingtun, from:
# For the place in Shropshire, England: Partly uncertain. The second element from Old English tūn (“estate”), while the first element could come either from *wœling (“ridge, bank”), or else from *wēoling (“device, artefact”).
# For the place in Somerset, England: Partly obscure. The last element from Old English tūn (“estate”), while the first element could come from either the personal name *Wēola + ing, or else *wēoling (“trap”).
# Many places with this name are named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, British soldier and statesman.

(metonymic) by extension, the Government of New Zealand.


newspaper

en-noun

newspaper (countable and uncountable, plural newspapers)

Holonyms: press, news media, media

Some newspapers are afraid to do hard-hitting investigative journalism. But this newspaper doesn't run from a fight.

(countable, metonymic) The news organization that produces such a publication.


glass

glass (countable and uncountable, plural glasses)

glasses (plural)
glasse (alternative obsolete)

→ Gulf Arabic: قلاص (gḷāṣ)

→ Fiji Hindi: gilaas

→ Japanese: グラス (gurasu)

→ Kikuyu: ngirathi

→ Malay: gelas, ݢلس

From Middle English glas, from Old English glæs, from Proto-West Germanic *glas, from Proto-Germanic *glasą, possibly related to Proto-Germanic *glōaną (“to shine”) (compare glow), and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰleh₁- (“to shine, shimmer, glow”).
Cognate with West Frisian glês, Dutch glas, Low German Glas, German Glas, Swedish glas, Icelandic gler.

pleksi

sport: barrier made of solid, transparent material

people that live in glass houses should not throw stones

people that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

people who live in glass houses should not throw stones

people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

those who live in glass houses should not throw stones

those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

There is half a glass of milk in each pound of chocolate we produce.

Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.[…]In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

(metonymic) The quantity of liquid contained in such a vessel.


font

→ Thai: ฟอนต์ (fɔ́n)

From Middle French fonte (“act or process of founding or melting; act of producing items from molten metal; cast iron; set of type”) (modern French fonte), either:
* from fondre (“to melt, melt down; to smelt”), from Old French fondre, from Latin fundere, the present active infinitive of fundō (“to pour out; to make by smelting, found”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰewd- (“to pour”); or
* from Late Latin *fundita, a noun use of funditus, a perfect passive participle form of Latin fundō (see above; the classical Latin form is fūsus).

der

They bought a license for the Gulliver font and installed that font on several machines.

en:computer file encoding a typeface or subset thereof

(computing, typography, metonymic) A computer file containing the code used to draw and compose the glyphs of one or more typographic fonts on a computer display or printer.


hype

The Mob enforced the No-“H” Law. They tortured pushers. They killed them. Local hypes copped in L.A. Local hypes rode the Heroin Highway.

2001, James Ellroy, The Cold Six Thousand, New York: Knopf, →ISBN, page 90:

(metonymic, slang, dated) A drug addict.


Prague

From German Prag, from Slavic. See Czech Praha for further origin.


Holland

From Old Dutch holt lant (“wood land”). A popular but false etymology holds that it is derived from hol land (“hollow land”), inspired by the low-lying geography of both the Dutch and the English region (Holland, Lincolnshire).

(metonymic, informal, proscribed, see usage notes) the Netherlands (a country in Western Europe).


lexeme

From Latin lexis, from Ancient Greek λέξις (léxis, “word”) + -eme, a suffix indicating a fundamental unit in some aspect of linguistic structure, on the model of phoneme.

لِكْسِيم

linguistics: unit of vocabulary, set of different forms of the same lemma

en:lexical item corresponding to set of inflected forms of a lemma

multi-word expression
multi-word expression

(linguistics) A lexical item corresponding to the set of all words (or of all multi-word expressions) that are semantically related through inflection of a particular shared basic form.

(loosely, metonymic) The set itself; a lexemic family.

