Wade-Giles

1943. Named after British diplomats Thomas Francis Wade and Herbert Giles, who developed the system in the 19th century.

named-after

The pronunciation aids to Chinese names are of doubtful value. They are not phonetic, being only a slight modification of the Wade-Giles system, and become really confusing when Mandarin pronunciations are given for Cantonese or historical spellings.

1947 May, Earl Swisher, “MacNair, China”, in Pacific Historical Review, volume XVI, number 2, University of California Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 214:

The problem of romanizing Chinese place names is a difficult one. Solutions differ from language to language, and there are several so-called "systems" used even in the English-speaking world.
The system most widely accepted by professionals is the Wade-Giles system. One of its key advantages is that it permits the reader to check back to the original Chinese characters, since most dictionaries are arranged according to this romanization system.

1969, “A note on transliteration”, in Joseph Kitagawa, editor, Understanding Modern China, Quadrangle Books, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 7:

In accordance with the LC manual of bibliographic style, the heading for each entry contains the essential bibliographic data taken from the corresponding LC catalog card. The Chinese titles are given in Wade-Giles romanization. If the English title and/or the title in Pinyin romanization appear in the original work, they are also provided.

1977, “Explanatory Notes”, in Robert Dunn, editor, Chinese-English and English-Chinese Dictionaries in the Library of Congress, Library of Congress, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page vii:

The old spelling system, named the Wade-Giles system after the two 19th century Britons who developed it, made correct pronunciation unnecessarily difficult. It used apostrophes to distinguish aspirated consonants, such as p'ai pronounced with a "p" sound, from unaspirated, such as pai pronounced with a "b" sound. The new Pinyin system eliminates this distinction, which most newspapers ignored anyway. "Beijing" is much closer to the Chinese pronunciation that "Peking", and Vice Premier "Deng" is better rendering than "Teng." But the new system uses some letters in ways that still confuse English speakers. Thers difficult letters are: "c" which should be prounced in this system like the "ts" in "its"; "q" which should be pronounced like the "ch" in "cheek"; "x" which should be pronounced like the "sh" in "she"; and "zh" which should be pronounced like the "j" in "jump".
The system invented by Sir Thomas Wade, diplomat and Cambridge University professor, about 1860 and developed by Herbert Giles, also a Cambridge professor, is only the best known of several in use over the past 100 years. Some of the most familiar Chinese place names, such as Peking and Canton, are derived only partially, or not at all, from Wade-Giles.

1979 March 5, Jay Mathews, “China Is China, But Hangchow Is Hangzhou”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-12-29:

Most influential in further establishing the Romanization scheme first set down by Wade was Giles' 1,415-page A Chinese–English Dictionary, which became a standard reference work soon after its release in 1912. The orthography it employed came to be known as the Wade–Giles system of Romanization, and it was soon adopted by English-language academia, and then by the media and general public.
In fact Giles' Romanization was only very slightly modified from Wade's – the differences are miniscule. Tones continued to be marked in the Wade–Giles system with numeral superscripts, with the neutral tone either being unmarked, or occasionally given the number '0' or '5'.

2016, Karen Steffen Chung, “Wade–Giles Romanization System”, in The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, →OCLC:

No longer does the ROC claim to be China and the writing systems that Taiwan uses for Chinese have changed to reflect this. Taiwan has held on to traditional characters and bopomofo, resolutely resisted simplified characters, mostly retained Wade-Giles and Yale for personal, political and geographical names in Taiwan, but grudgingly accepted the linguistic arguments for Hanyu pinyin signage in public spaces.

2017 January 22, Martin Boyle, “Pinyin and a Taiwanese identity”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-01-21, Editorials, page 6:

The two most prominent systems of transliterations of Mandarin are Wade-Giles and Pinyin. Wade-Giles, established in the 19th century (Kaske,2008) is named after Herbert Allen Giles[...]

2018 March 12, Sophie Zhou, “The T/Daos shall meet: The failure and success of English transliterations of Mandarin Chinese”, in English Today, volume 35, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Lee starts her memoir with a recollection of hiking with her mother shortly after Gong, the author’s grandfather, has passed away, and the narrative veers into a discussion of translation. Lee explains that she uses traditional Chinese characters, and both the Wade-Giles romanization system and Hanyu Pinyin to transliterate certain details from Mandarin. By extent, this exemplifies the language variations not only in Taiwan but also in her own family. Wade-Giles, she notes, is employed by her elders, though she has been taught Hanyu Pinyin. “The gaps that bind us span more than the distances between words,” she writes.

2020 April 24, Kristen Schott, “The Language of Self-Discovery: On Jessica J. Lee’s “Two Trees Make a Forest””, in Los Angeles Review of Books, archived from the original on 2020-07-07:

Aside from some stylistic unevenness (Mr. Brookes uses both modern pinyin and older Wade-Giles transliterations, when lay readers probably would find it easier to read only the latter, given its continued familiarity for historic places and names) and a few lapses into therapeutic editorializing, “Fragile Cargo” is a fascinating and inspiring story of triumph and the tragedy of war.

2023 February 10, Michael Auslin, “‘Fragile Cargo’ Review: The Long Rescue of China’s Past”, in Wall Street Journal, archived from the original on 2023-03-05:

A system for transcribing the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese into the Latin alphabet; formally uses hyphens and the spiritus asper apostrophe.

Herbert Giles
Thomas Francis Wade
Wade–Giles


Tagalog

A language spoken in the Philippines, especially in areas of central to southern Luzon.

टागालोग भाषा

ṭāgālog bhāṣā

Kéyah Dańlíinii bikáaʼgi kéédahatʼínígíí bizaad


Oran

Anglicized from Old Irish saints' name Odrán, diminutive of odhar (“dun, sallow”) (compare Irish Odhrán).


Bali

From Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for 八里 (Bālǐ).

Forty minutes later, we found ourselves seated on boulders on the side of Kuan Yin Shan with a lovely view of the river and the town of Tamsui to the east and the farms and field of Pali to the north.

[1981 October 25, Robert Benjamin Kritzer, “This young American finds basic Chinese values still intact in old & new Taiwan”, in Free China Weekly, volume XXII, number 42, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2:

He roused Max from his Taipei hotel suite to tell him the change in plans and to meet the Oregon at the Bali District piers the following day.

2013, Clive Cussler, Mirage (The Oregon Files) (Fiction), New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 350:

New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里, across the river from Tamsui) isn’t a place that immediately springs to mind for tourist attractions.

2017 December 15, Richard Saunders, “Off the Beaten Track: Best of Bali”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-12-18, Features, page 13:


Louisiana

From French Louisiane, named for King Louis XIV of France.

Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming


Yoshi

From Japanese ヨッシー (Yosshī, “Yoshi, the Super Mario Bros. dinosaur character”), 義 (Yoshi, common Japanese male given name), and many other spellings. See よし.


Rhodes

en-proper noun

Rhodes (countable and uncountable, plural Rhodeses)

From rodes, the plural form of Middle English rode, from Old English rod, rodu.
The Rh- form—a 16th century spelling modification— was created by analogy with the unrelated Rhodes, Greece.

(rare) A male given name transferred from the surname.


Gerard

From Middle English Gerard, from Old French Gerart, from Frankish *Gaiʀahard, from *gaiʀ (“spear”) + *hard(ī) (“hard, brave”).

af

He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon.

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

A male given name from the Germanic languages.


Verona

From the Italian Verona and the Latin Vērōna.

Verona

province in the Veneto region of northern Italy


es

Alternative form of ess (the name of the Latin-script letter S/s) in compounds such as "es-hook".


es

Cyrillic script
Appendix:Cyrillic script#English

The name of the Cyrillic script letter С / с.


San Francisco

From Spanish San Francisco (“Saint Francis”). Doublet of São Francisco.

San Francisco
San Francisco (disambiguation)

A major coastal city and county in California, United States, of over 800,000, widely known for its unique culture, architecture, and LGBT population; formerly Yerba Buena (pre-1847).


upsilon

From Ancient Greek ὖ ψιλόν (û psilón, “simple Υ”).

uder

The twentieth letter of Classical and Modern Greek; the twenty-second letter of Old and Ancient Greek.


Milan

Inherited from Middle English Milane, Melan, etc., from Old English Mæġelan, Megelan, Mediolanaburg, etc. under influence from early forms of French Milan, from Medieval Latin Mediolāna etc., from Latin Mediolānum, q.v. As American settlements, typically after the Italian city.


Milan

A male given name from the Slavic languages.


ar

→ Malay: ar

→ Tagalog: ar

From Middle English *ar, arres pl, from earlier *er.

All the ars in the inscription.

I have drunk en-ee-cee-tee-ay-ar from the ef-ell-oh-doubleyou-ee-ar-ess in his gee-ay-ar-dee-ee-en many a time.

2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170:

RV [is spoken] as "ar-vee" instead of "I SPELL Romeo Victor".

2016 CCEB, Communications Instructions Radiotelephone Procedures: ACP125 (G), p. 3-5

The name of the Latin-script letter R/r.


Maine

Maine (disambiguation)
Maine (given name)
Maine (province)
Maine (state)

A male given name of historical usage, notably borne by Irish kings Maine mac Cerbaill and Maine mac Néill.


Florence

Florence (disambiguation)
Florence Nightingale

Borrowed from French Florence, from Latin Flōrentia (as a given name, a feminine form of Flōrentius), from flōrens (“flowering, flourishing”), from flōs (“flower”), connected with English bloom and blossom.
The female given name gained popularity from Florence Nightingale who was born in the Tuscan city.

It is a sweet name, Florence, but not as sweet as herself. But you shall see her with you own eyes.

1840, William Gilmore Simms, Border Beagles: A Tale of Mississippi, Donohue, Henneberry, published 1890, page 398:

I am glad that I chose the name Florence for my daughter, a real name with a history, rather than something that sounds as if it has been made up by a fifteen-year-old pop star's marketing team.

2006, Sophie Hannah, Little Face, Soho, published 2007, →ISBN, page 3:


Aruban

Of, from, or pertaining to Aruba, the Aruban people or the Aruban language.


Virginia

en-proper noun

Virginia (countable and uncountable, plural Virginias)

→ Creek: wvcenv

50 Virginia
Elizabeth I
Virginia
Virginia (disambiguation)

From Latin Virginia, feminine form of Virginius or Verginius, a Roman family name, possibly identical with Vergilius. The state/colony was named for Elizabeth I as the Virgin Queen, equivalent to virgin + -ia.

American Samoa · Guam · Northern Mariana Islands · Puerto Rico · United States minor outlying islands · United States Virgin Islands

1380s-1390s, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Physician's Tale
"Daughter," quoth he, "Virginia by thy name, / There be two wayes, either death or shame, / That thou must suffer, - alas that I was bore!

Here, in due time, she was brought to bed of a daughter, whom she christened by the name of Virginia; not so much out of respect to her last mistress, who bore that name, as because she considered it peculiarly ladylike and genteel.

1840, Frederick Marryat, chapter III, in Poor Jack:

O sweet Virginia Dare! / Thou art the lily of our love, / The forest's sylph-like queen, / The first-born bud from Saxon stem / That this New World hath seen!

1854, Lydia Howard Sigourney, The Western Home, and Other Poems, Parry & McMillan, published 1854, page 87:

She said her name was Virginia Severson. It suited her. She looked very virginal, and clean, calm, cool in a Scandinavian sort of way.

1956, Charlotte Armstrong, A Dram of Poison, Coward-McCann, pages 164–165:


psi

en-noun

psi (countable and uncountable, plural psis)

From Ancient Greek ψεῖ (pseî), the name for the twenty-third letter of the alphabet (Ψ, ψ).

(countable) The twenty-third letter of Classical and Modern Greek and the twenty-fifth letter of Old and Ancient Greek.


sigma

From Ancient Greek σῖγμα (sîgma), σίγμα (sígma), probably from the root sig- as seen in σίζω (sízō) (< sig-yo "to hiss") + -μα (-ma).

