English
Kowloon
Kowloon comes from Cantonese 九龍.
- Cantonesemodern九龍literally ‘nine dragons’
- Englishearliest quotation 1968Kowloon
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Cantonesemodern九龍literally ‘nine dragons’
- Englishearliest quotation 1968Kowloon
Earliest quotation: 1968, Jack M. Potter, The Setting: “By the late 1930's some modern factories, built by…”
The story
From Cantonese 九龍 /九龙 (gau² lung⁴, literally “nine dragons”), named after its eight mountains and the Chinese emperor Zhao Bing (1272–1279).
Every English word from Cantonese 九龍
Today it means
name A region, peninsula, and urban area of Hong Kong.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Cantonese 九龍 / Kowloon