For the second sense, where “word” means “item that should have its own dictionary entry,” lexicographers sometimes use the term “lemma,” but that has other meanings too, so among linguists the term lexeme is now standard, and I’ll use it. For the different forms or shapes that belong to a lexeme we can use the term word-form. ¶ And as a typographical convention, from now on I’ll always put lexeme names in bold italics with a capital letter. So I’ll say there is a lexeme called Pamper [emphasis in original]. It’s the name of a small collection of word-forms with particular spellings – four of them: pamper, pampered, pampering, and pampers. I will always put word-forms (and all the phrases and clauses I mention as examples) in italics.

2024, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Truth About English Grammar, Polity Press, →ISBN, page 17:

en:lemma as representative of a lexemic family

(loosely, metonymic) The wordform chosen to represent such a set or family.


couch

→ German: Couch

→ Serbo-Croatian: кауч /kauč

From Middle English couche, cowche, from Old French couche, from the verb (see below). Doublet of cwtch.

He spent years on the couch going over his traumatic childhood.

(metonymic, usually as "the couch") Psychotherapy.


table

tables (plural)
tyebble (alternative Geordie)

→ Assamese: টেবুল (tebul)

→ Bengali: টেবিল (ṭebil)

→ Gujarati: ટેબલ (ṭebal)

→ Japanese: テーブル (tēburu)

→ Korean: 테이블 (teibeul)

→ Maori: tēpu

→ Nepali: टेबुल (ṭebul)

→ Odia: ଟେବଲ୍ (ṭebal)

→ Sylheti: ꠐꠦꠛꠥꠟ (ṭebul)

→ Telugu: టేబులు (ṭēbulu)

Inherited from Middle English table, tabel, tabil, tabul, from Old English tabele, tabul, tablu, tabule, tabula (“board”); also as tæfl, tæfel, an early Germanic borrowing of Latin tabula (“tablet, board, plank, chart”). The sense of “piece of furniture” is from Old French table, of same Latin origin; Old English used bēod or bord instead for this meaning: see board. Doublet of tabula and tavla.

(countable) Furniture with a top surface to accommodate a variety of uses.

(metonymic) A booth or display at an event such as an exposition or fair.

That's the strongest table I've ever seen at a European Poker Tour event

A group of people at a table, for example, for a meal, meeting or game.

(poker, metonymic) The lineup of players at a given table.

(roleplaying games, metonymic) A group of players meeting regularly to play a campaign.

Table 9 wants another round of beers.

John always gets the best tips because he gets the best tables! It's not fair!

(waitstaff, metonymic) A group of diners at a given table or tables.


table

en-verb

table (third-person singular simple present tables, present participle tabling, simple past and past participle tabled)

tables (present singular third-person)
tabling (participle present)
tabled (participle past)
tabled (past)
tyebble (alternative Geordie)

(metonymic) To represent a company or organization (at an exposition, fair, etc.), usually at a booth or display.


canon

en-noun

canon (countable and uncountable, plural canons)

From Middle English canoun, from Old French canon and Old English canon, both from Latin canōn, from Ancient Greek κανών (kanṓn, “measuring rod, standard”), akin to κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Semitic (compare Hebrew קָנֶה (qane, “reed”) and Arabic قَنَاة (qanāh, “reed”)). Doublet of qanun. See also cane, cannon, canyon, canal.

der

A spin-off book series revealed the aliens to be originally from Earth, but it's not canon.

Meanwhile, having learned the whereabouts of the Death Star's plans, the rebels send their best platypus agent to obtain them, in hopes of finding a weakness. And none of this is canon, so just relax.

(chiefly fandom slang, uncountable) Those sources, especially including literary works, which are considered part of the main continuity regarding a given fictional universe; (metonymic) these sources' content.

正史

fandom: the works considered authoritative regarding a fictional universe


IP

en-noun

IP (countable and uncountable, plural IPs)

This IP made a disruptive edit!

en:unregistered user identified by their IP address

(wiki jargon, chiefly Wikimedia jargon, metonymic) An unregistered user identified by their IP address.

wiki jargon; chiefly Wikimedia jargon; wiki jargon; chiefly Wikimedia jargon


Bucharest

Borrowed from Russian Бухаре́ст (Buxarést), from Romanian București, from Bucur (personal name) + -ești (patronymic, personal name suffix).

bor+

In Romania the acrimonious deliberations over the commercial treaty with Germany prevented Bucharest from considering official participation at Leipzig before 1935.