Their names, which are expressive of some bodily or mental excellence, all end with the same letter---the letter which is called San by the Dorians, and Sigma by the Ionians.

"Herodotus: On The Customs of the Persians", I.139

The eighteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets (Σ, σ), the twentieth letter of Old and Ancient.


Botswanan

A person from Botswana or of Botswanan descent.


phi

From Late Latin phi, from Ancient Greek φεῖ (pheî).

Φ, the 21st letter of the Euclidean and modern Greek alphabet, usually romanized as "ph".


Vienna

From Italian and Medieval Latin Vienna, from German Wien, Middle High German Wienne, and Old High German Wienna, probably from Proto-Celtic *widus (“wood”) or *weidus (“wild”) via unattested Vulgar Latin *Vedunia.


Latvian

Of, from, or pertaining to Latvia, the Latvian people or the Latvian language.

Letlands

pertaining to Latvia or the Latvian language


Latvian

Latvian (countable and uncountable, plural Latvians)

(uncountable) The official language of Latvia; Lettish.

(countable) A person from Latvia or of Latvian descent.


Bolivian

Of, from, or pertaining to Bolivia, or the Bolivian people.


Bahamian

en-adj

Bahamian (comparative more Bahamian, superlative most Bahamian)

more Bahamian (comparative)
most Bahamian (superlative)

Of, from, or pertaining to the Bahamas, or the Bahamian people.


Barbadian

A person from Barbados or descended from a person from Barbados.


Belizean

A person from Belize or of Belizean descent.


Valencia

From Spanish Valencia, from Latin Valentia, from valentia (“power, vigor”). Doublet of Valence.

Valencia
Valencia (autonomous community)
Valencia orange


Daniel

From Middle English Daniel, Daniell, from Ancient Greek Δᾱνῑήλ (Dānīḗl), from Hebrew דָּנִיֵּאל (daniyél, literally “God is my judge”), name borne from the prophet whose story is told in the Book of Daniel.

der

"His name is Daniel Needham," my mother said. Whew! With what relief - down came my grandmother's hands! Needham was a fine old name, a founding fathers sort of name, a name you could trace back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony - if not exactly Gravesend itself. And Daniel was as Daniel as Daniel Webster, which was as good a name as a Wheelwright could wish for.
"But he's called Dan," my mother added, bringing a slight frown to my grandmother's countenance.

1989, John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Corgi Books, →ISBN, page 55:

A male given name from Hebrew in regular use since the Middle Ages.


Greenlander

1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter IV. "The Beach", page 54.
Were it not for this, we Europeans should have no wood to burn there, and the poor Greenlanders […] would, however, have no wood to roof their houses, to erect their tents, as also to build their boats, and to shaft their arrows.

A person from Greenland or of Greenlandic descent.

гренландец

a person from Greenland or of Greenlandic descent


Bahraini

From Arabic بَحْرَيْنِيّ (baḥrayniyy, “Bahraini”). Equivalent to Bahrain + -i.

bor

بَحْرَيْنِيّ

A person from Bahrain or of Bahraini descent.

Bahreiner

a person from Bahrain or of Bahraini descent


New Latin

The reformed Latin language as written or spoken as a lingua franca from 14th century Renaissance Latin to Contemporary Latin beginning in the late 19th century.


Medieval Latin

The Latin language as used during the Middle Ages, before it was developed by the Italian humanists into Renaissance Latin.

միջնադարյան լատիներեն

the Latin language as spoken and written during the Middle Ages, before it was developed by the Italian humanists into Renaissance Latin


Ecuadorian

A person from Ecuador or of Ecuadorian descent.


Liberian

A person from Liberia or of Liberian descent.


Costa Rican

His dialect was distinctly Costa Rican.

Of or pertaining to the people, language, or culture of Costa Rica.


Cuban

Of, from, or pertaining to Cuba, the Cuban people or the Cuban dialect.


Beninese

“They wanted to know what part of Africa my parents hailed from,” Caesar said. “How was I to know? He said I had the nose of a Beninese.”

2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet (2017), pages 147–148:

A person from Benin or of Beninese descent.


Paraguayan

I particularly admire Paraguayan handicrafts.

Of or pertaining to the people, language, or culture of Paraguay.


Mauritanian

A person from Mauritania or of Mauritanian descent.


Gambian

A person from Gambia or of Gambian descent.


Guamanian

Of, from, or pertaining to Guam, the Guamanian people or the Guamanian (Chamorro) language.


Nigerien

/naɪˌdʒɪɹiˈɛn/

/niːˈʒɛəɹɪən/

From French nigérien, from Niger + -ien.

A person from Niger or of Nigerien descent.


Sahrawi

From Arabic صَحْرَاوِيّ (ṣaḥrāwiyy, “of the desert”), from صَحْرَاء (ṣaḥrāʔ, “desert”).

A person from Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara).


Nikos

Νίκος Νίκος#Greek

A transliteration of the Greek male given name Νίκος (Níkos) used in Greece. It is the most common form of the name Nikolaos, the Greek cognate of Nicholas.


Kenyan

A person from Kenya or of Kenyan descent.


Guatemalan

Of, from, or pertaining to Guatemala or the Guatemalan people.

гватема́лски

of, from, or pertaining to Guatemala or its people


Nikolaos

Borrowed from Greek Νικόλαος (Nikólaos), from Ancient Greek Νικόλαος (Nikólaos), from νικάω (nikáō, “I conquer”) + λαός (laós, “people”). Doublet of Nicholas.

Νικόλαος Νικόλαος#Greek

A transliteration of the Greek male given name Νικόλαος (Nikólaos) used in Greece. The equivalent female name is Nikoleta.


Nikoleta

Transliteration of Greek Νικολέτα (Nikoléta), a female given name used in (modern) Greece.

Νικολέτα Νικολέτα#Greek

A transliteration of the Greek female given name Νικολέτα (Nikoléta).


Nigerian

/naɪˈd͡ʒɪəɹɪən/

/naɪˈd͡ʒɪɹiən/

A person from Nigeria or of Nigerian descent.


Icelander

From Iceland + -er. Displaced older Middle English Iselandman (“Icelander”, literally “Iceland man, Iceland person”).

cog

A person from Iceland or of Icelandic descent.


Nikolis

Νικολής Νικολής#Greek

A transliteration of the Greek male given name Νικολής (Nikolís) used in Greece.


Burundian

A person from Burundi or of Burundian descent.


Epirot

From Ancient Greek ἠπειρώτης (ēpeirṓtēs), from ἤπειρος (ḗpeiros, “mainland, inland country”).

he would cry out as Pyrrhus did, admiring the Roman docility and courage, if such were my Epirots, I would not despair the greatest design that could be attempted to make a Church or Kingdom happy.

An inhabitant or a resident of ancient or modern Epirus, in northwest Greece and southern Albania.


Cameroonian

Of, from, or pertaining to Cameroon, the Cameroonian people or the Cameroonian language.


Nikolas

Νικόλας Νικόλας#Greek

A transliteration of the Greek male given name Νικόλας (Nikólas) used in Greece.


Sudanese

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

But few Sudanese can forget the group’s participation in a massacre of over 120 democracy protesters in 2019.

2023 May 5, Declan Walsh, “‘Only Word for Them Is Heroes’: How 2 Students Rescued Dozens in Sudan”, in The New York Times:

A person from Sudan or of Sudanese descent.


Senegalese

Foreigner who marries a Senegalese is granted permanent residency and can apply for citizenship by naturalization.

2001, Citizenship Laws of the World, Amer Immigration Lawyers Assn, page 173:

In times of need, it is the mother's brother whom a Senegalese is most likely to approach for aid. The matrilineage is dominated by the tokor ("tuh-CORE"), the oldest man. The tokor holds all the family money.

2010, Elizabeth Berg, Ruth Wan, Ruth Lau, Senegal, Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, page 74:

Senghor writes that these texts were collected “by the Abbé Boilat, a Senegalese” in his Grammar of the Wolof Language. Identifying Boilat as “a Senegalese” conflicts with the more ambiguous ways that Boilat actually presents himself[…]

2019 March 5, Tobias Warner, The Tongue-Tied Imagination: Decolonizing Literary Modernity in Senegal, Fordham Univ Press, →ISBN, page 46:

A person from Senegal or of Senegalese descent.


Honduran

en-adj

Honduran (comparative more Honduran, superlative most Honduran)

more Honduran (comparative)
most Honduran (superlative)

Of, from, or pertaining to Honduras or the Honduran people.


Grenadian

We agreed that the operation would have to be mounted under conditions of the strictest secrecy, so that the Grenadian forces and Cubans on Grenada would not have time to bring in reinforcements or to make a run for the American students at St. George's University Medical School.

1990, Ronald Reagan, An American Life, Pocket Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 450:

They invited him to Grenadian feasts in their house near the Oval.

Of, from, or pertaining to Grenada, the Grenadian people or the Grenadian language.


Colombian

A native or inhabitant of Colombo, Sri Lanka.


Malawian

The average Malawian earns about US$250 monthly.

2016 February 29, Ralf Bodelier, “Slums can transform peoples’ lives for the better”, in Africa at LSE:

The departure of hundreds of Malawians to Israel to work as farm labourers has sparked a debate within the Southern African country, which is looking to raise much-needed foreign currency amid a cash crunch.

2023 January 12, Charles Pensulo, “Apprehension in Malawi as government sends workers to Israel amid Gaza war”, in Al Jazeera:

A person from Malawi or of Malawian descent.


Bangladeshi

From Bangladesh + -i. Borrowed from Bengali বাংলাদেশী (baṅladeśi).


Libyan

From Libya + -an. English since the 16th century.


East Timorese

According to press reports, on 1 January 1995, an ethnic riot took place at Baucau following an alleged killing of an East Timorese by an Indonesian immigrant. Some 200 youths reportedly burned a market, shops and houses[…]

1997, Heike Krieger, Dietrich Rauschning, East Timor and the International Community: Basic Documents, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 216:

A person from East Timor or of East Timorese descent.


East Timorese

Of, from, or pertaining to East Timor or the East Timorese people.

Oos-Timorees

of, from, or pertaining to East Timor or the East Timorese people


Chilean

/t͡ʃɪˈliːən/

/t͡ʃɪˈleɪən/

The Chilean Amphijubula Schust. (Schuster, 1970a) which has the facies of a small Frullania and agrees with Frullania in leaf insertion and branching, has a nontiered seta with 16 epidermal cell rows surrounding 4 inner rows.

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 6:

Of, from, or pertaining to the nation or culture of Chile or its people.

تشيلي

pertaining to a Chilean person or Chileans


Ugandan

A person from Uganda or of Ugandan descent.


Ugandan

Of, from, or pertaining to Uganda, the Ugandan people or the Ugandan language.


Ugandan

Back-formation from Ugandan discussions.

Margaret, Duchess of Argyll...depicts this charming old gentleman, who often kisses young girls outside Annabel's, as a narrow-minded, boring Ugandan expert.

1975, Private Eye, numbers 340–366, page 161:

Eight ladies with Ugandan associations had ascended the fire escape and were making their way through his room.

1975, Private Eye, numbers 340–366, page 198:

They have a bit of a 'how was it for you' session referring to the night and/or evening before, and we are left not knowing whether they enjoyed Ugandan Relations between the sheets or not.

1998 August 19, Peter Dewhirst, “Dewey's Monday update for 3rd August.”, in rec.arts.tv.uk.coronation-st (Usenet):

I'm in serious need of some ugandan activities. Any of you birds out there at a loose end and want to get the dirty water off your chest?

2000 January 25, Baz, “Any birds want a good seeing to?”, in uk.local.birmingham (Usenet):

Serif's question: where is Mister? The Eagle's answer: engaged in Ugandan practices.

