List of words derived from toponyms

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This is a list of English language words derived from toponyms, followed by the place name it derives from.

General

• agate — after Achates, ancient Greek name for the river Dirillo on the Italian island of Sicily
• Alberta clipper — a weather phenomenon named after the Canadian province of Alberta, where it originates ^[1]
• Angora cat — named after Angora, variant or former name of Ankara, their place of origin ^[2][3]
• Antimacassar — after Makassar, Indonesia, which was the source of hair oil
• Armageddon — after "mount of Megiddo", where the battle was to be fought according to myth ^[4]
• badminton — after Badminton in Gloucestershire, England
• balkanization — after the Balkans, region in southeastern Europe similarly divided into small nations in the twentieth century ^[5]
• bangalored — after Bangalore, India; used often in the US when jobs are lost because of outsourcing; first time use by the magazine The Economist; usage: "He is sulking today because he got bangalored."^[6]
• Bedford, England or possibly New Bedford, Massachusetts[1]
• Bedlam — meaning pandemonium, after popular name/pronunciation of St Mary of Bethlehem, London's first psychiatric hospital [2][3]
• UK
• bezant — former gold coin, and current heraldic charge, after Byzantium (now Istanbul), where the coins were made
• bathing suit for women, after Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, where atomic bombs were tested in 1946; supposedly analogous to the "explosive" effect on the male libido [4][5]
• the Blarney and Blarney Stone — Blarney Castle
• Boeotian, an ancient Greek term for a fool, after the Boeotian people
• bohemian — term referring to artists, writers, and other people who wished to live an unconventional, vagabond, or "gypsy" lifestyle; from Bohemia, where "gypsies" were erroneously thought to originate;[6][7] see also gypsy, below
• La Brabançonne, national anthem of Belgium — Brabant, province of Belgium
• Bronx cheer — a noise made by the mouth to signify derision; after The Bronx, a borough of New York City[8]
• brummagem — goods of shoddy quality; from a local pronunciation of Birmingham, city in the United Kingdom[9]
• bungalow — a low building or house, from a Gujarati word meaning "Bengalese", used elliptically to mean a house built in the style of Bengal[10]
• Byzantine, used to describe any work, law, or organization that is excessively complex or difficult to understand, named after Byzantine Empire
• calico — a type of cloth named after Calicut, where Europeans first obtained it;[11] Calico cat and calico horse
  derive from the appearance of their mottled coat suggesting calico cloth
• Latin Insula Canaria, "island of dogs", after the wild native dogs found there [12]
• Capri pants — mid-calf pants named for the Italian isle of Capri, where they rose to popularity in the late 1950s and early '60s.[13]
• Johann Blumenbach after Caucasus Mountains, their supposed ancestral homeland [14]
• chautauqua — a form of local fair, after Chautauqua, New York, where the first one was held [15]
• Chicago Typewriter
  , a nickname for the Thompson submachine gun
• chihuahua — small dog from Chihuahua
  , state of Mexico
• china — originally chinaware, as in "wares from China"[16]
• Chinese wall, artificial organizational barrier, derived from Great Wall of China
• coach — a type of carriage, ultimately from Hungarian kocsi (szekér) or "carriage of Kocs", where this vehicle was first made [17]
• Coldstream Guards — regiment founded at Coldstream in Scotland
• cologne — a perfume originating from Cologne, Germany.^[7]
• Corinthian order — one of the three orders of classical architecture, after Corinth in Greece
• Coventry (in the construction "Send to Coventry"): shunned by friends and family, after the treatment of Royalist prisoners during the English Civil War
• Damask — material, from Damascus
• denim — a coarse cotton fabric, from French serge de Nîmes, or "serge of Nîmes", where the cloth originated [18]
• hat
  .
• dollar — a unit of currency, originally from the German taler, an abbreviation of Joachimstaler ("gulden of Joachimstal"), a coin minted (1519) from silver mined near Joachimsthal, Bohemia[19]
• donnybrook — colloquial term for a brawl or fracas, derived from Donnybrook Fair, an annual horse fair in the Dublin suburb notorious for fighting and drunkenness [20]
• doolally or dolally — an adjective meaning "mad" or "eccentric" (e.g. "to go dolally"), ultimately named after Deolali, a hill station near Nashik in colonial India, referring to the apparent madness of men waiting to return to Britain after their tour of duty [21]
• duffel or duffle — heavy woollen cloth, hence duffel coat and duffel bag; after Duffel, a town in Belgium where it was first made [22]
