Madagascar

large island lying to the east of and near Africa, from Mogadishu, the name of the city in Somalia, due to an error by Marco Polo in reading Arabic, whereby he thought the name was that of the island. There is no indigenous name for the whole island. Related: Madagascan; Madagascarian; Madagascarene.

Entries linking to Madagascar

Mogadishu

city in Somalia, from Arabic mukaddas "holy."

Malagasy

"pertaining to Madagascar," the large island off the southeast coast of Africa, 1835, apparently an alteration of Madagascar (compare French Malgache).

Trends of Madagascar

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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Lemuria

Sclater (1829-1913) to an ancient continent or land bridge, now sunk in the Indian Ocean, connecting Africa, Madagascar,...

lemur

nocturnal Madagascar mammal, 1795, given this sense by Linnaeus, from Latin lemures (plural, singular lemurum) "evil spirits...

indri

1839, European name for the babakoto, a lemur-like arboreal primate of Madagascar (Indris Lichanotus); the common story since...

turkey

1540s, originally "guinea fowl" (Numida meleagris), a bird imported from Madagascar via Turkey, and called guinea fowl when...

Africa

Latin Africa (terra) "African land, Libya, the Carthaginian territory, the province of Africa; Africa as a continent," fem. of adjective Africus, from Afer "an African," a word of uncertain origin. The Latin word originally was used only in reference to the region around modern T

anxious

1620s, "greatly troubled by uncertainties," from Latin anxius "solicitous, uneasy, troubled in mind" (also "causing anxiety, troublesome"), from angere, anguere "to choke, squeeze," figuratively "to torment, cause distress" (from PIE root *angh- "tight, painfully constricted, pai

hail

salutation in greeting, c. 1200, from Old Norse heill "health, prosperity, good luck," or a similar Scandinavian source, and in part from Old English shortening of wæs hæil "be healthy" (see health; and compare wassail). The interj. hail is thus an abbreviated sentence expressin

godspeed

also God speed, by late 14c., "(I wish that) God (may) grant you success," from God + speed (v.) in its old sense of "prosper, grow rich, succeed." Specifically as a salutation by mid-15c. Also in Middle English as an adverb, "quickly, speedily" (early 14c.); the then-identically

righteous

an early 16c. alteration of the older word, rightwise, which is from Old English rihtwis, of actions, "characterized by justice, morally right," of persons, "just, upright; sinless, conforming to divine law," from riht (see right (adj.1)) + wis "wise, way, manner" (see wise (adj.

Turk

c. 1300, from French Turc, from Medieval Latin Turcus, from Byzantine Greek Tourkos, Persian turk, a national name, of unknown origin. Said to mean "strength" in Turkish. Compare Chinese tu-kin, recorded from c. 177 B.C.E. as the name of a people living south of the Altai Mountai

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updated on October 27, 2018

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