2001, Gerald Seymour, The Untouchables, →ISBN, page 345:

I recall her once snatching a copy of the hated Private Eye, in which I'd been reading about the Ugandan activities of a prominent member of her party.

2013 April 8, Lord Powell, “The Margaret Thatcher I knew”, in The Guardian:

Jones denied last week that he was in a Ugandan situation with Morris, but did say "I am very fond of anyone who helps me lose six and a half stone..."

2015, Rotten Boroughs, “Going for the Burn”, in Private Eye, number 1407:

(UK, informal, euphemistic) Sexual, highlights a double entendre.


Bhutanese

Very conveniently for those of us who don't speak Bhutanese, nearly everybody in Bhutan speaks perfect British English since it is the language of instruction in their schools.

2020, Simon Anholt, The Good Country Equation, page 52:

Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan.


Djiboutian

A person from Djibouti or of Djiboutian descent.


Maldivian

en-noun

Maldivian (countable and uncountable, plural Maldivians)

(uncountable) The official language of the Maldives, also called Dhivehi or Divehi.


Malian

A person from Mali or of Malian descent.


Malian

Of, from, or pertaining to Mali or the Malian people.


Malian

(historical) A member of an ancient tribe that resided at the mouth of the river Spercheios in Greece.


Vanuatuan

Of, from, or pertaining to Vanuatu, the Vanuatuan people or the Vanuatuan language.


Dane

From Middle English Dane, from Old Norse danir. Displaced native Old English Dene. Both forms ultimately descend from Proto-Germanic *daniz.

Deen

person from Denmark or of Danish descent

Fresleven - that was the fellow’s name, a Dane - thought himself wronged somehow in the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 198:

Kenett states that the military works still known by the name of Tadmarten Camp and Hook-Norton Barrow were cast up at this time ; the former, large and round, is judged to be a fortification of the Danes, and the latter, being smaller and rather a quinquangle than a square, of the Saxons.

1881, John Kirby Hedges, The history of Wallingford, volume 1, page 170:

(historical) A member of the Danes, a Germanic tribe inhabiting the Danish islands and parts of southern Sweden.


Dane

Often he wrote good ones on casual slips and fancied them his; names like Trevellyan or Montressor or Delancey, with musical prefixes; or a good, short, beautiful, but dignified name like "Gordon Dane". He liked that one. It suggested something.

1913, Harry Leon Wilson, Bunker Bean, BiblioBazaar, LLC, published 2008, →ISBN, page 13:

A surname transferred from the nickname for someone who came from Denmark, also a variant of Dean.

"I'm going to call him Dane."
"What a queer name! Why? Is it an O'Neill family name? I thought you were finished with the O'Neills."
"It's got nothing to do with Luke. This is his name, no one else's. - - - I called Justine Justine simply because I liked the name, and I'm calling Dane Dane for the same reason."
"Well, it does have a nice ring to it," Fee admitted.

1977, Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds, Gramercy Books, published 1998, →ISBN, pages 432–433:

A male given name transferred from the surname, or from the ethnic term Dane (like Scott or Norman).

A river, the River Dane, in Cheshire, England, which joins the River Weaver at Northwich.


Gabonese

A person from Gabon or of Gabonese descent.


Bruneian

Of, from, or pertaining to Brunei, the Bruneian people.


Nepalese

Of, from, or pertaining to Nepal, the Nepalese people or the Nepalese language.


Nepalese

A person from Nepal or of Nepalese descent.


Guyanese

/ˌɡaɪəˈniːz/


Aragonese

/ˌærəɡɒˈniːz/

Of, from, or pertaining to Aragon, the Aragonese people or the Aragonese language.


Aragonese

/ˌærəɡɒˈniːz/

The language of Aragon, nowadays only spoken as a mother tongue by a few thousand people in some valleys of the Pyrenees.

The Spanish language spoken in Aragon when influenced by Aragonese traits.


Salvadorian

A person from El Salvador or of Salvadorian descent.


Norfolk Islander

Norfolk Islander (plural Norfolk Islanders)

A person from Norfolk Island or of its descent.


Zimbabwean

We were, practically to a person, young Zimbabweans who had no parental backing but who had acquired the means through some sort of tenacity, however dubious, to lodge at the respectable hostel.

2006, Tsitsi Dangarembga, The Book of Not, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 269:

A person from Zimbabwe or of Zimbabwean descent.

Zimbabwiër

a person from Zimbabwe or of Zimbabwean descent


Cocos Islander

A person from the Cocos Islands or of descent of the Cocos Islands.


Cook Islander

A person from the Cook Islands or of descent of the Cook Islands.


British Virgin Islander

British Virgin Islander (plural British Virgin Islanders)

British Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands

A person from the British Virgin Islands or of descent of the British Virgin Islands.


Mauritian

However, Baker (pc) notes that limero is also a common Mauritian pronunciation.

1989, John A. Holm, Pidgins and Creoles: Reference Survey, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 401:

The are two perspectives on the relationship between Réunionnais, a semicreole, and Mauritian, a typical plantation creole. Baker and Corne (1982) argue that […] Mauritian is the product of a break in the transmission of French, […]

2000, John H. McWhorter, The Missing Spanish Creoles: Recovering the Birth of Plantation Contact Languages, University of California Press, →ISBN, pages 187–188:

2001, Robert Chaudenson, Salikoko S. Mufwene, and Sheri Pargman, Creolization of Language and Culture (English edition of Robert Chaudenson, Des îles, des hommes, des langues), Routledge, →ISBN, page 47,
Much later, Richardson (1963) posits a theory very similar to Jespersen’s, claiming that the [grammatical] system of Mauritian has resulted from the contact of very different systems (French, Malagasy, and Bantu), which allegedly could not merge together because of excessive heterogeneity, but neutralized each other instead.


Christmas Islander

Christmas Islander (plural Christmas Islanders)

A person from Christmas Island, or having that ancestry.


Namibian

A person from Namibia or of Namibian descent.

Namibiër

a person from Namibia or of Namibian descent


Northern Mariana Islander

Northern Mariana Islander (plural Northern Mariana Islanders)

A person from the Northern Marianas or of descent of the Northern Mariana Islands.


Falkland Islander

Falkland Islander (plural Falkland Islanders)

A person from the Falkland Islands or of descent of the Falkland Islands.


Venezuelan

Of, from, or pertaining to Venezuela or the Venezuelan people.

венецуелски

of, from, or pertaining to Venezuela or the Venezuelan people


Toki Pona

From Toki Pona toki pona (literally “good language”), formed from toki (“language”) (from Tok Pisin tok, from English talk) + pona (“good”) (from Esperanto bona (“good”), ultimately from Latin bonus).

bor

In contrast to the hundreds or thousands of study hours required to attain fluency in other languages, a general consensus among Toki Pona speakers is that it takes about 30 hours to master.

2015 July 15, Roc Morin, “How to Say Everything in a Hundred-Word Language”, in The Atlantic:

constructed language
constructed language

A minimalist constructed language with creole-like elements designed by Sonja Lang.


Equatorial Guinean

en-noun

Equatorial Guinean (plural Equatorial Guineans)

A person from Equatorial Guinea or of Equatorial Guinean descent.


Mozambican

From New Latin Mozambica + -an (suffix forming adjectives).

affix

A native or inhabitant of Mozambique, or a descendant of such person.

Mosambieker

person from Mozambique or of Mozambican descent


Zambian

Of or pertaining to Zambia or its people or language.


Lebanese

The Hariri-Aoun agreement has shown that Hezbollah can bring the national political system to a halt. This happened in the past several years, and it worsened conditions in sectors such as foreign debt, electricity output, rubbish collection, water delivery, and other essential services, to the discomfort of the majority of Lebanese who have spoken out intermittently against the oligarchy of sectarian leaders who rule the country.

2016 October 22, Rami G Khouri, “Lebanese oligarchy preserves its interests once again”, in Aljazeera:

A person from Lebanon or of Lebanese descent.


Lebanese

Bekdache next names as problems the lollar/dollar and Lebanese pound currency conundrum and the issue of having to settle claims in the same currency and same category (cash or check) in which a policy premium had been paid;

2021 April 9, Thomas Schellen, “Lost in the fog”, in Executive:

Of, from, or pertaining to Lebanon or the Lebanese people.

Libanees

of, from, or pertaining to Lebanon, its people or language


Ethiopian

A person from Ethiopia or of Ethiopian descent.


Guadeloupean

Of, from, or pertaining to Guadeloupe, the Guadeloupean people or the Guadeloupean language.


Uruguayan

Of, from, or pertaining to Uruguay, the Uruguayan people or the Uruguayan language.


Yemeni

a person from Yemen or of Yemeni descent


Trinidadian and Tobagonian

en-adj

Trinidadian and Tobagonian (not comparable)

Of, from, or pertaining to Trinidad and Tobago or to the people or language of that country. Trinidadian.


Montserratian

Of, from, or pertaining to Montserrat, the Montserratian people or language.


Qatari

From Qatar + -i, from Arabic قَطَر (qaṭar)

A person from Qatar or of Qatari descent.


Sri Lankan

A person from Sri Lanka or of Sri Lankan descent.

singalès

a person from Sri Lanka or of Sri Lankan descent


Surinamese

/ˌsʊəɹɪnəˈmiːz/

A person from Suriname or of Surinamese descent.


Ivorian

/aɪˈvɔːɹiən/

Battling Bolton disputed the goal, claiming Drogba was offside, but the Ivorian appeared to have timed his angled run across the visitors back line to perfection to race onto a fine Michael Essien pass and ensure Chelsea moved back into fourth place in the Premier League.

2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC:

A person from Côte d'Ivoire or of Ivorian descent.

Ivoriaan

a person from Côte d'Ivoire or of Ivorian descent


Somalian

Somalian (comparative more Somalian, superlative most Somalian)

more Somalian (comparative)
most Somalian (superlative)

2007 April 22, “Somalian government tells Mogadishu residents to flee”, in The New York Times:

(nonstandard, sometimes offensive) Synonym of Somali


Saudi Arabian

Saudi Arabian (comparative more Saudi Arabian, superlative most Saudi Arabian)

more Saudi Arabian (comparative)
most Saudi Arabian (superlative)

Of, from, or pertaining to Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabian people or language.


New Zealander

A person from New Zealand or of New Zealand descent.

Nieu-Seelander

a person from New Zealand or of New Zealand descent


Kuwaiti

Of, from, or pertaining to Kuwait or the Kuwaiti people.

Koeweits

of, from, or pertaining to Kuwait or the Kuwaiti people


Tunisian

Of, from, or pertaining to Tunisia, the Tunisian people or the Tunisian language.


Togolese

From French togolais, equivalent to Togo + -ese. The -l-, also present in Congolese and its French etymon congolais, was added in French to break up the sequence of -o + -ais; it is not present in words formed from -o + -ese in English, e.g. Faroese or Chicagoese.

Grunitzky was educated locally and abroad (receiving one of the first scholarships ever granted to a Togolese), studying mathematics and obtaining an engineering degree (1937). Upon his return to Togo, Grunitzky joined the civil service[…]

2021 April 15, Jennifer C. Seely, Samuel Decalo, Historical Dictionary of Togo, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 202:

A person from Togo or of Togolese descent.


Rwandese

A person from Rwanda or of Rwandese descent.


Rwandese

Rwandese (comparative more Rwandese, superlative most Rwandese)

more Rwandese (comparative)
most Rwandese (superlative)

In 2003, Rwanda changed its official name from "Rwandese Republic" to "Republic of Rwanda".

Of, from, or pertaining to Rwanda, the Rwandese people or language. See: Rwandan.


Reunionese

Of, from, or pertaining to Réunion, the Reunionese people or language.


