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Toponyms

This week’s words
arcadia
Babylonian
Laodiceanism
gasconader
bantam



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PRONUNCIATION:

(BAN-tuhm)

MEANING:

noun:	1. Any of various breeds of small chickens, often miniature versions of larger breeds.
	2. A small but aggressive person.
adj.:	1. Diminutive; miniature.
	2. Aggressive; spirited.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Bantam, the former English name of Banten in Java, Indonesia, a port associated in English etymology with the importation of small fowl. Earliest documented use: 1749.

NOTES:

Banten is both a province and a city in Java. It’s the same Java that gave us another toponym: java, as in coffee.

In combat sports and weightlifting, bantamweight is an official weight class, named after bantam chickens.

The name comes from Bantam, but many bantam breeds are from elsewhere (for example, the Japanese Bantam/Chabo is a distinct breed with its own history). Misnaming via travel and trade is a recurring theme in English. See turkey.

USAGE:

“He had a tough bantam body, easily detectable under the tight sweat shirt he wore.”
John Knowles; A Separate Peace; Secker & Warburg; 1959.

See more usage examples of bantam in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: