From names to wordsEveryday life

jumbo

Jumbo was the name of a huge African elephant at London Zoo, sold to P. T. Barnum in 1882; the craze around him made jumbo mean simply 'very big', and the 1970 'jumbo jet' carried the word into Japanese, Korean, German and French. Where the elephant's name came from is not known.

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The road to American English

From American English to Japanese

From American English to Korean

From American English to German

From American English to French

1850Swahili

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

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