Serbian

Serbian (comparative more Serbian, superlative most Serbian)

more Serbian (comparative)
most Serbian (superlative)

of or pertaining to Serbia, the Serbian people or their language


Serbian

en-noun

Serbian (countable and uncountable, plural Serbians)

(uncountable) The standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs.

Serwies

the standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian


Berlin

en-proper noun

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


Samoan

en-noun

Samoan (countable and uncountable, plural Samoans)


Samoan

Of, from, or pertaining to Samoa, the Samoan people or the Samoan language.


Adrianopolitan

(historical) A native or inhabitant of Adrianople (modern-day Edirne).


Eritrean

From Eritrea + -an (suffix forming adjectives).

affix

A native or inhabitant of Eritrea, or a descendant of such person.

Eritreër

A person from Eritrea or of Eritrean descent


Haitian

Haitian Creole, one of the official languages of Haiti.


Larissa

A female given name from Ancient Greek (after the mythological character and a 4th century Greek Orthodox martyr).


Martinican

en-adj

Martinican (comparative more Martinican, superlative most Martinican)

more Martinican (comparative)
most Martinican (superlative)

Of, from, or pertaining to Martinique, the Martinican people or the Martinican language.


Jordanian

/d͡ʒɔːˈdeɪnɪən/

A person from Jordan or of Jordanian descent.


Puerto Rican

Today many of our newcomers are from Mexico and Puerto Rico. We sometimes forget that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth and therefore cannot be considered immigrants. Nonetheless, they often receive the same discriminatory treatment and opprobrium that were faced by other waves of newcomers. The same things are said today of Puerto Ricans and Mexicans that were once said of Irish, Italians, Germans and Jews: “They’ll never adjust; they can’t learn the language; they won’t be absorbed.”

1964, John F. Kennedy, “Waves of Immigration-the Post-Revolutionary Forces”, in A Nation of Immigrants, Revised and Enlarged edition, Harper & Row, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 63:


Puerto Rican

Puerto Rican (comparative more Puerto Rican, superlative most Puerto Rican)

more Puerto Rican (comparative)
most Puerto Rican (superlative)

Of, from or relating to Puerto Rico or its people.


Cilician

The purple Hyacinths, and fresh Costmarie, / And Saffron, sought for in Cilician soyle

1591, “Virgils Gnat”, in Edmund Spenser, transl., Complaints, translation of Culex by Virgil:

(historical) Pertaining to or originating from Cilicia.

կիլիկյան

pertaining to or originating from Cilicia


Luxembourger

/ˈlʌksəmˌbɝɡɚ/

/ˈlʌksəmˌbɜːɡə/

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

A person from the independent Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or of Luxembourgish descent.

(historical) An inhabitant of the former duchy (originally county) of Luxembourg (originally Letzeburg)

An inhabitant of the Belgian province of Luxembourg.

An inhabitant of the city of Luxembourg, the capital of all the above territories.


Singaporean

/ˌsɪŋ(ɡ)əˈpɔːɹi.ən/

Of, from, or pertaining to Singapore or its people or language.


Congolese

/ˌkɒŋ.ɡəˈliːz/

From French congolais, equivalent to Congo + -ese. For information about the -l-, see Togolese.

Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo

A person from the Congo or any Congolese state.

A person from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire).

congolès

person from Democratic Republic of Congo


Congolese

/ˌkɒŋ.ɡəˈliːz/

Kongolees

people or language of Democratic Republic of Congo

Of, from, or pertaining to the Congo or any Congolese state.

Of, from, or pertaining to the Republic of Congo or its people.

Of, from, or pertaining to the Democratic Republic of Congo or its people.


Cambodian

en-noun

Cambodian (countable and uncountable, plural Cambodians)

(uncountable) the language of the Cambodian people


Tuvaluan

The Polynesian language mostly spoken in Tuvalu.


Nicolas

And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 6:5:

A male given name from Ancient Greek, of less common usage, variant of Nicholas.


Liechtensteiner

Borrowed from German Liechtensteiner, equivalent to Liechtenstein + -er.

A person from Liechtenstein or of Liechtenstein descent.


New Caledonian

Of, from, or pertaining to New Caledonia (any sense), its people or language.

neocaledonià

of, from, or pertaining to New Caledonia


New Caledonian

A person from New Caledonia (any sense) or of New Caledonian descent.


Nicholas

en-proper noun

Nicholas (countable and uncountable, plural Nicholases)

From Middle English Nicholas, from Old French Nicholas, from Latin Nīcolāus, from Ancient Greek Νικόλαος (Nikólaos), from νίκη (níkē, “victory”) + λαός (laós, “people”).

com

Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas’ clerks, I'll give thee this neck.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

I must call you Nick—we always did call you young Nick when we knew you meant to marry the old widow. Some said you had a handsome family likeness to old Nick, but that was your mother's fault, calling you Nicholas. Aren't you glad to see me again?

1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LIII, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book V, page 182:

A male given name from Ancient Greek. Best known for St. Nicholas of Myre, on whom Father Christmas is based.


Kiribatian

A person from Kiribati or of Kiribatian descent.


Ghanaian

The locals did this, waiting for tourists to disembark so that they could con them into paying for things Ghanaians knew were free.

2016, Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing, Penguin Books (2017), page 264:

A person from Ghana or of Ghanaian descent.


Tongan

en-noun

Tongan (countable and uncountable, plural Tongans)

(uncountable) An Austronesian language of the Polynesian branch spoken in Tonga.


Nicaraguan

A person from Nicaragua or of Nicaraguan descent.


Syrian

Syrian bear
Syrian hamster
Syrian onager
Syrian rhubarb
Syrian serin
Syrian woodpecker

The Syrian force was pulled back quickly and with reportedly heavy losses, but it stayed around long enough to remind the world that the Syrians are still the biggest blusterers and brinkmen in the Middle East.

In contrast to the political dynamics of the preunion period, these struggles were heavily influenced by the new prominence of Syrian capitalists[…]

1999, Steven Heydemann, Authoritarianism in Syria, page 139:

Of, from, or pertaining to Syria, the Syrian people or the Syrian language.

سُورِيّ

of, from, or pertaining to Syria, the Syrian people or the Syrian language

(sometimes proscribed) Of, from, or pertaining to the Assyrian people or the Syriac language


Syrian

A person from Syria or of Syrian descent.

سُورِيّ

a person from Syria or of Syrian descent

(sometimes proscribed) A person of Assyrian descent.


Tokelauan

The Polynesian language of the Tokelauan people.


Pakistani

A person from Pakistan or of Pakistani descent.

pakistanez

a person from Pakistan or of Pakistani descent


Constantinopolitan

Relating to Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).


Viennese

en-adj

Viennese (comparative more Viennese, superlative most Viennese)

more Viennese (comparative)
most Viennese (superlative)

Of or relating to Vienna (the capital of Austria).


Kazakh

en-noun

Kazakh (countable and uncountable, plural Kazakhs)

From Russian каза́х (kazáx). Cognate with Cossack, ultimately from Turkic languages.

(uncountable) The national language of Kazakhstan.


Kazakh

Of, from, or pertaining to Kazakhstan, the Kazakh people or the Kazakh language.

Kazaks

pertaining to the Kazakh people or the Kazakh language


Bermudian

A person from Bermuda or of Bermudian descent


Micronesian

A person from Micronesia or of Micronesian descent.


Iraqi

From Arabic عِرَاقِيّ (ʕirāqiyy, “Iraqi”), equivalent to Iraq + -i.

(historical) Of, from, or pertaining to Persian Iraq.


South Korean

By now South Koreans understand Pyongyang’s logic and know North Korea is highly unlikely to make good on its gothic threats.

2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in New York Times:

հարավկորեացի

person from or descended from South Korea


South Korean

Of, from, or pertaining to South Korea or the South Korean people.


South African

A person from South Africa or of South African descent.


South African

Of, from, or pertaining to South Africa, or the South African people.


Telugu

The train rumbled between narrow buildings with flat roofs and multicoloured walls, Telugu script crawling like creepers over them.

2019, Namwali Serpell, The Old Drift, Hogarth, page 497:


Malagasy

Malagasy (countable and uncountable, plural Malagasy or Malagasies)

/ˌmæləˈɡæsi/

From Malagasy malagasy, connected to "Mālāī-Jezīra", island of Malais. Compare English Madagascar, which by folk etymology comes from Marco Polo's misreading of Mogadishu whereas it should be Arabic جَزِيرَة المَالَائِيّ (jazīrat al-mālāʔiyy, “The Island of Mālāī”).

der

جَزِيرَة المَالَائِيّ

(uncountable) The languages of Madagascar or of the Malagasy people, when considered to be one language.

Malgassies

the language of the Malagasy, when considered one language

(in particular) The chief lect of this language or language group.


Malagasy

/ˌmæləˈɡæsi/

جَزِيرَة المَالَائِيّ

Of, pertaining to or in the Malagasy language.


Central African

en-noun

Central African (plural Central Africans)

Central African Republic
Central African Republic

A person from Central Africa (the Central African Republic) or of Central African descent.

Sentraal-Afrikaan

A person from Central Africa or of Central African descent


kwukyel

Borrowed from kwūkyel, the Yale romanization of Korean 구결(口訣) (gugyeol), from Middle Chinese 口訣 (MC khuwX kwet, “mnemonic rhyme”), from 口 (kǒu, “mouth”) + 訣／诀 (jué, “rhymed saying”).

compound

Abbreviated Chinese characters used to represent Korean grammatical items, inserted into a Chinese-character (Classical Chinese or itwu) text.


Tanzanian

A person from Tanzania or of Tanzanian descent.

Tanzaniër

a person from Tanzania or of Tanzanian descent


Tanzanian

Of, from, or pertaining to Tanzania, the Tanzanian people or language.

Tanzanies

of, from, or pertaining to Tanzania and its people


Salvadoran

A person from El Salvador or of Salvadorian descent.


Palestinian

An inhabitant of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, legally governed by the Palestinian National Authority.


Comorian

The language of the islands of the Comoros.


Chadian

Of, from, or pertaining to Chad, a country in Africa.


Chadian

A person from Chad or of Chadian descent.


Niuean

A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken mainly in Niue.


Lao

en-noun

Lao (countable and uncountable, plural Lao or Laos)

(countable) A Tai ethnic group native to Southeast Asia.

(uncountable) The official language of Laos that is closely related to Thai.


Lao

Of, from, or pertaining to Laos, the Lao people or their Kra-Dai Lao language.

Laosiaans

of, from, or pertaining to Laos, the people or their language


North Korean

In the 1960s the Chinese government decided to standardize the Korean-language education for Korean Chinese and adopted the Joseoneo dialect used in North Korea instead of Hangugeo used in South Korea. As a result, Joseonjok in South Korea speak North Korean–accented Korean, which is easily recognizable in South Korea.

2013, Melody Chia-Wen Lu, Shin Hyunjoon, “Ethnicizing, Capitalizing, and Nationalizing: South Korea and the Returning Korean Chinese”, in Xiang Biao, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Mika Toyota, editors, Return: Nationalizing Transnational Mobility in Asia, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 165:

Of, from, or pertaining to North Korea, the North Korean people or the North Korean language.


Brent

en-proper noun

Brent (countable and uncountable, plural Brents)

English surname from placenames in Devon and Somerset, from Old English brant (“steep”), referring to hills. Compare Brents.

A male given name transferred from the surname, of 20th century and later usage.


Belgian

(linguistics) A hypothetical extinct Indo-European language, supposed to have been spoken distinct from Celtic in late prehistory, in certain parts of what has become known as Gaul.


Wallachian

The language of the Wallachians; Romanian.


Greenlandic

The official language of Greenland, an Eskimo-Aleut language written with the Latin alphabet.


temple

From Middle English temple, from Old English templ, tempel, borrowed from Latin templum (“shrine, temple, area for auspices”). Compare Old High German tempal (“temple”), also a borrowing from the Latin.

tempel

place of worship — see also place of worship

How often do you go to temple?

