Columbus

From Latin columbus (“a dove”). Doublet of Colombo. The verb is a reference to the Italian explorer.

• IPA^(key): /kəˈlʌmbəs/

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Columbus

1. A male given name from Latin.
2. A surname.
3. Christopher Columbus (1451?–1506), Italian explorer of the Americas.
4. Any of various cities, towns and villages in the United States.
   1. The capital city of Ohio, United States and the county seat of Franklin County.
   2. A city, the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated.
   3. A village in Adams County, Illinois, United States.
   4. A city, the county seat of Bartholomew County, Indiana, United States.
   5. A city, the county seat of Cherokee County, Kansas, United States.
   6. A tiny home rule city in Hickman County, Kentucky, United States.
   7. A small city in Anoka County, Minnesota, United States.
   8. A city, the county seat of Lowndes County, Mississippi, United States.
   9. An unincorporated community in Johnson County, Missouri, United States.
   10. A town, the county seat of Stillwater County, Montana, United States.
   11. A city, the county seat of Platte County, Nebraska, United States.
   12. An unincorporated community in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States.
   13. A village in Luna County, New Mexico, United States.
   14. A town in Chenango County, New York, United States.
   15. A town, the county seat of Polk County, North Carolina, United States.
   16. A tiny city in Burke County, North Dakota, United States.
   17. A small city, the county seat of Colorado County, Texas, United States.
   18. A small city in Columbia County and Dodge County, Wisconsin, United States.
   19. A town in Columbia County, Wisconsin, United States.

• (capital city of Ohio): Col's

Columbus (plural Columbuses)

1. A person who makes a great discovery.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "It is colossal. You are a Columbus of science who has discovered a lost world."

Columbus (third-person singular simple present Columbuses, present participle Columbusing, simple past and past participle Columbused)

1. (possibly dated, slang) To explore; to go around exploring, to go around as an explorer.
   • 1893, American Boys Afloat: Or, Cruising in the Orient, page 150:

     "But, boy the powers of mud, I belayve you fellers mane to make an indepindint cruise in the Orient, and go Columbusing all over the ocean boy the way ye's talk!"

   • 1908, Out West, volume 28, page 90:

     Callous as the old mummy was about anything and everything save his pet hobby, archaeology, he would sit up and take notice of such a vision ; and Peter felt that, having Columbused the discovery, he had the better right to it.

   • 1908, Sunset, volume 20, page 271:

     To the west of the river lay the country in which I went Columbusing — the enchanted desert whose southern boundary was where the sky reached down and merged with the earth curve, and whose northern limit was the Harqua Hala range […]

   • 1921, Forest Leaves, volume 15, page lxx:

     No street car line passes it, so you'll have to do a little Columbusing on your own account-to find it-—but it's worth discovering, and President Gardner's phophecy sounds conservative.

2. (derogatory, slang, US) To appropriate; to lay claim to something, especially a discovery, which is perceived as belonging to someone else.
   • 2014, Justin Simien, Dear White People, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 97:

     When his black friend tells him that many people knew about the bar before he did, his white friend retorts by saying that he “Columbused it”; i.e., discovered it for white people before a gaggle of hip white people flooded in.

   • 2014 July 6, Brenda Salinas, “‘Columbusing’: The Art Of Discovering Something That Is Not New”, in NPR‎:

     Of course, there is no bouncer, but we can be careful not to Columbus other culture's traditions.

   • 2015, Frederic Charles Schaffer, Elucidating Social Science Concepts, Routledge, →ISBN, page 54:

     He then lists other things that have been Columbused, such as twerking by Miley Cyrus and hummus by “health conscious whities.”

• IPA^(key): /ˌkoːˈlʏm.bʏs/

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: Co‧lum‧bus

Columbus

1. a surname; Columbus, chiefly in reference to Christopher Columbus

• ei van Columbus