Macau

Borrowed from Portuguese Macau, from a southern seaward variety of Chinese, possibly Hokkien, possibly either 媽閣／妈阁 (Má Koh) or 媽港／妈港 (Má Káng), short for 阿媽港／阿妈港 (A-má Káng), from 阿媽／阿妈 (a-má, “grandma Mazu, patron goddess of sailors”) + 港 (káng, “port”), both referring to the A-Ma Temple (媽閣廟／妈阁庙) or Templo de A-Má in Portuguese, built in 1488 before the city of Macau came into being. Compare Spanish Macán, Japanese 媽港(マカオ) (makao), Latin Machao.

zh-l

媽閣／妈阁 (Má Koh)

媽港／妈港 (Má Káng)

阿媽港／阿妈港 (A-má Káng)

Macao (alternative)
Amacao (alternative)

When you depart from Macau to ye other coaſt, you must put out at the Eaſt chanel, if the wind bee Northweſt, if not, then you cannot paſſe, that way, but you muſt ſayle thorough the ſouthweſt chanel, which is a good way to paſſe out, running from the point of Varella, right unto the land on the other ſide of Macau,[…]

1598, “24 Of the courſe out of the Hauen of Macau in China to the Iſland of Pulo Tymon, & the ſtraight of Sincapura.”, in W. P., transl., The Nauigation of the Portingales into the Eaſt Indies, London: John Wolfe, page 349:

SOuthward from the County of Quancheufu, lie many ſmall Iſlands in the Sea ; on one of which, being a little hanging Iſle, or rather a Rock, joyn'd to a great Iſland, lieth the City Makao, otherwiſe call'd Amacao, Machao, and Makau, poſſeſs'd by the Portugueſe, on a Promontory, ſo naturally Fortifi'd, that it is almoſt invincible.

[1671, Arnoldus Montanus, translated by John Ogilby, Atlas Chinensis, London: Tho. Johnson, translation of original in Dutch, →OCLC, page 531:

Within 20 years, Macau had become an international city and one of the richest places on earth, thanks to investment in the cargoes shipped through the port.

1990, Shann Davies, Macau, Passport Books, →ISBN Invalid ISBN, page 10:

Open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, Macau's 35 casinos entertain around 30 million visitors each year, making over 30 billion euros in revenue. These are figures which make the US gambling city of Las Vegas look like a desert village.[…]
Macau is the only place in China where gambling is officially permitted. Until the end of 1999, the peninsula was a Portuguese colony. Since it was handed back to China, the city of 600,000 people located at the mouth of the Pearl River has been a largely autonomous Special Administrative Region (SAR).

2015 September 12, Jochen Faget, “Crisis in China's gambling paradise”, in DW News, archived from the original on 2015-09-12:

At the height of the Covid wave, some mainland residents ventured across the border to the Chinese territory of Macau to find foreign-made mRNA vaccines.

2023 March 22, Nicole Hong, Alexandra Stevenson, “China Approves an mRNA Covid Vaccine, Its First”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-23, Business:

special administrative region
special administrative region

People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China

A special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, west of Hong Kong, previously under Portuguese control.

Anhui · Fujian · Guangdong · Gansu · Guizhou · Henan · Hubei · Hebei · Hainan · Heilongjiang · Hunan · Jilin · Jiangsu · Jiangxi · Liaoning · Qinghai · Sichuan · Shandong · Shaanxi · Shanxi · Taiwan · Yunnan · Zhejiang

Guangxi · Inner Mongolia · Ningxia · Tibet Autonomous Region · Xinjiang

Beijing · Tianjin · Shanghai · Chongqing


avo

A subdivision of currency, equal to one hundredth of a Macanese pataca.


Aomen

Navarrete’s missionary activities came to an abrupt halt in 1664 when a fierce and general persecution broke out. All missionaries were to be brought to Beijing by imperial command and then conducted to Guangzhou. Morever the prohibition of maritime trade along the coastline of Guangdong was to be strictly enforced. Since Aomen was under Chinese jurisdiction, the Portuguese colony would have been subjected to martial law except for the intervention of the Jesuit, Johan Adam von Bell Schall (1591-1666), then in favor at court. While he obtained for Aomen an exemption from the regulation requiring removal inland, the regulation relating to trade and commerce remained in force. Aomen suffered greatly from this control of communication, and in 1667 Portugal decided to send an embassy to alleviate the situation. The ambassador, Manuel de Saldanha (d. 1670), did not have permission to go to Beijing immediately, nor did he bring any tribute with him. Aomen had to furnish this, and to support him, his suite, and his family which accompanied him for two years. The stranded Portuguese embassy was finally granted permission to proceed to the capital in 1670—a decision closely associated with the imperial favor enjoyed by the Jesuits.

1982, Emily Byrne Curtis, “Snuff and Chinese Snuff Bottles: An Historical View”, in Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Edward Choate O'Dell Collection, The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 19–20, 78:

The mountainous region on the western shore of the Pearl River bay, from Humen on the north to Aomen on the south, divided from the rest of the mainland by the main channel of the West River and including the islands immediately offshore, constituted a roughly defined but coherent geographical entity.

1996, Jonathan Porter, “Boundaries: On the Periphery”, in Macau, The Imaginary City: Culture and Society, 1557 to the Present, Westview Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 43–44:

Most of the early arrivals were Portuguese traders who were allowed to establish a settlement at Aomen (Macao) in the 1550s. In the meantime the Jesuits had established a mission in Japan and in 1577 Alessandro Yalignano, the Jesuit Visitor to the Indies, arrived in Aomen. He was followed by Matteo Ricci, who in 1601, after twenty years of negotiation, was allowed to reside in Beijing.

2003, J. A. G. Roberts, “China at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century”, in The Complete History of China, Sutton Publishing, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 241:

Yet try using Peking or Canton today and there will be howls of protest, though these are legitimate anglicisations based on usage derived from the role of Canton in China’s trade history. There is no reason why English speakers should follow China’s official romanisations any more than do the French, who still use Pekin for Beijing. It also raises the question of whether Hong Kong and Macau are soon to be replaced in English by Xianggang and Aomen.

2019 February 17, Philip Bowring, “Duterte’s proposal to change the Philippines’ name highlights the vexed history of place nomenclature”, in South China Morning Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-02-17, Opinion:

(rare) Synonym of Macau: the Mandarin Chinese-derived name (especially in China's English-language media).


Macao

It would be however a very acceptable thing if ſome curious Navigators would inform us, what tides or Currents are found at Macao, Quemoy, and other places on the Coast of China and on Formoſa ; it being moſt probable that this flood cometh out of the North Eaſt, alongſt the Coaſt of China, for that the Northerly Moonsoon is found to occaſion the higheſt ſpring-tides.

1684, Edm. Halley, “A Theory of the Tides at the Bar of Tunking”, in Philosophical Transactions, volume XIV, Oxford, →OCLC, page 687:

Macao is a ſmall Iſland in the Bay of Quantung, a Province of China, at a little diſtance from it ; in which is a Town bearing the ſame Name, heretofore the moſt famous and wealthy Mart of the Portugueſes, and granted to them by the Chineſes ; but its Reputation is now a great deal leſs :[...]

1701, Joan Luyts, Herman Moll, A System of Geography, Part the Second, London, →OCLC, page 52:

Captain King began now to entertain apprehenſions, leſt, in the proſecution of our ſearch for thoſe iſlands, we ſhould get ſo far to the ſouth as to be under the neceſſity of paſſing to leeward of the Pratas ; in which caſe, it might have proved extremely difficult for ſuch bad ſailing veſſels as our to fetch Macao, eſpecially if the wind ſhould continue to blow (as it now did) from the north-north-eaſt and north.

1784, James Cook, James King, Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, volume IV, London: John Stockdale, pages 211–213:

The Portuguese Colony of Macao is situated on a rocky peninsula in the Heung Shan (Fragrant Hills) District in the Kwong Chau Prefecture of the Kwong Tung, or Canton Province, in the south eastern part of the Empire of China.

1905, J. Dyer Ball, Macao: The Holy City; The Gem of the Orient Earth, China Baptist Publication Society, page 1:

The First Lady charged that the Maoists are making use of the Portuguese, through their small enclave of Macao, to carry out trade in drugs that are aimed in enslaving and demoralizing the people of the free world. She said the narcotics trade also is providing Chinese Communist leaders with a major source of revenue for use in carrying out their subversive, revolutionary tactics in other countries.

1975 March 9, “Mme. Chiang warns against detente”, in Free China Weekly, volume XVI, number 9, Taipei, page 1:

The territory of Macao is made up of a small peninsula on the Chinese coast and two neighboring islands. Located at the mouth of the Pearl River, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) from the Chinese city of Canton, Macao was once a safe harbor for Chinese fishermen.

1988, T. Jeff Williams, Macao, Chelsea House, page 15:

Prostrate from opium wars and divided into spheres of European influence, China was unable to protect her citizens from Occidentals who seduced them to immigrate. Poor, illiterate Chinese peasants—especially at Macao after the British Passenger Act (1855) drove the "coolie trade" from Hong Kong—were easily duped by foreigners who promised them better lives, often in the gold fields of California, once indentures of four to five years had been satisfied.

1994, Jimmy M. Skaggs, “Shoveling It: Life and Labor on Guano Islands”, in The Great Guano Rush: Entrepreneurs and American Overseas Expansion, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 162:


Established in the United Kingdom as the first emergency service number in the world, initially chosen because of its suitability at a time of rotary-dial telephones.

nine nine nine (alternative)
triple nine (alternative)

I don't know why they couldn't just keep it as it was! How hard is it to remember 911?
You mean 999...
I mean 999!
That's the American one!
Yeah!

2006 Feb. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 2

When you call 999 in the UK, the operator usually answers the phone with "Emergency. Which service?"

The telephone number for emergency services in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Burma, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Sudan, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Dominica, Kiribati, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, and the Seychelles.

三條九 /三条九 (saam¹ tiu⁴ gau², literally “triple nine”)


pataca

The second bridge between Macao and Iiha^([sic – meaning Ilha]) da Taipa, which is estimated to have a construction cost of 400 million patacas, will provide a four-lane traffic flow as well as a direct connection with Chu-hai City.

1989 December 6 [1989 October 16], Ta-hung Li, quoting Carlos Melancia, “Exclusive Interview With Governor Carlos Melancia”, in JPRS Report China, number 89-115, Joint Publications Research Service, page 88, column 2:

Macau’s gross gaming revenue rose to 34.6 billion pataca ($4.3 billion) in the first quarter, up 95% from a year earlier, according to data released by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau on April 1. That compares with 76.2 billion pataca in the first quarter of 2019.

2023 April 14, Katrina Hamlin, “Macau reinvention is a big roll of the dice”, in Una Galani, Thomas Shum, editors, Reuters, archived from the original on 2023-04-15, Breakingviews:

The monetary unit of Macau, equal to 100 avos.


Macanese

en-adj

Macanese (comparative more Macanese, superlative most Macanese)

more Macanese (comparative)
most Macanese (superlative)


Macanese

(chiefly in the plural) A member of an ethnic group from Macau of mixed European (usually Portuguese) and Asian (usually Chinese) origin.


Macanese

A creole language originating in Macau, based on Portuguese and some East Asian languages.


special administrative region

en-noun

special administrative region (plural special administrative regions)

Designation for types of administrative division in China, East Timor, and North Korea.

In China, an administrative division and a type of dependent territory that is granted de jure autonomy (apart from applicable national laws) except for issues relating to foreign relations and defence.