(Judaism) Synonym of synagogue, especially a non-Orthodox synagogue.


Dominican

From Dominica + -an & Dominic + -an. Compare Latin dominicānus.

A person from the Commonwealth of Dominica or of its descent.


Loglan

The Loglan formal grammar is made up of 91 CFG-type rules.

Loglan is an isolating language, much like English. That means that once you’ve learned a word, you don’t have to worry about changing its form. Even in English, you have to remember to add ‘-ed’ to a verb to make it refer to the past, and ‘-s’ to nouns to make them plural. In Loglan, you won’t have to do that. Also, some English verbs and nouns have irregular forms. There are no irregular Loglan forms.

1994 May, Stephen L. Rice, “Loglan 3 : Understanding Loglan”, in www.loglan.org, retrieved 2012-08-04:

The original language developed by James Cooke Brown, as maintained by The Loglan Institute.


Rwandan

en-adj

Rwandan (comparative more Rwandan, superlative most Rwandan)

more Rwandan (comparative)
most Rwandan (superlative)

Of, from, or pertaining to Rwanda, the Rwandan people or language.

Rwandees

of, from, or pertaining to Rwanda, the Rwandan people or language


PPS

Shah has since apologised, saying: “I deeply regret the hurt I have caused.” It emerged later that she had stepped down as PPS to McDonnell.

2016 April 26, Nazia Parveen, “Bradford MP Naz Shah quits as McDonnell's PPS after antisemitic posts”, in The Guardian:

(UK politics) Initialism of parliamentary private secretary.


Georgian

en-noun

Georgian (countable and uncountable, plural Georgians)

/ˈd͡ʒɔːd͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒɔɹd͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒɔʊ.d͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒoːd͡ʒən/

United States of America
United States of America

(countable) A native or resident of the state of Georgia in the United States of America.

Iberian

native or resident of the Eurasian country of Georgia

goober

native or resident of the US state of Georgia


Georgian

en-adj

Georgian (comparative more Georgian, superlative most Georgian)

more Georgian (comparative)
most Georgian (superlative)

/ˈd͡ʒɔːd͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒɔɹd͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒɔʊ.d͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒoːd͡ʒən/

Of, from, or characteristic of the reigns of Kings George I and George II of Great Britain, and George III and George IV of the United Kingdom (1714–1830).

Pertaining to a movement in lyric poetry during the reign of King George V of the United Kingdom (1910-1936).


Turkmen

en-noun

Turkmen (countable and uncountable, plural Turkmen or Turkmens)

The current majority view for the etymology of the ethnonym Türkmen or Turcoman is that it comes from Türk and the Turkic emphasizing suffix -men, meaning "'most Turkish of the Turks' or 'pure-blooded Turks.'" A folk etymology, dating back to the Middle Ages and found in al-Biruni and Mahmud al-Kashgari, instead derives the suffix -men from the Persian suffix -mānind, with the resulting word meaning "like a Turk". While formerly the dominant etymology in modern scholarship, this mixed Turkic-Persian derivation is now viewed as incorrect.

Turkoman

via Medieval Latin Turcomannus, itself derived from Turkic via Persian ترکمان (torkamân)

Türkman

via Ottoman Turkish تركمان (Türkmân); itself derived from Turkic via Persian ترکمان (torkamân)

(uncountable) A Turkic language of the Turkmen spoken mostly in Turkmenistan.


Pashto

Tariq clenched his teeth and muttered something to himself in Pashto that Laila didn’t catch.

2007, Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns, BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING (2018), page 131:

The native Indo-Iranian language of the Pashtun people; an official language of Afghanistan.


moniker

Online Etymological Dictionary
Saturday Review (London newspaper)

Unknown, first attested 1849. Suggested derivations are:
* Backslang for ekename (compare nickname);
* From Shelta munik, munika;
* From monk;
* Partridge (A Dictionary of Historical Slang) suggests a corruption of monogram, which is suggestive of the sense signature.
* From monarch in the sense 'king or No. 1, and thus with frank egotism, "I, myself".' (The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 281, pg. 349.)
Online Etymological Dictionary's entry cites in 1857, the Saturday Review (London newspaper) noted, "the word has a certain Coptic or Egyptian twang".

The rookie was upset at being called Lemon Drop until she realized that everyone on the team had a silly moniker.

Again fairly common, and always amusing, are the monikers drawn from the (imagined) childhood of a particular vagrant.

2000, Jim Phelan, “Irish Writing in the 1940s”, in David Pierce, editor, Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century: A Reader, page 541:

A gang member may receive a new identity by taking on a nickname, or moniker, which others in the gang world would recognize. Monikers affirm a youth's commitment to gang life and may become their sole identity, the only way they see thselves and the only name they go by.

2010, Linda S. Miller, Kären M. Hess, Christine M. H. Orthmann, Community Policing: Partnerships for Problem Solving, 6th edition, page 388:

Recently, a class of reactions has gained tremendous attention in the chemistry community under the moniker of "click chemistry," a concept introduced by Kolb and colleagues.

2010, Neal K. Devaraj, Ralph Weissleder, “30: "Click Chemistry": Applications to Molecular Imaging”, in Ralph Weissleder, Brian D. Ross, Alnawaz Rehemtulla, Sanjiv Sam, editors, Molecular Imaging, Principles and Practice, page 471:

Actually, the various monikers Pilgrims, Puritans, Plymouth Rocks, Red Stockings, Hubs and Hubites were frequently used, informally, for both Boston big league clubs until 1912.

2012, Richard Worth, Baseball Team Names, unnumbered page:

A personal name or nickname; an informal label, often drawing attention to a particular attribute.


Israeli

Thus, when most native Israeli-speakers speak Israeli, their intonation is much more similar to that of Yiddish, the mother tongue of most revivalists, than to that of Arabic or any other language belonging to the Semitic branch […]

2010, Joshua A. Fishman, Ofelia García, Handbook of Language & Ethnic Identity, volume 2, page 73:


Kyrgyz

/ˈkɜː(ɹ)ɡɪz/

/ˈkɪə(ɹ)ɡɪz/

From Kyrgyz кыргыз (kırgız), possibly derived from Kyrgyz кырк ууз (kırk uuz, “forty tribes”); or possibly from кыргый (kırgıy, “hawk”); or likely from кырк (kırk, “extinguish, mince, cut”). More at Kyrgyz.

uder

The Western Turkic language of Kyrgyz people.


Jan

From Old French Jehan (“John”). Doublet of John.


Jan

A clipping or hypochoristic form of Janet, Janice, Janine, Janis, etc.
Doublet of Ivanka, Janelle, Janet, Janey, Janine, Jeanette, Jeanie, Jeannette, Jeannine, Jen, Jenna, Jenny, Jessie, Jo, Jody, Juanita, Shanae, Sinead, and Vanna.

doublet

"Yes, Mommy," answered Janice. Then she turned to her friend and asked, "Shall I wear my light chintz and kenton kerchief, or my purple and white striped Persian?" "Sufficiently smart for a country lass, Jan," cried her friend.

1899, Paul Leicester Ford, chapter 1, in Janice Meredith:

She's startled. How long has it been since he called her Jax instead of Janet or Jan? The last is a nickname she secretly hates. It makes her think of that syrupy-sweet actress on Lassie when she was a kid, the little boy (Timmy, his name was Timmy) always fell down a well or got bitten by a snake or trapped under a rock, and what kind of parents put a kid's life in the hands of a fucking collie?

2008, Stephen King, Just after Sunset, Simon and Schuster, published 2009, →ISBN, page 129:


Jan

From various European languages, ultimately from Latin Johannes.

A male given name, equivalent to English John


Nauruan

[nɑːˈuː.ɹuːn̩]

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


Byzantine

en-adj

Byzantine (comparative more Byzantine, superlative most Byzantine)

more Byzantine (comparative)
most Byzantine (superlative)

From Late Latin byzantinus, itself from Byzantium. The metaphorical senses evoke the reputation for palace intrigue of the Byzantium imperial court.

Eastern Roman Empire
Eastern Roman Empire

(history) Belonging to the civilization of the Eastern Roman Empire between 331, when its capital was moved to Constantinople, and 1453, when that capital was conquered by the Turks and ultimately renamed Istanbul.

بِيزَنْطِيّ

belonging to the civilisation of the Eastern-Roman empire


Swahili

From Swahili swahili, from Arabic سَوَاحِلِيّ (sawāḥiliyy, “(people) of the coasts”), from سَوَاحِل (sawāḥil, “coasts”), broken plural of سَاحِل (sāḥil, “coast”).

der

An agglutinative language of the Bantu branch widely spoken in East Africa. Born in its modern form from the hybridization of the Arabic and Bantu cultures, it was the language of the traders in East Africa, and spread along the routes of trade.


Moroccan

A person from Morocco or of Moroccan descent.


affect

en-verb

affect (third-person singular simple present affects, present participle affecting, simple past and past participle affected)

affects (present singular third-person)
affecting (participle present)
affected (participle past)
affected (past)

From Middle English affecten, from Latin affectāre, from Latin affectus, the participle stem of Latin afficere (“to act upon, influence, affect, attack with disease”), from ad- + facere (“to make, do”).

der

(transitive, Scots law) To burden (property) with a fixed charge or payment, or other condition or restriction.


Luxembourgish

/ˈlʌksəmˌbɜːɡɪʃ/

/ˈlʌksəmˌbɝɡɪʃ/

Of or in the language of Luxembourg (derived from the Moselle Franconian group of High German dialects).


Luxembourgish

/ˈlʌksəmˌbɜːɡɪʃ/

/ˈlʌksəmˌbɝɡɪʃ/

A Germanic language spoken in Luxembourg and, traditionally, around the city of Arlon (Belgium); originally included in the Moselle Franconian group of High German dialects, but now usually regarded as a separate language due to its standardisation and official use in the state of Luxembourg.


Uzbek

From Russian узбек (uzbek), from Uzbek oʻzbek. Further etymology is uncertain; possibly from Turkic öz (“genuine”) + Sogdian [script needed] (βγ /beġ/, “master”); the latter from Proto-Indo-Aryan *bʰagás, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *bʰagás. The first element is often thought to be equivalent to English Oghuz.


Laotian

From Laos + -ian, or after French laotien.

Lao People's Democratic Republic
Lao People's Democratic Republic

A person from the Lao People's Democratic Republic or of Lao descent.


Laotian

Synonym of Lao (“the official language of Laos”)


Laotian

Of, from, or pertaining to the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Laotian people or the Laotian language.


monastery

From Middle English monasterie, from Old French monastere, from Medieval Latin monastērium (“monastery”), from Ancient Greek μοναστήριον (monastḗrion, “hermitage, monastery”), from μοναστήριος (monastḗrios, “alone, made alone”) + -ιον (-ion, “-ium”, suffix forming place names), from μονάζω (monázō, “to be alone”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”) + -άζω (-ázō, verb-forming suffix). Doublet of minster.

A residence for monks or others who have taken religious vows.


Saudi

Borrowed from Arabic سُعُودِيّ (suʕūdiyy), from سُعُود (suʕūd), the name of the Saud family, who rule Saudi Arabia, and the adjectival suffix ـِيّ (-iyy).

The agal he wore on his head gave him away as a Saudi.

A person from Saudi Arabia or of Saudi Arabian descent.


Saudi

en-adj

Saudi (comparative more Saudi, superlative most Saudi)

more Saudi (comparative)
most Saudi (superlative)

From, or pertaining to Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabian people or language.


Saudi

2008 June 22, Sebastian Abbot, Oil minister: Saudi willing to increase crude output, Associated Press:


Somali

en-noun

Somali (countable and uncountable, plural Somalis)

(uncountable) A Cushitic language spoken mainly in Somalia and eastern Ethiopia.

(countable) A person from Somalia or of Somali descent.