• evacuation of Dunkirk in World War II
• Estrela Mountains
  , where this dog breed is originally from
• Fez, (also called tarboosh), a hat — Fez
  , a city in Morocco
• Finlandization, the influence a large country can have on a smaller one, after Finland
• gauze, a thin translucent open-weave fabric⏤after the city of Gaza, which is where it is thought to have originated.
• gamboge, a yellow artist's pigment — Cambodge, French name for Cambodia
• geyser, a hot water spring — Geysir in Iceland
• Glasgow kiss, a slang term meaning headbutt — Glasgow, Scotland
• Greek, not understandable ("all Greek to me") — Greek language of Greece
• Guinea, former British gold coin, and guineafowl — Guinea region of West Africa
• Gypsies, nomadic peoples in Europe and United States — Egypt
• Habanera — a musical style named after Havana, Cuba
• Hackney carriage, name for the London taxicab, probably from Hackney in London, England
• Havana, cigar — from capital of Cuba
• Hempenstall, a surname, after the town of Heptonstall
  (England)
• Honiton, a form of lace, after the town in Devon (England) where it is produced
• Holland, cotton or linen fabric — Holland
• iliad — a long narrative poem, or a series of woes, trials, etc.; both derive from the Homeric epic Iliad, literally meaning "of Ilium" (or Troy)[23]
• Indian, the aboriginal peoples of the New World, after India
• Indigo, colour, after India
• Ionic order — one of the three orders of classical architecture, after Ionia in present-day Turkey
• japanning, application of lacquer, after Japan
• Jeans, denim trousers; Genoa
• Jersey cattle (also tomato, milk, cream, jumper) — Jersey, one of the Channel Islands
• Kimblewick bit, used on horses for riding — Kimble Wick, hamlet in Buckinghamshire (England)
• Labyrinth, maze, after a legendary structure on Crete
• Laconic
  , (of a person, speech, or style of writing) using very few words. From Laconia Ancient Sparta (Greece)
• Left Bank, style of life, fashion, or "look" — "Left Bank", left bank of the Seine (facing downstream) in Paris
• Leghorn chicken — after Leghorn, historical name for Livorno, Italy
• Lesbos
  , island in Greece
• Lipizzaner, a breed of horse — Lipica, town in Slovenia
• Magenta, colour — named after Magenta, Lombardy, Italy
• Marathon, long race — Marathon, Greece
  , town
• Madras, lightweight cotton fabric — Madras, old name for Chennai, coastal city in southeastern India
• Manila envelopes, Manila fiber — Manila, city in Philippines
• Marseillaise, national anthem of France — Marseille
  , city in France
• Masada, a mass suicide when conditions are hopeless, after Masada, Israel
• Mausoleum, a large and impressive tomb — Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in Turkey
• meander, a bend in a river — Meander, a river in Turkey
• Mecca, ultimate destination or activity center — Mecca, holy city in Saudi Arabia
• Mongoloid race — Mongolia, country in central Asia
• Morocco leather — Morocco, country in north Africa
• Muslin, a lightweight fabric — Mosul, Iraq
• Neanderthal, Germany
  , valley where the fossils were found
• Nicene Creed, Christian doctrine — Nicaea, old name for İznik in Turkey
• Olympics, worldwide games — Mount Olympus, tallest mountain in Greece
• Ottoman (furniture), a type of stool — after the Ottoman Empire
• Paisley, Scotland
• Panama hat — Panama in Central America, where it was first sold
• Portland cement — named after the Isle of Portland, England
• Rubicon, the point of no return — Rubicon (or Rubico), a small former river in northern Italy
• Rhode Island Red — Chicken named after Rhode Island
• Rugby football — Rugby School, in Rugby, Warwickshire, central England
• Shanghaied — drugged and forced into service aboard a ship, from Shanghai, China
• Siam
  , old name for Thailand
• Siberia, a remote undesirable location — Siberia, in eastern Russia
• Skid Row
  , originally Skid Road of Seattle, now the rundown area of a U.S. city
• Sodomy, forbidden sexual acts — Sodom, Biblical town on the plain of the Dead Sea
• Soli an ancient city in Cilicia
  , where a dialect of Greek regarded as substandard was spoken
• Spa, place having water with health-giving properties — Spa, a town in Belgium, also famous for its motor racing circuit.
• Suede, a durable fabric — French name for Sweden
• Surrey, horse-drawn carriage — Surrey, a county in southern England
• Timbuktu, metaphor for an exotic, distant land — Timbuktu, city on the Niger River in Mali, West Africa
• Trojan horse, malicious computer virus — Trojan Horse, of Troy, from the Iliad
• turkey, from Turkey
• tuxedo, after Tuxedo Park, New York
• Vaudeville, after the Vau de Vire the setting for the bawdy songs of Olivier Basselin.
• volcano, from Italian island of Vulcano
• Xanadu, a symbol of opulence — Xanadu (or Shangdu), summer capital of Kublai Khan's empire

