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Origin and history of Paris

Paris

capital of France, from Gallo-Latin Lutetia Parisorum (in Late Latin also Parisii), name of a fortified town of the Gaulish tribe of the Parisii, who had a capital there; literally "Parisian swamps" (see Lutetian).

The tribal name is of unknown origin, but it is traditionally derived from a Celtic par "boat" (perhaps related to Greek baris; see barge (n.)), hence the ship on the city's coat of arms.

Entries linking to Paris

barge(n.)

early 14c., "seagoing vessel of moderate size with sails," from Old French barge "boat, ship," Old Provençal barca, from Medieval Latin barga, perhaps from Celtic, or perhaps from Latin *barica, from Greek baris "Egyptian boat," from Coptic bari "small boat."

From late 14c. as "river craft; barge used on state occasions; raft for ferrying;" the meaning "flat-bottomed freight boat" dates from late 15c. In former times also "a magnificently adorned, elegant boat of state," for royalty, magistrates, etc. (1580s).

Lutetian(adj.)

archaic or humorous way to say "Parisian," from the old Gallo-Roman name of the place, Lutetia Parisorum (see Paris), literally "Parisian swamps," from Latin lutum "mud, dirt, clay" (see lutose).

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gamin
Un groupe d'enfants, de ces petits sauvages vanu-pieds qui ont de tout temps battu le pavé de Paris sous le nom éternel de...[Hugo, "Notre-Dame de Paris"]...
polytechnic
subjects," from French École Polytechnique, name of an engineering school founded 1794 (as École des Travaux publics) in Paris...
pneumatic
The pneumatic-dispatch tube was so called by 1859 (in Paris, pneumatique)....
plaster
.; plaster of Paris "powdered calcinated (heat-dried) gypsum," which sets rapidly and expands when mixed with water(mid-15c....) originally was made from the extensive gypsum deposits of Montmartre in Paris....
barricade
The word's association with revolutions began during the 1588 Huguenot riots in Paris, when large barrels filled with earth...
steam-roller
The original ones were steam-driven and debuted in Paris c. 1865....
bistro
Commonly said to be from Russian bee-stra "quickly," picked up during the Allied occupation of Paris in 1815 after the defeat...
Texas
Mexican province, briefly an independent nation and now a U.S. state, from Spanish Texas, Tejas, earlier pronounced "ta-shas," originally an ethnic name, from Caddo (eastern Texas Indian tribe) taysha "friends, allies," written by the Spanish as a plural. Related: Texan. The alte
Bastille
14th century Paris fortress later used as a prison and destroyed by revolutionaries on July 14, 1789, as a symbol of royal despotism; French, literally "fortress, gate tower" (see bastion). Many French cities kept their medieval gate-towers as prisons after other fortifications w
par
1620s, "equality in value or circumstances," also "value of one currency in terms of another," from Latin par "equal, equal-sized, well-matched," also as a noun, "that which is equal, equality," a word of unknown and disputed origin. De Vaan is noncommittal. Watkins suggests perh

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