Somaliër

a person from Somalia or of Somali descent


Somali

Of, from, or pertaining to Somalia, the Somali people or language.


Montana

en-proper noun

Montana (countable and uncountable, plural Montanas)

From Latin montāna
* the US state via Spanish montaña (“mountain”)
* the surname from Spanish Montaña topographic surname

'Montana?' I said. 'You can't call a kid Montana'―these friends of mine were going to call their new baby girl Montana and I tried to talk them out of it, because I'm sick of Australians naming their kids after American placenames, I'm sick of all these Montanas and Delawares and Indianas and Dallases. […]

2002, Danny Katz, Dork Geek Jew, Allen & Unwin, published 2002, →ISBN, page 12:

A unisex given name transferred from the place name, specifically from the name of the U.S. state.


Swiss

Adopted from Middle French Suisse in circa 1515, alongside the form Switzer directly loaned from German.

(nonstandard) Swiss German; the variety of German spoken in Switzerland.


Lojban

From Lojban lojban., from rafsi loj (logji (“logic”)) + ban (bangu (“language”)).

An artificial language created by Logical Language Group designed to be logical, based on the earlier Loglan.

لُجْبَن

artificial logical language based on Loglan


Kiswahili

Swahili, an agglutinative Bantu language widely spoken in East Africa.


Ilocano

Borrowed from Spanish ilocano, from iloco + -ano, where the root is from Ilocano i- (place of origin prefix) + either lukong (“hollow; concave”) or luek/luok (“cove; bay”) + Spanish -o.

the ethnolinguistic group of the Ilocos Region on the coasts of northwestern Luzon in the Philippines.


Macedonian

en-noun

Macedonian (countable and uncountable, plural Macedonians)

From Middle English Macedonyen, partly from Macedonia and partly from Latin Macedonius, + -an; equivalent to Macedonia + -an.

/mæsəˈdəʊnɪən/

Republic of North Macedonia
Republic of North Macedonia

(uncountable) A South Slavic language, the standard language of the Republic of North Macedonia.


tau

Hospital Brothers of Saint Anthony
Trần Thanh Vân

From Middle English tau, taue, from Latin tau, from Ancient Greek ταῦ (taû) and Hebrew תָּו (tav).
Sense 6 (“mathematical constant equal to 2π”) was used by Joseph M. Lindenberg in 1991, and popularized by the American educator and entrepreneur Michael Hartl in a 2010 paper which explains that τ resembles π; and that τ is the Greek equivalent of t, the first letter of turn, and 2π corresponds to one turn of a circle with a radius of one unit.
Sense 8.1 (“short for tau lepton or tau particle”) was coined by the American physicist Martin Lewis Perl (1927–2014) after the first letter of Ancient Greek τρίτον (tríton, “third”), since the tau lepton or tauon was the third charged lepton discovered.

sequence box

Ancient Greek Alphabet

<big>Τ τ </big>
Ancient Greek: ταῦ

croix en tau

Saint Anthony’s cross — see also Saint Anthony's cross

The letter Τ／τ in the Greek alphabet; being the nineteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek, and the twenty-first letter of the Old and Ancient Greek alphabets.


Azerbaijani

/ˌæzəbaɪˈdʒɑːni/

/ˌæzəɹbaɪˈd͡ʒɑːni/

آزربائیجانی

āzerbā’ījānī


Riksmål

A conservative variety of Bokmål that is closer to Danish, sometimes using unofficial spellings that have been removed from standard Bokmål.


Iranian

/ɪˈɹɑːni.ən/

A person from Iran or of Iranian descent.


Iranian

/ɪˈɹɑːni.ən/

(linguistics) Pertaining to the Iranian languages or their speakers.

Irans

pertaining to the Iranian languages or the Iranian peoples


Iranian

/ɪˈɹɑːni.ən/


Mongolian

en-adj

Mongolian (comparative more Mongolian, superlative most Mongolian)

more Mongolian (comparative)
most Mongolian (superlative)

Originally from Mongol + -ian, a translation (1706) of the German mongolisch, mongalisch. Subsequently, from the name of the country of Mongolia + -an.

He had a Sister, which according to the Mongalian custom lived in the devoted spiritual state.

1878, Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition, volume XVI:
The Mongolian characters...are written perpendicularly from above downward.

Mongalian

of or relating to Mongolia; native of Mongolia

mongolian

designating or affected with Down syndrome

1985, Robert Whelan, Robert Capa: A Biography:
He usually had a heavy growth of dark stubble that made him look...rather like a Mongolian bandit.


Mongolian

en-noun

Mongolian (countable and uncountable, plural Mongolians)

The Cossac there, The Calmuc, and Mungalian, round the bales In crowds resort.

1757, John Dyer, The fleece, a poem, published 1807:

This day we saw some scattered tents of Mongalians, with their flocks.

1763, John Bell, A journey from St. Petersburg to Pekin:

The Mongolians are the most nomadic of populations.

1854, Robert G. Latham, Orr's Circle of the sciences: Organic nature:

Mongolians now regard animal husbandry as a low-status occupation.

(countable) A native or inhabitant of Mongolia.

Khalka […] Mongolian possesses seven vowels and twenty consonants.

1926, Neville J. Whymant, A Mongolian Grammar:

The Altaic family […] comprises about 40 languages, classified into three groups: Turkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus.

1987, David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language:

These inscriptions are in Mongolian and thus widen the appliqué's international connections.

(uncountable) A group of languages from Mongolia, specifically Khalkha, the official language of Mongolia.


Delphi

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Δελφοί (Delphoí).

(rare) A female given name from Ancient Greek, as well a diminutive of Delphine.


altar

→ Maori: āta

From Middle English alter, from Old English alter, taken from Latin altare (“altar”), probably related to adolere (“burn”); thus "burning place", influenced by altus (“high”). Displaced native Middle English wēved.

[…] now marking the end of ascetic rationalism, the monadology no longer implied a sacrifice of individuality on the altar of rationality.

2000, Alain Renaut, M. B. De Bevoise, Era of the Individual: A Contribution to a History of Subjectivity:

(figurative) Any (real or notional) place where something is worshipped or sacrificed to.


Belarusian

Belarusian (countable and uncountable, plural Belarusians)

/ˌbɛləˈɹʌʃən/

/ˌbɛləˈɹuːʃən/

/ˌbɛləˈɹuːʒən/

Belarus

person from Belarus or of Belarusian descent

(uncountable) The Slavic language spoken in Belarus (formerly called White Ruthenia or White Russia).


Gaul

Borrowed from French Gaule (“Gaul”), from Middle French Gaule (“Gaul”), from Old French Gaule, Waulle (“Gaul”, a term used to translate unrelated Latin Gallia (“Gaul”)), from Frankish *Walha(land) (“Gaul, Land of the Romans, foreigners”), from Proto-West Germanic *walh (“foreigner, Roman, Celt”), from Proto-Germanic *walhaz (“an outlander, foreigner, Celt”), probably of Celtic origin, from the same source as Latin Volcae (name of a Celtic tribe in South Germany, which later emigrated to Gaul).
Akin to Old High German Walh, Walah (“a Celt, Roman, Gaul”), Old English Wealh, Walh (“a non-Germanic foreigner, Celt/Briton/Welshman”), Old Norse Valir (“Gauls, Frenchmen”). More at Wales/Welsh, Cornwall, Walloon, and Vlach/Wallachia.
Despite their similar appearance, Latin Gallia is not the origin of French Gaule. During the evolution from Latin to French, stressed initial /ˈɡa-/ yielded /dʒa/ > /ʒa/ (cf. Latin gamba > French jambe), while unstressed final /-lia/ yielded /ʎə/ > /j/ (cf. Latin filia > French fille). Thus, the regular outcome of Latin Gallia is /ʒaj/ ⟨Jaille⟩, which is attested in several French toponyms: La Jaille-Yvon, Saint-Mars-la-Jaille, etc.


Zeus

From Ancient Greek Ζεύς (Zeús). Doublet of Dyeus and Jove.


wat

There are two wats near this village.

Angkor Wat

Having at last got past the crowd of boats, we advanced rapidly for two hours more, when we stopped at a wat, in order to give the men a rest.

1857, Sir John Bowring, The kingdom and people of Siam, volume 1, page 165:

Aside from its religious function in the community, the wat also performs a large variety of social functions.

1982, Carlo Caldarola, Religions and societies, Asia and the Middle East, page 379:

It would be a mistake, however, to emphasize the Hindu element in Cambodian Buddhism and Cambodian temples. At its greatest it is always a subordinate element and in most of the wats or temples it hardly appears at all, […]

1996, James Bissett Pratt, The Pilgrimage of Buddhism and a Buddhist Pilgrimage, page 194:

It is often possible to discern the motivation or importance of a wat by examining its name

1999, Steve Van Beek with Luca Invernizzi, The arts of Thailand, page 15:

The ubosoth is in a small enclosure just before the main entrance to the wat, on the right, which has fine gilded doors. The wat has a small museum.

2003, Joshua Eliot with Jane Bickersteth, Thailand handbook, page 268:

A Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia, especially those in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.


Alexander

/ˌælɪɡˈzændɚ/

[ˌælɪɡˈzeəndɚ]

[ˌælɪɡˈzeəndə]

/ˌalɪɡˈzɑːndə/

Borrowed from Latin Alexander, from Ancient Greek Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros), from ἀλέξω (aléxō, “I defend”) + ἀνδρ- (andr-), the stem of ἀνήρ (anḗr, “man”). Doublet of Alastair and Alejandro.

Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?

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 V, scene i]:

And for my own part, said my uncle Toby, though I should blush to boast of myself, Trim - yet had my name been Alexander, I could have done no more at Namur than my duty.

1765, Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, Book IV, Chapter 18:

"My son's name is Alexander," Muriel said. "Did I tell you that? I named him Alexander because it sounded high-class.

1985, Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist, →ISBN, page 170:

A male given name from Ancient Greek, most famously held by Alexander the Great.


chi

From Latin chī, from Ancient Greek χεῖ (kheî).

The twenty-second letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets.


Sofia

Variant spelling of Sophia and from various other languages' own adaptions of Ancient Greek Σοφία (Sophía, “wisdom, especially divine wisdom”). Sometimes borrowed into English as an anglicization of an accented or closely related form, as with Spanish Sofía, Welsh Soffia, and Hungarian Zsófia.
As the capital of Bulgaria, via nonstandard romanization of Bulgarian Со́фия (Sófiya), from църква „Света София“ (cǎrkva "Sveta Sofija"), from Byzantine Greek Ναός Ἁγίας Σοφίας (Naós Hagías Sophías, “Church of Holy Wisdom”), the city's prominent 6th-century Byzantine Greek church, first attested being used as the name for the city in the 14th century and reinforced under Ottoman rule as Ottoman Turkish صوفیه (Sofya).

der

Alternative spelling of Sophia, a female given name.


Moses

From Latin Mōsēs, Mōȳsēs, from Ancient Greek Μωυσῆς (Mōusês), from Biblical Hebrew מֹשֶׁה (mōšê). Further etymology is unclear, but it is sometimes conjectured to derive from Egyptian ms-s (msj, “to give birth to”), a common element in Egyptian names of the form ‘[name of deity] is the one who bore him’; or, alternatively, contains Egyptian N35A (mw, “water”).

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">msj</i>

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">mw</i>


Egyptian

/ɪˈd͡ʒɪp.ʃən/

From Middle English Egipcien, egyptiane. Displaced Old English Egyptisċ. By surface analysis, Egypt + -ian.

The Afroasiatic language spoken (and written) in ancient Egypt


Anglophone

/ˈæŋɡləˌfəʊn/

/ˈeɪŋɡləˌfoʊn/

One who speaks English, generally natively.