2015, Stephen Gross, chapter 5, in Export Empire: German Soft Power in Southeastern Europe, 1890–1945, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 208:


dial

The original meaning was 'sundial' and/or 'clock dial'; from Middle English diall, from Middle French dyal, from Latin diālis (“daily, concerning the day”), because of its use in telling the time of day, from Latin diēs (“day”). Compare Spanish dial and día (“day”).

ܚܘܿܓ݂ܬܵܐ

A graduated, circular scale over which a needle moves to show a measurement (such as speed).

Such a field as part of a clock face; (metonymic) the entire clock face.


printer

→ Azerbaijani: printer

→ Georgian: პრინტერი (ṗrinṭeri)

→ Japanese: プリンター (purintā)

→ Korean: 프린터 (peurinteo)

→ Russian: при́нтер (prínter)

→ Serbo-Croatian: prìnter, прѝнтер

IMPRINTED at London in Fleteſtrete by Thomas Berthelet, printer to the kynges highnes, the ſeconde of July, the yere of our lorde. M. DXLV. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum ſolum.

1545 July 2, Thomas Elyot, A Preservative agaynste Deth, Imprinted at London in Fletestrete: By Thomas Berthelet, printer to the kynges highnes, →OCLC, colophon:

The Court doth Declare, as formerly ſo now, That no Apprentices be taken into any Printing-houſe, otherwiſe than according to this Proportion following, (viz.) ever Maſter Printer that is, or hath been Maſter or Upper Warden of his Company, may have three Apprentices at one time and no more, and every Maſter-Printer that is of the Livery of his Company, may have two Apprentices at one time and no more, […]

1637 July 11, John Rushworth, “[Appendix.] A Decree of Star-Chamber Concerning Printing, Made the Eleventh Day of July Last Past, 1637”, in Historical Collections. The Second Volume of the Second Part, Containing the Principal Matters which Happened from March 26. 1639, until the Summoning of a Parliament, which Met at Westminster, April 13, 1640. With an Account of the Proceedings of that Parliament; and the Transactions and Affairs from that Time, until the Meeting of Another Parliament, November the 3d following. With Some Remarkable Passages therein during the First Six Months. Impartially Related, and Disposed within Annals. Setting forth only Matter of Fact in Order of Time, without Observation or Reflection, London: Printed by M. Wotton at the Three Pigeons against the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleetstreet, and G. Conyers at the Golden Ring on Ludgate-Hill, published 1686, →OCLC, item XIX, pages 311–312:

[…] Pecuniary motives induced the first printers (from the large sums which were usually paid for manuscripts) to sell their works as such; so that printing was, for a period, as much the counterfeit as the substitute for writing, it being a facsimile of the most approved Scribes.

1824, J[ohn] Johnson, “The Origin, Rise, and Progress of the Typographic Art”, in Typographia, or The Printers’ Instructor: Including an Account of the Origin of Printing, with Biographical Notices of the Printers of England, from Caxton to the Close of the Sixteenth Century: A Series of Ancient and Modern Alphabets, and Domesday Characters: Together with an Elucidation of Every Subject Connected with the Art, volume I, London: Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, Paternoster Row, London, →OCLC, pages 4–5:

Never one to waste an opportunity, he says now: "The low points? You can read about them in my forthcoming book! It's at the printers now.

2021 November 3, Adrian Shooter talks to Paul Clifton, “A lifetime of railway achievements”, in RAIL, number 943, page 34:

(printing) The operator of a printing press or the owner of a printing business; (metonymic) any printing business.


stage

→ Japanese: ステージ (sutēji)

From Middle English stage, from Old French estage (“dwelling, residence; position, situation, condition”), from Old French ester (“to be standing, be located”). Cognate with Old English stæþþan (“to make staid, stay”), Old Norse steðja (“to place, provide, confirm, allow”), Old English stede (“state, status, standing, place, station, site”). More at stead. Doublet of étage.

cog

In other professions in which men engage / (Said I to myself, said I), / The Army, the Navy, the Church and the Stage / (Said I to myself, said I)

1882 November 25 (first performance), W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, music, […] Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri, London: Chappell & Co., […], published [1885?], act I:

(metonymic, uncountable, with "the") The profession of an actor.