Events and agreements

• Abu Ghraib (Iraq) – the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal in 2003
• Arraiolos — Arraiolos Group
• Attica Prison riots
  in 1971
• Beijing (China) – the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1994
• Brest (Belarus) – the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918
• Bretton Woods (New Hampshire) – The Bretton Woods system from 1944
• Cairo (Egypt) – the International Conference on Population and Development of 1994
• Camp David 2000 Summit
• Copenhagen (Denmark) – the World Summit for Social Development in 1995
• Dayton (Ohio) – the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995
• Doha round of World Trade Organization
  negotiations that began in 2001
• Durban (South Africa) – the World Conference against Racism in 2001
• Geneva Accord
  negotiations of 2003
• Gleneagles (Scotland) – the 31st G8 summit
  in Gleneagles, Scotland
• Grand Trianon (a château in France) – the Treaty of Trianon in 1919
• Hillsborough (Sheffield, England) – the Hillsborough disaster of 1989
• Hiroshima (Japan) – the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945
• Jackson State (Mississippi) – the Jackson State killings
  in 1970
• Kent State (Ohio) – the Kent State shootings
  in 1970
• Kyoto (Japan) – the Kyoto Protocol of 1997
• Lisbon — the Tresty of Lisbon of 2007
• Locarno (Switzerland) – the Locarno Treaties of 1925
• Lockerbie bombing
  of 1988
• Maastricht (The Netherlands) – the Maastricht Treaty of 1992
• Marrakesh (Morocco) – the Marrakesh Agreement of 1994 establishing the World Trade Organization
• Munich Massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics
• Nantes – the Edict of Nantes in 1598
• My Lai Massacre
  of 1968
• Nuremberg Trials
  of 1945 to 1949
• Oslo (Norway) – the Oslo Accords of 1993
• Portsmouth (New Hampshire) – the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 (not Portsmouth, England)
• Potsdam (Germany) – the Potsdam Conference in 1945
• Pugwash Conferences
• Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) – site of the Earth Summit, officially the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) of 1992
• Saint-Germain-en-Laye (a château in France) – the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1919
• San Stefano (now Yeşilköy, Turkey) – the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878
• Schengen treaty
  of 1985
• WTO Meeting of 1999
  in Seattle
• Tordesillas (Spain) – the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494
• Trafalgar (a headland in Spain) – the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805
• Uruguay – the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations from 1986 to 1994 that transformed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into the World Trade Organization (WTO)
• Versailles (France) – the Treaty of Versailles in 1919
• Yalta (Ukraine) – the Yalta Conference in 1945
• Warsaw (Poland) – the Warsaw Pact (1955–1991)
• Waterloo (Belgium) – the Battle of Waterloo in 1815
• Watergate (office building in Washington, D.C.) – the Watergate scandal of 1972 to 1975
• Woodstock Festival
  in 1969
• Worms – the Concordat of Worms in 1122