Tajik

From Classical Persian تاجیک (tājīk, “non-Turk (of Central Asia)”) (akin to تازی (tāzī), تازیک (tāzīk)), (ultimately) from Middle Persian tʾcyk' (tāzīg, “Arab”), (ultimately) from Arabic طَيِّئ (ṭayyiʔ, “name of an Arab clan”). See Tayy.
Popular folk etymology traces the word to Tajik тоҷ (toj, “crown”) (see Arabic تَاج (tāj), from Persian تاج (tâj, “crown”)), but this is false.

The Persian dialect spoken in Tajikistan.


Tajik

Of, from, or pertaining to Tajikistan, the Tajik people (living in Tajikistan and Afghanistan) or the Tajiki dialect of Persian.

Tadjiks

of, from, or pertaining to Tajikistan, the Tajik people or the Tajik language


Nahuatl

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

From Spanish náhuatl, from Classical Nahuatl nahuatl, nahuatlatolli (“the clear or understandable language”).

The polysynthetic Aztecan language spoken by an indigenous people of Mexico.

naŭatla lingvo

with the definite article ⦃⦃t+¦eo¦la¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦⦄⦄


Murrinh-Patha

The language spoken by these people; Murinypata.


Burmese

Of or relating to Burma (Myanmar) or its people or language.


Burmese

A person from Myanmar or of Burmese descent.

بُورْمِيّ

a person from Myanmar or of Burmese descent

(zoology) A medium-sized, short-haired domestic cat breed, originating in Thailand.


Burmese

The Sino-Tibetan official language of the country Burma. Also known as Myanmar (which is the name preferred by the country's current government).


Alexandria

From Middle English Alexandria, from Latin Alexandrīa, from Ancient Greek Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Alexándreia), from Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros, “Alexander”) + -εια (-eia, “-ia: forming place names”), initially chiefly places founded by Alexander the Great of Macedonia and subsequently usually with reference to Alexandria in Egypt, a major Hellenistic cultural center, center of early Christianity, and continuing major international port. Compare Antioch, Seleucia, and Ptolemais. Doublet of Kandahar, Iskenderun, Scandaroon, and Alexandretta.

亞歷山卓

any of a number of cities bearing the same name


Kala Lagaw Ya

Torres Strait Islands
Torres Strait Islands

The Pama-Nyungan language spoken in the western Torres Strait Islands.


Meryam Mir

The Trans-Fly Papuan language spoken in the eastern Torres Strait Islands.


Torres Strait Creole

/ˈtɔːɹɛz stɹeɪt ˈkɹiːəʊl/

From Torres Strait + Creole (“language formed from two parent languages”).

af

A creole spoken in the Torres Strait Islands.


Kriol

A creole language widely spoken by Australian Aborigines in Arnhem Land; Roper River creole; Australian Kriol.


Bube

A Bantu language spoken by the Bubi people.


Pepsi

→ French: pepsi

→ Hindi: पेप्सी (pepsī)

→ Mauritian Creole: pepsi

→ Polish: pepsi

→ Portuguese: Pepsi, pepsi

→ Serbo-Croatian: Pepsi, pepsi

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

Originally short for Pepsi-Cola, coined in 1898 as a renaming of the brand from "Brad's Drink", in order to imply that the fizzy drink could cure dyspepsia. While some have suggested Pepsi is short for the digestive enzyme pepsin, sometimes with the assumption that pepsin was used as an ingredient in Pepsi, this is a folk etymology, as there is no official confirmation of it nor any evidence for a link between the enzyme and the beverage.
Nonetheless, both the words pepsin and dyspepsia ultimately derive from Ancient Greek πέψις (pépsis), which means “cooking, fermentation or digestion”. (Compare Italian pepsi, from the same source.)
(person from Quebec): In reference to their supposed love of junk food.

[…] and to maintain a relatively superior, paternalistic position from which French Canadians are for the most part regarded as 'peasoups' or 'Pepsis,' as fellow citizens requiring benevolent supervision […]

1993, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, volume 20, page 276:

(slang, ethnic slur) A person from Quebec, Canada.


minor

From Middle English minor, menor, menour, etc., from Latin minor (“lesser; young; young person”) both directly and via Norman and Middle French menor, menour, etc. Doublet of minus but not mini-. Cognate with minister, minify, Minorca, Menshevik, and possibly minnow. Compare Latin minimum and minuō, Old High German minniro, Cornish minow.

byvak

subject of secondary undergraduate study

(Scots law, obsolete) An adolescent, a person above the legal age of puberty but below the age of majority.


Quenya

From Noldorin Quenya Quenya, ultimately derived from the Primitive Quendian root *kwene ("person"), being the name for the language invented by J. R. R. Tolkien as the language spoken by the Elves in his books.

A constructed language created by J. R. R. Tolkien modelled on Greek, Latin and Finnish.


Malayalam

From Malayalam മലയാളം (malayāḷaṁ), from മല (mala, “hill, mountain”) + അളം (aḷaṁ, “place”).

Padmanabhan uttered a command in Malayalam, the regional language.

2012 April 30, Jake Halpern, “The Secret of the Temple”, in The New Yorker:

A Dravidian language spoken in the states of Kerala and Lakshadweep, India.


Bicol

From Spanish Bicol / Vicol (“former province, river (Bicol River), language”), from Bikol Central, see Bikol Central Bicol for more.

The language of the native inhabitants of the region, Bicolano.


Gothic

From Late Latin gothicus (“Gothic, barbaric”), from Ancient Greek Γοτθικός (Gotthikós), from Ancient Greek Γότθοι (Gótthoi, “Goths”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), proposed to derive from unattested Gothic *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌰 (*guta). Equivalent to Goth + -ic. The various usages of the adjective are introduced nearly simultaneously in the first half of the 17th century. The literal meaning “of the Goths” is found in the 1611 preface of the King James Bible, in reference to the Gothicke tongue. The generalized meaning of “Germanic, Teutonic” appears in the 1640s. Reference to the medieval period in Western Europe, and specifically the architecture of that period (“barbaric style”, initially a term of abuse), also appears in the 1640s, as does reference to “Gothic characters” or “Gothic letters” in typography.

An extinct Germanic language, once spoken by the Goths.


Gothic

en-adj

Gothic (comparative more Gothic, superlative most Gothic)

more Gothic (comparative)
most Gothic (superlative)

готически

of the type formerly used for printing German

Of or relating to the Goths or their language.

“[W]hat he holds of all things to be most gothic, is gallantry to the women.”

1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, II.iii.6:

Enormities which gleam like comets through the darkness of gothic and superstitious ages.

1812 letter, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prose Works, volume II, quoted in OED, published 1888, page 384:

(figuratively) Barbarous, rude, unpolished, belonging to the “Dark Ages”, medieval as opposed to classical.


Gothic

One hundred fifty Gothics sold over 1.5 million copies a month last spring.

1996, Nora Sayre, Sixties going on seventies, page 180:


Sinhala

Borrowed from Sinhalese සිංහල (siṁhala), itself borrowed from Sanskrit सिंहल (siṃhala, literally “lionlike”), from सिंह (siṃhá, “lion”) + -ल (-la), recorded as the name of the island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from about the 10th to 12th century, but presumably older, as it is also the source of the name Ceylon in western geographic tradition.
The name is sometimes glossed as "abode of lions", referring to a supposed former abundance of lions on the island ( The Asiatic Journal 20 (1836), p. 30). Doublet of Ceylon and Elu.


Chickasaw

Some place names in the United States:
A city in Mobile County, Alabama.


Lyssa

It was mornings like this when Lyssa really appreciated the indoor arena.

2002, Karle Dickerson, Joanna Campbell, Hoofprints in the snow:

Anaisse sank down to the carpet in order to look her in her eye. She smiled. "My name is Anaisse. Where is your mother, Lyssa?"

2005, Anya Bast, Seasons of Pleasure: Summer and Autumn:

Lyssa, that's what I want to find out. Will you think about it?


Hopi

From Hopi hopi (“Hopi, good in every respect, be wise/knowing”) (as in Hopituu sinom "Hopi people"). Popularized by J. Walter Fewkes as a replacement for the previously used and offensive name Moqui which sounds like Hopi mooki "dies, be dead".

A member of a particular tribe of North American natives.


Hopi

The Uto-Aztecan language spoken by this North American tribe.


Hopi

A Coal Mine capable of producing 450,000 tons of coal annually started operation in Hopi, Honan.

1960 September, “1957 April-December”, in E. Stuart Kirby, editor, Contemporary China, volume III, →OCLC, page 278:

Two other major coal-mining centers, each producing coking-grade bituminous coal, have been developed in Honan since the late 1950's. Hopi, in northernmost Honan, arose in 1957 on the site of a small, primitive operation in a deposit of lean coal, low in volatile content. A city was established in that year, and the mining complex was linked by a 12-mile rail spur with Tangyin, on the main Peking-Hankow line.

1972, Theodore Shabad, “The North China Plain”, in China's Changing Map, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 119:

Death certificates were tabulated to map morality from esophageal cancer in the 181 counties and cities of the survey. The counties with the highest incidences were Yangcheng and Hopi with rates, respectively, of 135 and 140 per 100,000. By contrast, in Hunyuan County the rate was under 2 per 100,000.

1975 June 17, Walter Sullivan, “CHINA STUDY LINKS CANCER TO REGION”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-10-05, page 66:


Shona

Scottish Anglicized form of Seonag ( =Joan) and an American variant of Shauna.

A female given name from Scottish Gaelic.


Luo

The Nilotic language spoken by this group, also known as Dholuo.


Mohawk

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

From Dutch Mohawk.
An exonym, probably from Narragansett Mohowaúgsuck, Mauquàuog, meaning “they eat (animate things)”, “cannibals”. The phoneme /m/ is not present in the Mohawk language; the Mohawk autonym is Kanien'kehá:ka (Kanienkehaka, Kanyenkehaka).

The Iroquoian language spoken by these North American indigenous people.


Sioux

From French Sioux, shortening of Nadouessioux, from Ojibwe naadawesiwag (“little snakes”), which could refer to the massasauga snake (Sistrurus catenatus), a small rattlesnake.

Various formerly nomadic Native American tribes of the North American Great Plains.


Cebuano

/sɛˈbwɑːnəʊ/

From Spanish cebuano, from Cebú (“Cebu”) + -ano (“-an”).

A language spoken in the Philippines in and near the province of Cebu.


Quechua

Spanish, from Quechua qhichwa (literally “temperate valley”).

uder

The Quechuas, a tribe of the Inca people, were Indians of the red race and with an appearance and trait which is distinctly American. “They are”, says Victor W. Von Hagen in his book, Realm of the Incas, “of medium height, and inclined to be thickset, with large hands, small wrists, a disproportionately large chest (developed for breathing at high altitudes), well-developed legs, and wide-spreading feet. They are broad-headed, with high cheekbones, prominent aquiline noses, and small, almond-shaped eyes.” There are still five million of them in the Andes.

1972, Lytle Robinson, chapter 5, in Edgar Cayceʼs Story of the Origin and Destiny of Man, USA: Berkley Publishing Corporation, page 105:

A member of one of several South American ethnic groups that spans Peru, Bolivia, northwestern Argentina, northern Chile, and in Ecuador and southern Colombia.


Marshallese

From Marshall (“Marshall Islands”) + -ese.

The Austronesian language of the Marshall Islands.


Venetia

A female given name from Latin used since the late Middle Ages.


lock

From Middle English lok, lokke, from Old English locc (“hair of the head, hair, lock of hair, curl, ringlet”), from Proto-West Germanic *lokk, from Proto-Germanic *lukkaz, from Proto-Indo-European *lugnó-, from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend”).
Cognate with West Frisian lok, lokke, Dutch lok (“earlock, curl”), German Locke (“lock of hair, curl”), Danish lok, Swedish lock (“lock of hair, curl”). It has been theorised that the word may be related to the Gothic verb *𐌻𐌿𐌺𐌰𐌽 (*lukan, “to shut”) in its ancient meaning "to curb".

inh

(Scots law, historical) A quantity of meal, the perquisite of a mill-servant.