Belgrade

From French Belgrade, from Medieval Latin Belgradum and Belogradum, ultimately from South Slavic forms of Proto-Slavic *bělъ (“white”) and *gȏrdъ (“fortress, city”), after the white walls of its medieval fortress. Doublet of Beograd, Berat, and Belgorod.

Prosecution witness Osman Selak claimed that the Bosnian Serb army was under the de facto control of Belgrade, as the Prosecution alleged, but under cross-examination could not produce a single example of an order issued by the Yugoslav army to the Bosnian Serb army.

2007, John Laughland, chapter 8, in Travesty: The Trial of Slobodan Milošević and the Corruption of International Justice, London: Pluto Press, →ISBN, page 170:

(metonymic, politics) The Serbian or Yugoslav government.


term

From Middle English terme, borrowed from Old French terme, from Latin terminus (“a bound, boundary, limit, end; in Medieval Latin, also a time, period, word, covenant, etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“stump, end, boundary”).
Doublet of terminus and termon. Old English had termen, from the same source.

términu

one of the addends in a sum or in another mathematical operation

at term

preterm

postterm

With respect to a pregnancy, the usual duration of gestation for the given species (for example, nine months in humans); (metonymic) the end of this duration: the timepoint at which birth usually happens (for example, in humans, approximately 40 weeks from conception), defining the due date.


wave

en-verb

wave (third-person singular simple present waves, present participle waving, simple past and past participle waved)

waves (present singular third-person)
waving (participle present)
waved (participle past)
waved (past)

From Middle English waven, from Old English wafian (“to wave, fluctuate, waver in mind, wonder”), from Proto-West Germanic *wabōn, from Proto-Germanic *wabōną, *wabjaną (“to wander, sway”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to move to and from, wander”).
Cognate with Middle High German waben (“to wave”), German wabern (“to waft”), Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”). See also waver.

cog

I waved goodbye from across the room.

Look, with what courteous action / It waves you to a more removed ground.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

She spoke, and bowing waved / Dismissal.

1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part 2”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:

(transitive, metonymic) To call attention to, or give a direction or command to, by a waving motion, as of the hand; to signify by waving; to beckon; to signal; to indicate.

(transitive, metonymic) To signal (someone or something) with a waving movement.


arse

Sranan Tongo: lasi

From Middle English ars, ers, from Old English ærs, ears, from Proto-West Germanic *ars, from Proto-Germanic *arsaz (compare Dutch aars and German Arsch), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁órsos (“backside, buttocks”).

inh

could eat the arse out of a low flying duck

think the sun shines out of someone's arse

(vulgar, slang, metonymic, countable) A person; the self; (reflexively) oneself or one's person, chiefly their body; (by extension) one's personal safety, or figuratively one's job, prospects, etc.


virus

en-noun

virus (countable and uncountable, plural viruses or (rare) virusses or (rare) vira or (proscribed) viri or (proscribed) virii)

viruses (plural)
virusses (plural rare)
vira (plural rare)
viri (plural proscribed)
virii (plural proscribed)

→ Amharic: ቫይረስ (vayräs)

→ Bengali: ভাইরাস (bhairaś)

→ Burmese: ဗိုင်းရပ်စ် (buing:rapc)

→ Dhivehi: ވައިރަސް (vairas)

→ Hindi: वायरस (vāyras)

→ Japanese: バイラス (bairasu)

→ Kannada: ವೈರಸ್ (vairas)

→ Korean: 바이러스 (baireoseu)

→ Lao: ໄວຣັສ (wai ras)

→ Malay: virus

→ Malayalam: വൈറസ് (vaiṟasŭ)

→ Maltese: vajrus

→ Sinhalese: වෛරස (wairasa)

→ Telugu: వైరస్ (vairas)

→ Thai: ไวรัส (wai-rát)

desc

→ Urdu: وائرس

→ Urdu: وائرس

From Middle English virus, from Latin vīrus (“poison, slime, venom”), via rhotacism from Proto-Italic *weizos, from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“fluidity, slime, poison”). First use in the computer context by David Gerrold in his 1972 book When HARLIE Was One.

der

He's got a virus and had to stay home from school.