Industries and professions

• Bay Street — Canada's financial industry (similar to Wall Street), after Bay Street, the main street of Toronto's financial district
• Beltway — the pundits, political leaders, and opinion-makers of Washington, D.C.
  , after the highway surrounding the city
• Broadway — musical theater, after Broadway
  , a street in New York City
• The City — London-based financial services, after the City of London
• Detroit — the American automobile industry
• Fleet Street — the British press, after the London street that formerly housed many newspapers
• Hollywood — the American motion picture industry, after the district of Los Angeles, California, where many motion picture companies are headquartered
• K Street
  — lobbying industry working with the U.S. Federal government
• Madison Avenue — advertising industry, after Madison Avenue, a street in New York City where many advertising firms are headquartered
• Savile Row — tailoring, after the street in London where the most prestigious tailors are located
• Wall Street — U.S. financial services industry, after Wall Street, street in New York City where many financial services firms are headquartered

Food and drink (other than cheese and wine)

• Anjou pear — Anjou
• Arbroath smokie (a kind of smoked haddock) — Arbroath in Scotland
• Bakewell Pudding — chicken in Derbyshire
  , England
• Bath bun — Bath, England
• Bath Oliver (biscuit) — Bath, England
• Berliner (pastry), named after Berlin
• Black Forest gateau, Black Forest cake, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte — Black Forest (Schwarzwald), Germany
• Bolognese sauce — from Bologna, Italy
• Bombay
  , old name for Mumbai, coastal city in western India
• Brazil nut
• Brussels sprout — after the capital of Belgium
• Buffalo wings, named for Buffalo, New York
  , where they originated
• Cantaloupe (also called rockmelon), a variety of melon — Cantalupo, multiple communes in Italy
• Ceylon tea — from Ceylon, old name for Sri Lanka
• Chelsea bun — Chelsea in London, England
• Cognac
• Coney Island hot dog — named after Coney Island, New York, but apparently invented in the Midwest of the United States
• Cuban, sub sandwich in Florida — Cuba, country in the Caribbean
• Curaçao liqueur — Curaçao
• Currant, a dried raisin — Corinth in Greece
• Danish, a sweet pastry — (in Denmark it is called wienerbrød, "bread from Vienna")
• Darjeeling tea — Darjeeling in India
• Dijon, mustard named after the French city
• Dover sole — from Dover
  , England
• Dublin Bay prawn — from Dublin
  , Ireland
• Eccles cake — from Eccles, Greater Manchester, England
• Glamorgan sausage a vegetarian sausage, Glamorgan county, Wales -
• Frankfurter (or Wiener — from Vienna)
• Hamburger — Hamburg, Germany
• Hollandaise sauce — Holland
• Jaffa orange — Jaffa
• Jaffa Cakes
• Java, slang for coffee
  — from island in Indonesia
• Jerusalem artichoke — wrongly associated with Jerusalem
• Kiwifruit — from Kiwi, the national symbol of and a nickname for New Zealand
• Lancashire hotpot — from Lancashire, England
• Lemon & Paeroa — from mineral water springs at the New Zealand town of Paeroa
• Madeira Islands
• Manhattan cocktail — Manhattan Club in New York City
• Martini — Martinez, California, where the precursor to the martini, the Martinez, was developed
• Mayonnaise — from Mahón, Menorca, Spain
• Mocha, Yemen
  , place where the coffee is grown
• Persia
  , old name for Iran
• Peking
  , old name for Beijing, China
• Pilsner lager — Plzeň, Czech Republic
• Pomfret Cakes — from Pontefract
  , Yorkshire, England
• Salisbury, England
• Sardine, types of small fish — Sardinia, island in the Mediterranean near Italy
• Seltzer (commercial name), Selters
  , Germany
• Seville orange — Seville
• Shallot — Ashkelon
• Swedish turnip
• Tabasco sauce — Tabasco, state of Mexico
• Tangerine — from Tangier in Morocco
• Turkish delight — Turkey
• Valencia, Spain
• Welsh rarebit — A cheese and herb sauce drizzled over hot bread or toast; probably originating from Welsh peasants
• Vichyssoise — Chilled leek and potato soup, named for Vichy, France
• Virginia peanut — Virginia
• Yorkshire puddings from Yorkshire

Note:

