List of words derived from toponyms

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

1 General
2 Events/Agreements
3 Food and Drink (other than cheese and wine)
4 Cheese
5 Wine
6 Corporations
7 Elements
8 See also

[edit] General

Angora wool, named after Angora
Armageddon, which may be named after Megiddo
Babel, after the story of the Tower of Babel
Balkanization, a geopolitical term for the fragmentation of a region — the Balkans, region in southeastern Europe
Bantustan, a disparaging term used by critics of the Apartheid-era government's "homelands" — territories designated as tribal "homelands" for black South Africans during the Apartheid era
Bay Street, a synonym for Canada's financial industry (similar to Wall Street) — Bay Street, the main street of Toronto's financial district (named because it connects Queen Street West to a bay in Toronto Harbour)
Bedford cord, a heavy fabric with a ribbed weave similar to corduroy, after Bedford, England.
bedlam
Bedlington terrier a breed of dog, after Bedlington, England
Beltway, name for the highway surrounding Washington, D.C.
Bikini, two-piece bathing suit for women — Bikini Atoll, a Micronesian Island in the Pacific Ocean
the Blarney and Blarney Stone — Blarney Castle
Boeotian
Bohemianism, term referring to artists, writers, and disenchanted people who wished to live a non-traditional lifestyle — Bohemia, a region occupying the western and middle thirds of the Czech Republic
Brazilianization, the idea that the white population in the United States will increasingly withdraw from a disjointed society
Broadway, street in New York City synonymous with Musical Theater
Bronx Cheer, a noise made by the mouth to signify derision — The Bronx, a borough of New York City
Brummagem, goods of shoddy quality — Birmingham, city in England
Bungalow, type of house deived from Bengal
Byzantine, used to describe any work, law, or organization that is excessively complex or difficult to understand, named after Byzantine Empire
Calico, named after Calicut, India.
Canary, bird named after the Canary Islands
Caucasian — Caucasus Mountains
Chautauqua
China, pottery
Chinese Wall, artificial organizational barrier, derived from Great Wall of China
Coach — the village Kocs in Hungary where this vehicle was first made
Sent to Coventry
Denim, from de Nîmes – Nimes, France
Detroit, often used as shorthand for the American automobile industry
Dixieland music — Dixie or "Dixie's Land", a nickname for the American South.
Dollar, currency named after Joachimsthal.
Donnybrook, colloquial term for a brawl or fracas - from the Donnybrook Fair, an annual horse fair in the Dublin suburb notorious for fighting and drunkenness
Doolally named after a fort in the North West Frontier of colonial India (now Pakistan)
Duffel, heavy woollen cloth — Duffel, a town in Belgium
Dunkirk spirit, after the evacuation of Dunkirk in World War II
Eden named after the religious Garden of Eden
El Dorado, mythical city of gold
Essex, 'common' or 'nouveau riche' sensibility — Essex, a county near London
Fez, (also called tarboosh), a hat — Fez, a city in Morocco
Finlandization
Fleet Street
Foggy Bottom, United States Department of State — Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Gibraltar, used as a word for a fortress or stronghold, named after the peninsula
Glasgow kiss, a slang term meaning headbutt — Glasgow, Scotland
Greek, a language usage ("all Greek to me") — Greek language of Greece
Gypsies, nomadic peoples in Europe and United States — Egypt
Habanera — a musical style named after Havana, Cuba
Havana, cigar — from capital of Cuba
Hell, usage in language — Hell, mythical place
Honiton, famous Devon (England) town for lace
Holland, cotton or linen fabric — Holland
Hollywood, shorthand for the American film industry – Hollywood, district of Los Angeles, California
Iliad (see Troy)
Indian
Jersey cattle (also tomato, milk, cream, jumper) — Jersey, one of the Channel Islands
K Street, lobbying industry
Labyrinth
Left Bank, style of life, fashion, or "look" — "Left Bank", bank of the Seine which is to the left, near Paris
Lesbian, female homosexual — Lesbos, island in Greece
Lilliputian, meaning very small sized — Lilliput, fictional island in the book Gulliver's Travels
Madison Avenue, a metaphor for advertising — Madison Avenue, a street in New York
Magenta, colour — named after Magenta, Italy
Marathon, long race — Marathon, Greece, town
Madras, lightweight cotton fabic — Madras, old name for Chennai, coastal city in southeastern India
Main Street, name for a generic American community
Manila envelopes, Manila fiber — Manila, city in Philippines
Marseillaise, national anthem of France — Marseille, city in France
Masada
Mausoleum, a large and impressive tomb — Mausoleum of Maussollos in Turkey
Mecca, ultimate destination or activity center — Mecca, holy city in Saudi Arabia
Mongoloid race — Mongolia, country in northern Asia
Motown, R & B music — Detroit, Michigan (called the Motor City)
Munchkin, a reference to small children, dwarfs, or anything of diminutive stature — from the Munchkin country in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Neanderthal man, known by his fossils — Neanderthal, Germany, valley where the fossils were found
Olympics, worldwide games — Mount Olympus, tallest mountain in Greece
Paisley (design), used in shawls — Paisley, Scotland
Peoria — symbolic of small-town America
Peyton Place
Portland cement — named after the Isle of Portland, England
Quai d'Orsay, French Ministry of External Affairs
the Rubicon, the point of no return — Rubicon (or Rubico), Latin name for a small river in northern Italy
Rhode Island Red — Chicken named after Rhode Island
Rugby football — Rugby School, in Rugby, Warwickshire, central England
Shambhala
Shanghai woman, English expression for a prostitute — Shanghai, China's largest city
Shangri-La, a mythical utopia, a language usage — Shangri-La, fictional place in the novel Lost Horizon
Siamese twins, conjoined twins — 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 Jordan River
Solecism, incorrect or ungrammatical usage of language — 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 municipality in Belgium
Surrey, horse-drawn carriage — Surrey, southern England
Timbuktu, metaphor for an exotic, distant land — Timbuktu, city on the Niger River in Mali, West Africa
Tin Pan Alley
Trojan horse, malicious computer virus — Trojan Horse, of Troy, from the Iliad
Utopia, term for organized society — Utopia, fictional republic from the book of the same name
tuxedo, after Tuxedo Park, New York
Wall Street, financial market — Wall Street, a narrow thoroughfare in lower Manhattan running east from Broadway downhill to the East River
Xanadu, a symbol of opulence — Xanadu (or Shangdu), summer capital of Kublai Khan's empire
Zion