(informal, metonymic) A disease caused by such an infectious agent; a viral illness.


hate

en-noun

hate (countable and uncountable, plural hates)

→ Polish: hejt

→ Russian: хейт (xejt)

From Middle English hate (noun), probably from Old English hatian (“to hate”, verb) and/or Old Norse hatr (“hate”, noun). Merged with Middle English hete, hæte, heate (“hate”), from Old English hete, from Proto-Germanic *hataz (“hatred, hate”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂d- (“strong emotion”). Cognate with West Frisian haat, Dutch haat, German Hass, Danish had, Norwegian and Swedish hat.
The verb is from Middle English haten, from Old English hatian (“to hate, treat as an enemy”), from Proto-West Germanic *hatēn, from Proto-Germanic *hatāną (“to hate”), from Proto-Germanic *hataz, from the same root as above.

inh

There was a lot of hate in the comments on my vlog about Lady Gaga from her fans.

(Internet slang) Negative feedback, abusive behaviour.

The corporation said it would not tolerate hate.


database

databases (plural)
data base (alternative dated)
data-base (alternative dated)

→ Danish: database

→ Dutch: database

→ Hindi: डेटाबेस (ḍeṭābes)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: database

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: database

[ˈdæɾəˌbeɪs]

/ˈɖeːʈaːˌbeːs/

Which database do you use: MySQL or Oracle?

(computing, loosely, metonymic) A software program (application) for storing, retrieving and manipulating such a structured data set.

(computing, loosely, metonymic) A combination of such data sets and the programs for using them.


jar

Inherited from Middle English jarre (“jar”), from Medieval Latin jarra, or from Middle French jarre (“liquid measure”) (from Old French jare; modern French jarre (“earthenware jar”)), or from Spanish jarra, jarro (“jug, pitcher; mug, stein”), all from Arabic جَرَّة (jarra, “earthen receptacle”).
The word is cognate with Italian giara (“jar; crock”), Occitan jarro, Portuguese jarra, jarro (“jug; ewer, pitcher”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

caught with one's fingers in the cookie jar

About a shopping trolley, I thought I'd let ye know. Ya'd try to push it straight but it never seems ta go. Ya'd wobble through the car park, hopping off the cars. Anyone would think ya had a few auld jars.

2013 March 15, “The Shopping Trolley” (track 10), in Horsing Around, performed by Richie Kavanagh:

(British, Ireland, colloquial, metonymic) A glass of beer or cider, served by the pint.


butt

From Middle English but, butte (“goal, mark, butt of land”), from Old English byt, bytt (“small piece of land”) and *butt (attested in diminutive Old English buttuc (“end, small piece of land”) > English buttock), from Proto-West Germanic *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (“end, piece”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰnós (“bottom”), later thematic variant of Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn ~ *bʰudʰn-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“deep”). Cognate with Norwegian butt (“stump, block”), Icelandic bútur (“piece, fragment”), Low German butt (“blunt, clumsy”). Influenced by Old French but, butte (“but, mark”), ultimately from the same Germanic source. Compare also Albanian bythë (“buttocks”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom of vessel”), Latin fundus (“bottom”) and Sanskrit बुध्न (budhná, “bottom”), from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Related to bottom, boot.
 PIE word
 *bʰudʰmḗn

приклад

larger or thicker end of anything; blunt end

perä

end of something, often distinguished from other end

Get your butt to the car.

We can't chat today. I have to get my butt to work before I'm late.