Urdu

Borrowed from Hindustani (see Urdu اُرْدُو (urdū) and Hindi उर्दू (urdū)), from Classical Persian اُرْدُو (urdū), from Proto-Turkic *ordu (“army, camp”) ( > Azerbaijani ordu, Turkish ordu, Turkmen oorda). Doublet of horde and orda.

‘Urdu was born in the barracks a few hundred years ago, and was spoken by soldiers. It gets its grammar from Hindi, and vocabulary from Persian.’

2023, Santanu Bhattacharya, One Small Voice, Fig Tree, page 78:

Modern Standard Urdu, an Indo-Aryan language with native speakers mainly in Pakistan and North India. It is a standardized and Persianized version of Hindustani.


ex

Thus first C checks to see if ex and wye are equal. The resulting value of 1 or 0 (true or false) then is compared to the value of zee.

1984 Waite, Prata & Martin, C (Computer Program Language), p. 190

The name of the Latin-script letter X/x.


Sarah

en-proper noun

Sarah (countable and uncountable, plural Sarahs)

From Biblical Hebrew שָׂרָה (śārâ, “lady, princess”), from the Biblical figure originally named Sarai (שָׂרָי (śārāy, literally “masters, princes”)).

bor

I also have two daughters, by now grown up. Their names are Sarah and Anne, good sensible names. - - - I am a believer in sensible choices, so different from many of my own. Also in sensible names for children, because look what happened to Cordelia.

1988, Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye, page 15:


Sinhalese

en-noun

Sinhalese (countable and uncountable, plural Sinhalese)

(uncountable) The Indo-Aryan language of the Sinhalese people.

Some of these forms are no longer in current use


Tamil

Tamil (countable and uncountable, plural Tamils)

Borrowed from Tamil தமிழ் (tamiḻ, “Tamil”); see that entry for theories.

(uncountable) A Dravidian language spoken in the state of Tamil Nadu, India and in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia.


Marathi

From Marathi मराठी (marāṭhī). Doublet of Maharashtri.

I made a pact with her that she would teach me more Marathi and I could teach her the English alphabet.

2020, Avni Doshi, Burnt Sugar, Hamish Hamilton, page 110:

An Indo-Aryan language that is the predominant language spoken in the state of Maharashtra, India.


Jim

A diminutive of the male given name James.


Croatian

/ˌkɹəʊˈeɪ.ʃən/

/ˌkɹoʊˈeɪ.ʃən/

A standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Croats.

Kroaties

the standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian


Marcus

Borrowing of Latin Marcus. Doublet of Mark.

Aristarchus my fellow prisoner saluteth you, and Marcus sisters sonne to Barnabas, (touching whome yee receiued commandements; if he come vnto you, receiue him:) […]

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Colossians 4:10:

The two Marci, Livius Denter, and Æmilius, ſucceeding to the conſulſhip, war broke out again with the Æquans; […]

1814, Titus Livius, translated by George Baker, The History of Rome, 2nd edition, volume II, London: […] T[homas] Cadell and W[illiam] Davies, […], page 323:

But, as the historian said, there were many Marci in one Cæsar, so there are many Cains and Judases in the best of us all.

1863, Samuel Trickett, edited by John Edward Blakeney, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, London: […] G. Norman, […], page 224:

At epig. 73.5 the question ‘quis Marcus?’ is much more sensible, because there could have been many Marci to choose amongst.

2001, Nigel M. Kay, editor, Ausonius: Epigrams, Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN, page 290:

But 'Marcus?' – a strangely Latinate name for someone born in Sighthill. ('Aspirational mother, boss,' he said. 'Better than Titus.Or Sextus.')

2008, Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 73:

Rubin wondered who Marcus was. It was a City name, but there were many Marcuses.

2016, Stella Gemmell, The Immortal Throne (The City; 2), Bantam Press, →ISBN:


Assamese

The Indo-Aryan language spoken by the majority people in the state of Assam, NE India.


Bengali

Bengali (countable and uncountable, plural Bengalis)

Equivalent to Bengal + -i, borrowed from Bengali বাঙ্গালী (baṅgali). Compare Assamese বঙালী (boṅali), Hindi बंगाली (baṅgālī), Classical Persian بنگالی (bangālī).

bor+

(uncountable) A language spoken in Bangladesh and the states of Assam, Tripura and West Bengal, India.

बंगाली भाषा

baṅgālī bhāṣā

बाङ्गला भाषा

bāṅgalā bhāṣā


Novial

From Novial Nov International Auxiliari Lingue (“New International Auxiliary Language”).

uder

international auxiliary language
international auxiliary language

An international auxiliary language, or interlanguage, published by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen in 1928.


ee

The word length, which contains only four sounds l e ng th, is usually spell'd thus, el ee en gee tee aitch.

1773 October, The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal Enlarged:

I have drunk en-ee-cee-tee-ay-ar from the ef-ell-oh-doubleyou-ee-ar-ess in his gee-ay-ar-dee-ee-en many a time.

2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170:

ETA [is spoken] as "ee-tee-ay" instead of "I SPELL Echo Tango Alfa".

2016 CCEB, Communications Instructions Radiotelephone Procedures: ACP125 (G), p. 3-5

The name of the Latin-script letter E/e.


eth

The sound /ɛ/ followed by the sound of the letter, by analogy with other letter names, such as those of f, l, and m.

In Old English manuscripts thorn and eth did not have different phonetic values but were used positionally[.]

1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 175:

A letter (capital Ð, small ð) introduced into Old English to represent its dental fricative, then not distinguished from the letter thorn, no longer used in English but still in modern use in Icelandic, the IPA and other phonetic alphabets to represent the voiced dental fricative "th" sound as in the English word then. The letter is also used in Faroese, but is generally silent in that language.


jy

jies (plural)
jyes (plural)
jys (plural)

From the name of the letter i (of which j was originally a variant) by affixing the /d͡ʒ/ sound to it. Compare French ji, and the similar derivation of Italian vu.
Generally changed to jay by association with kay.

(archaic or dialectal, Scotland) The name of the Latin-script letter J/j.


Gujarati

/ˌɡʊd͡ʒəˈrɑːti/

/ˌɡuːd͡ʒəˈrɑːti/

Borrowed from Gujarati ગુજરાતી (gujrātī).

The Indic language spoken in the state of Gujarat, India


Magyar

From Hungarian magyar, from Proto-Ugric *mańćɜ (“man, person”).


Magyar

A Hungarian individual, especially in the sense of an ethnic Hungarian.


yogh

From Middle English ȝogh, ȝ, of unknown origin. Several etymologies have been advanced, such as derivation from Middle English yok (“yoke”) or Old English ēoh (“rune ᛇ”), but all pose serious phonological problems.

A letter of the Middle English alphabet (capital Ȝ, small ȝ), in form derived from the Old English shape of the letter g, and used to represent various palatal and velar sounds.


entity

From the Medieval Latin entitās, from ēns (“being”) (stem: ent-) + -tās (compare essentia), see there for more information.

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 1. Existence

(science fiction) An alien lifeform that has no corporeal body.


wynn

From Middle English wynne, winne, wenne, wunne, wyn, from Old English wynn (“joy, pleasure”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunnju, from Proto-Germanic *wunjō, from Proto-Indo-European *wn̥h₁yeh₂, from *wenh₁- (“desire, wish, love”).

The Norman scribes gradually replaced wynn by u, uu, vv, and w itself.

A letter of the Old English alphabet, ƿ, borrowed from the futhark and used to represent the sound of w; replaced in Middle English times by the digraph uu, which later developed into the letter w.


schwa

Borrowed from German Schwa, from Hebrew שווא / שְׁוָא (shva, šəwā, “(mark mostly indicating absence of a vowel sound)”), borrowed from Classical Syriac ܫ̈ܘܰܝܳܐ (š'wayyā, literally “even, equal”), in Syriac a term for a sign consisting of two vertical dots used to separate parts of a sentence. Doublet of shva.

der

The participle has also, owing to the accent, the lightest possible forms; but here there was no reduplication, and so in class I. the "schwa" took the form e before single mutes or fricatives, and elsewhere o.

1882, B. W. Wells, “The Ablaut in English”, in Transactions of the American Philological Association, page 67:

However, word-final unstressed schwa is deleted even by the speakers from South Albania, though to different degrees and dependant on the speech style[…]

2006 April 27, Sylvia Moosmüller, Theodor Granser, “The spread of Standard Albanian: An illustration based on an analysis of vowels”, in Language Variation and Change, volume 18, number 2, Cambridge University Press, →DOI:

(phonetics) An indeterminate central vowel sound as the "a" in "about", represented as /ə/ in IPA.


Cherokee

/ˈt͡ʃɛ.ɹə.ˌkiː/

Most likely from the Cherokee autonym ᏣᎳᎩ (tsalagi). Derivation from a Choctaw exonym meaning "those who live in caves" (compare chiluk (“cave”)) has also been suggested — the Iroquois term for the Cherokee was Oyata'ge'ronon (“inhabitants of the cave country”) — as has derivation from a Creek term for "person(s) who speak(s) a non-Creek language" (see celokketv (“to speak a non-creek language”)).
Whatever its origin, the ethnonym entered European languages at an early date, perhaps as early as the 1670s; in Spanish, the people are called the Tchalaquei as early as 1755.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A census-designated place in Swain County and Jackson County, North Carolina, capital of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

An unincorporated community in Grainger County, Tennessee.

An unincorporated community in San Saba County, Texas.


Khmer

From Khmer ខ្មែរ (khmae).
Attributed to the Pali term khemara (“one who is wholesome”). The elision form, ក្មេរ (kmera), is found in ancient stone inscriptions, or a borrowing from Northern Khmer เขมร (/khmɛːr/).

Despite my mother speaking Khmer to us at home, I hadn’t retained it through my formative years.

2024, Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time, Sceptre, page 6:

The national language of Cambodia, part of the Mon-Khmer language family.

An abugida used to write the Khmer language and sometimes Pali.


Khmer

A member of an ethnolinguistic group that constitutes most of the population of Cambodia.


Khmer

en-adj

Khmer (comparative more Khmer, superlative most Khmer)

more Khmer (comparative)
most Khmer (superlative)

Of or pertaining to the Khmer people or their language.

خِمِيرِيّ

of or pertaining to the Khmer people or their language


ping pong

en-noun

ping pong (countable and uncountable, plural ping pongs)

→ Chinese: 乒乓球 (pīngpāngqiú)

→ Greek: πινγκ πονγκ (pingk pongk)

→ Italian: ping pong

→ Japanese: ピンポン (pin pon)

→ Korean: 핑퐁 (pingpong)

→ Portuguese: pingue-pongue

→ Russian: пинг-понг (ping-pong)

→ Spanish: ping pong

Onomatopoeic. The name “ping-pong” was in wide use before British manufacturer J. Jaques & Son Ltd trademarked it in 1901. Jaques sold the rights to the “ping-pong” name in the United States to Parker Brothers. Registered in the United States in 1930, Ping-Pong (with dash) is still a registered wordmark of Parker Brothers, Inc. Contrary to a common misconception, the word does not originate from Chinese 乒乓 (pīngpāng), though there are possibilities that the coiners encountered Chinese themselves.

(UK politics) The exchange of proposed amendments between the two Houses of Parliament, particularly at the end of a session when compromises have to be made to complete the legislative process within the limited time available.


pie-eater

Wiganers do like pies, but the term Pie-eaters is actually an insult, dating back to a pit strike when Wigan miners were starved back to work before their St Helens counterparts, thereby eating humble pie.

2005, The Observer, "Get past the pies and there's a football team", 7 Aug 2005

(derogatory) A person from Wigan in northern England or the surrounding area.