[edit] Events/Agreements

Abu Ghraib (Iraq) — the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal in 2003
Attica (New York) — the Attica Prison riots in 1971
Beijing (China) — the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1994
Bretton Woods (New Hampshire) — The Bretton Woods system from 1944
Cairo (Egypt) — the International Conference on Population and Development of 1994
Camp David (U.S. presidential retreat in Maryland) — the Camp David Accords of 1998 and the Camp David 2000 Summit
Copenhagen (Denmark) — the World Summit for Social Development in 1995
Doha (Qatar) — the Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations that began in 2001
Durban (South Africa) — the World Conference against Racism in 2001
Geneva (Switzerland) — the Geneva Conventions, and the unofficial Geneva Accord negotiations of 2003
Gleneagles (Scotland) — the 31st G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland
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
Maastricht (The Netherlands) — the Maastricht treaty of 1992
Marrakesh (Morocco) — the Marrakesh Agreement of 1994 establishing the World Trade Organization
Munich (Germany) — the Munich Agreement of 1938 and the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics
My Lai (Vietnam) — the My Lai Massacre of 1968
Nuremberg (Germany) — the Nuremberg Trials of 1945 to 1949
Oslo (Norway) — the Oslo Accords of 1993
Potsdam (Germany) — the Potsdam Conference in 1945
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) — site of the Earth Summit, officially the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) of 1992
Schengen (Luxembourg) — the Schengen treaty of 1985
Seattle (Washington) — the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle
Tordesillas (Spain — the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494
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 (New York) — the Woodstock Festival in 1969

[edit] Food and Drink (other than cheese and wine)

Anjou Pear — Anjou
Berliner (pastry), named after Berlin.
Black Forest gateau, Black Forest Cake, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte — Black Forest (Schwarzwald), Germany
Bombay duck, a kind of fish — Bombay, old name for Mumbai, coastal city in western India
Brussels sprout
Cantaloupe (also called rockmelon), a variety of melon — Cantalupo, the Pope's summer residence
Cantonese Chow/Lo Mein
Cognac
Cuban, sub sandwich in Florida — Cuba, country in the Caribbean
Curaçao liqueur — Curaçao
Danish, a sweet pastry — (in Denmark it is called wienerbrød, which means "bread from Vienna").
Dijon, mustard named after the French city
Frankfurter (or Wiener — from Vienna)
Hamburger — Hamburg, Germany
Hollandaise sauce — Holland
Java, slang for coffee — from island in Indonesia
Manhattan cocktail — Manhattan Club in New York City
Mocha coffee, ice cream — Mocha, Yemen, place where the coffee is grown
Peking Duck, a Chinese dish made of duck — Peking, old name for Beijing, China
Salisbury Steak — Salisbury, England
Sardine, types of small fish — Sardinia, island in the Mediterranean near Italy
Seltzer (commercial name)
Turkish Delight — Turkey
Valencia orange — Valencia, Spain
Virginia peanut — Virginia
Yorkshire puddings from Yorkshire

Note: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is named after the local Saskatoon berry, rather than vice versa.

[edit] Cheese

Ackawi
American cheese, a common name for processed cheese.
Asiago
Aveyron(nais)
Caerphilly
Cheddar
Cheshire
Colby
Derby
Dubliner
Edam
Emmental
Gloucester
Gorgonzola
Gouda
Gruyère
Jarlsberg
Lancashire
Lappi
Leicester
Limburger
Manchego
Monterey jack, from Monterey, Mexico? or Monterey, California?
Morbier
Munster
Nablusi
Neufchâtel, from Neufchâtel-en-Bray, the part of Normandie where it originates
Oaxaca
Parmesan, from Parma, Italy
Roma(no)
Roquefort
Stilton
Swiss
Tilsit
Wensleydale
Yunnan

[edit] Wine

Asti — Asti, Italy
Beaujolais
Bordeaux
Burgundy
Chablis
Champagne, a sparkling wine named after the region of France in which it is produced.
Chardonnay
Gamay
Madeira wine, a fortified wine and Plum in madeira, a dessert — Madeira islands of Portugal
Port wine (or Porto), sweet fortified wine — Porto, in northern Portugal
Sherry wine, a mispronunciation of Jerez — Jerez de la Frontera, a city in southern Spain