Cheese

• Ackawi
• American cheese, a common name for processed cheese
• Asiago after Asiago, the plateau and town in northern Italy where it was first made
• Brie after the Brie region in Île de France, where it was first made
• Caerphilly after Caerphilly, a town in Wales
• Camembert (cheese) chicken Camembert, Orne
  in France
• Cheddar after Cheddar in Somerset, England, where it was originally made
• Cheshire after Cheshire, a county in England
• Colby after Colby, Wisconsin, where it was first made
• Danbo cheese after Denmark
• Derby cheese after Derbyshire a county in central England
• Dubliner after Dublin
  , Ireland
• Dunlop after the town of Dunlop in Ayrshire, Scotland
• Edam after town of Edam in the Netherlands
• Emmental after Emmental, the name of a valley in Switzerland
  where it was originally made
• Gloucester cattle, originally from Gloucester
  in England
• Gorgonzola after Gorgonzola, a village in northern Italy
• Gouda after the city Gouda
  in the Netherlands where originally made
• Gruyère after Gruyère
  , a district in Switzerland where first made
• Jarlsberg after the town Jarlsberg in Norway
• Lancashire cheese after Lancashire in England
• Lappi after Lapland region of Finland
• Leicester cheese after Leicester
  in England
• Lorraine
• Manchego after La Mancha
  , Spain
• Molbo, from the Mols peninsula in Jutland, Denmark
• Monterrey, Mexico
  )
• Morbier
• Munster after town Munster, Haut-Rhin in Alsace
  region of France
• Nablusi
• Neufchâtel, from Neufchâtel-en-Bray, the part of Normandie
  where it originates
• Oaxaca de Juárez
  , a state and city in Mexico
• Parma, Italy
• Pouligny-Saint-Pierre cheese, from Pouligny-Saint-Pierre, the place where it originates
• Roma(no) after Rome, Italy
• Roquefort after a village in southern France
• Samsø after the island of Samsø in Denmark
• Stilton after Stilton, a village in England where it was first sold
• Swiss after Switzerland
• Tilsit after a town in East Prussia (now Sovetsk, Russia
  ) where it was first produced
• Wensleydale cheese after Wensleydale in North Yorkshire, England

Wine

• Alsace
• Asti (province)
  , Italy
• Beaujolais
• Bordeaux
• Burgundy
• Chablis
• Champagne, a sparkling wine named after the region of France
  where it is produced
• Chardonnay
• Gamay
• Hock, indirectly from Hochheim in Germany
• Madeira islands
  of Portugal
• Marsala wine, a dry or sweet wine — Marsala, a town in western Sicily
• Port wine (or Porto), sweet fortified wine — Porto, in northern Portugal
• La Rioja (region)
  , Spain
• Sherry wine, an anglicisation of Jerez — Jerez de la Frontera, a city in southern Spain
• Tokaji, white wine — a city in Hungary

Corporations

There are some corporations whose name is simply the same as their original location.

• Évian
• Iittala
• Nokia
• Raisio
• Tikkurila
• Vaasa
• Vauxhall

Elements

See:

Musical genres

• Britpop — British popular music
• Canterbury, Kent
  , England
• Chicago soul — after Chicago
• Dixieland jazz — after Dixie
  , nickname for the southern United States
• Dunedin sound — after the New Zealand city of Dunedin
• Madchester — after Manchester, England
• Memphis soul — after Memphis, Tennessee
• Northern soul — after Northern England
• Merseybeat — after the River Mersey
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Urban Pasifika — after the Pacific Ocean
• Goa trance – after Goa

Derivations from literary or mythical places

• Brobdingnagian, meaning very large in size — Brobdingnag, fictional land in the book Gulliver's Travels
• Cloud cuckoo land, an unrealistically idealistic state where everything is perfect, from The Birds by Aristophanes
• Eden, any paradisaical area, named after the religious Garden of Eden
• El Dorado, any area of great wealth, after the mythical city of gold
• hell, any horrible place, after the religious Hell
• Lilliputian, meaning very small in size — Lilliput, fictional island in the book Gulliver's Travels
• Munchkin, small children, dwarfs, or anything of diminutive stature — from the Munchkin country in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Never Never Land, a metaphor for eternal childhood, immortality, and escapism, from J. M. Barries's Peter Pan
• Shangri-La, a mythical utopia, a language usage — Shangri-La, fictional place in the novel Lost Horizon
• Utopia
  , fictional republic from the book of the same name

See also

Look up Appendix:Terms derived from toponyms in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Lists of etymologies
• List of eponyms
  , names derived from people's names
• Demonym
• Lists of things named after places (chemical elements, chess openings, foods, drinks, mathematical problems, minor planets, other places, etc.)

References