(countable) The larger or thicker end of something; the blunt end, in distinction from the sharp or narrow end

(Canada, US, Philippines, slang) The buttocks or anus (used as a minced oath in idiomatic expressions; less objectionable than arse/ass).


four-wheel drive
four-wheel drive#English

(automotive) Initialism of four-wheel drive.

(often metonymic) A four-wheel drive vehicle.

Initialism of four-wheel drive.
A four-wheel drive vehicle.


Tbilisi

From Russian Тбили́си (Tbilísi) and Georgian თბილისი (Tbilisi), variant of Old Georgian ტფილისი (Ṭpilisi), from ტფილი (ṭpili, “warm”) + -ისი (-isi).

T'bilisi said guerillas^([sic]) it did not control were involved in fighting on the Georgian side.

2002, Gregory Copley, Defense & Foreign Affairs Handbook, page 632:

In addition, Moscow argued that Georgia had violated international law by introducing its forces into South Ossetia, a move Moscow said Tbilisi had committed itself not to do under the earlier CIS-sponsored peacekeeping arrangements.

2009, Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Star, The Guns of August 2008: Russia's War in Georgia, →ISBN, page 184:

The international observers demanded that Tbilisi make the original of the order available to them so that this aspect could be investigated. But Tbilisi said it was an official military secret and refused to hand over the document...

2011, Alexander Sosnowski, The Georgia Syndrome, page 25:


nation

From Middle English nacioun, nacion, from Old French nacion, from Latin nātiōnem, accusative of nātiō (“nation”). Displaced native Old English þēod.

ពលរដ្ឋ

pŭəllĕəʼrŏət

Though legally single nations, many states comprise several distinct cultural or ethnic groups.

It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […] perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.

2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

By the start of the 19th century, Europe was neckdeep in the Napoleonic Wars, which, at various times, amounted to the British Empire against Europe, and, at others, involved Britain subsidising various nations, such as Austria and Prussia, against Napoleon.

2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 1:18 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron, archived from the original on 2024-11-29:

(international law, metonymic) A sovereign state; (loosely, metonymic, proscribed) a country.


second violin

Holonyms: string section < orchestra

The second violin part in an orchestral score, generally a harmony to the first violin's melody and generally less technically demanding; the violin that supplies this part, or (metonymic) the violinist who plays it.


-graph

From Ancient Greek suffix -γράφος (-gráphos, “that writes, describes”), from γράφω (gráphō, “to scratch, to scrape, to graze”), whence also -graphy.

photograph


cowl

From Middle English coule, from Old English cūle, from earlier cugele (“hood, cowl”), from Ecclesiastical Latin cuculla (“monk's cowl”), from Latin cucullus (“hood”), of uncertain origin. Doublet of cagoule.

cucullated

having a hood-like covering or component


gage

en-noun

gage (countable and uncountable, plural gages)

(archaic, UK, slang, metonymic) A drink.


algorithm

algorithm (countable and uncountable, plural algorithms)

algorithms (plural)
algorism (alternative)
augrim (alternative)

→ Japanese: アルゴリズム (arugorizumu)

→ Korean: 알고리즘 (algorijeum)

/ˈælɡəɹɪðəm/

[ˈæɫɡəɹɪðm̩]

/əlˈɡoːrɪd̪əm/

Etymology tree
Arabic ال (al-)
Old Persian 𐎢𐎺𐎠𐎼𐏀𐎷𐎡𐏁 (u-v-a-r-z-mi-i-š)
Classical Persian خْوَارَزْم (xwārazm)bor.
Arabic خَوَارِزْم (ḵawārizm)
Arabic ـِيّ (-iyy)
Arabic خَوَارِزْمِيّ (ḵawārizmiyy)
Arabic الخَوَارِزْمِيّ (al-ḵawārizmiyy)bor.
Medieval Latin algorismusbor.
Anglo-Norman algorismebor.
Middle English algorisme
English algorism
Proto-Indo-European *h₂er-
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti
Proto-Indo-European *h₂reh₁-
Proto-Indo-European *-éyti
Proto-Indo-European *h₂rey-der.
Ancient Greek ἀριθμός (arithmós)bor.
English arithmo-influ.
English algorithm
From Middle English algorisme, augrym, from Anglo-Norman algorisme, augrim, from Medieval Latin algorismus, from Arabic الخَوَارِزْمِيّ (al-ḵawārizmiyy), the nisba of Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī and a toponymic name meaning "person from Chorasmia". The spelling change (-s- > -th-) was influenced by unrelated Ancient Greek ἀριθμός (arithmós) (whence English arithmo-).

der

الخَوَارِزْمِيّ

(social media, metonymic) recommender systems and the curation of feeds

(usually proceeded by definite article "the") software that makes content display determinations on a platform, in totality of effect upon all end users (within a potential audience).

social media; usually proceeded by definite article "the"; usually proceeded by definite article "the"

Glover began his acceptance speech by saying, “First, I want to thank the great algorithm that put us all here.”

2018 February 26, Tad Friend, quoting Donald Glover, “Donald Glover Can’t Save You”, in The New Yorker:

(informal, by extension of above) the influenced zeitgeist: e.g. what content ends up trending or viral, what persons become a main character or cancelled

… you and I probably didn't run across that in our algorithm, but that doesn't mean that a lot of people aren't gonna run across garbage like that in their algorithms in the next couple weeks…

2024 October 23, Ben Rhodes, “Trump Blames Zelensky for War, Sucks Up to Saudis” (23:52 from the start), in Pod Save the World (podcast):

possessive determiner
possessive determiner

(informal, usually proceeded by a possessive determiner) the actual personalized selections of content seen by specific user(s), the microtargeting to which they are subject

social media; usually proceeded by a possessive determiner; usually proceeded by a possessive determiner


From the date September 11 written in numbers according the format used in the United States, which puts the month before the day.

Two World Trade Center
United Airlines Flight 175

What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq.

2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times:

Republican front-runner twisted his arms in apparent imitation of Serge Kovaleski’s arthrogryposis as he reiterated controversial 9/11 claims

2015 November 26, Claire Phipps, “New York Times slams 'outrageous' Donald Trump for mocking reporter's disability”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:


Pyongyang

/ˌpjʌŋˈjɑːŋ/

Borrowed from Korean 평양(平壤) (Pyeong'yang, literally “flat land”), from the McCune–Reischauer (MR) romanisation P'yŏngyang, a Sino-Korean word from 平壤.

bor+

Pyeongyang (alternative)
Pyengyang (alternative)

The US State Department said it welcomed talks between Pyongyang and Seoul on North Korea’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, despite a US lawmaker’s call for America to boycott the Games.

2018 January 10, Zhenhua Lu, “US ‘welcomes’ softer tone on Korean Peninsula but watches Pyongyang warily”, in South China Morning Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-01-10, Asia:

The sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has lambasted South Korea’s foreign minister for casting doubt over Pyongyang’s claim that the country has no coronavirus cases. North Korea closed its borders in January to avoid a spread of the virus and has insisted that it has had no cases.

2020 December 9, “South Korea questions Pyongyang’s claims to be virus-free”, in The Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-10:

Pyongyang successfully launched a reconnaissance satellite on Tuesday after two failed attempts in May and August.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in September at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Both parties reportedly agreed that Pyongyang would receive technical assistance from Moscow in the aerospace field in exchange for weapons to fight the Ukraine war.

2023 November 23, “Pyongyang got Moscow’s help in launching spy satellite, says Seoul”, in EFE, archived from the original on 2023-11-25:

(metonymic) The North Korean government.


council

From Middle English counseil, conseil, from late Old English cuncile, from Anglo-Norman cuncile and Old French concile, from Latin concilium. Doublet of concelho.

A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council).


hammer and sickle

en-noun

hammer and sickle (plural hammers and sickles)

The symbol was developed by Yevgeny Kamzolkin in 1917, based on antetypes like hammer and pick (symbol of mining). The hammer represents workers, while the sickle represents farmers.

(metonymic) Socialism or communism itself.