Amazon
See also: amazon
English
[edit]
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈæm.ə.zən/, /ˈæm.ə.zɒn/
- (General American, Atlantic Canada) IPA(key): /ˈæm.əˌzɑn/, (/æ/ raising) [ˈɛəm.əˌzɑn]
- (Canada, Boston, Maine) IPA(key): /ˈæm.əˌzɒn/, (/æ/ raising) [ˈɛəm.əˌzɒn]
- (Australia) IPA(key): /ˈæm.ə.zɔn/, (/æ/ raising) [ˈeːm.ə.zɔn]
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈɛm.ə.zɒn/, [ˈɛm.ə.zɔ̟n]
Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English, from Latin, from Ancient Greek Ἀμαζών (Amazṓn); perhaps Ionian Greek pronunciation of Old Persian *hamazan- (“warrior”), as the Amazon women were known warriors. (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?) A popular folk etymology, of Ancient Greek provenance, claims that the word derives from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + μαζός (mazós, “breast”), referencing the belief that Amazons cut off their right breast so that it would not hinder their ability to fire a bow or throw a spear.
Noun
[edit]Amazon (plural Amazons)
- (Greek mythology) A member of a mythical race of female warriors inhabiting the Black Sea area, now usually archaeologically associated with Scythian or Sarmatian female warriors.
- 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 149:
- When, therefore, one envisions a matriarchy, one should not conjure up visions of a gang of Amazons lopping off breasts and testicles to rule by force of arms.
- A female warrior.
- 1976, Xenia S. Williams, “The Power of History...or History Is Written by the Powerful”, in Dave Peterson, Jonathan Cross, Lyn Rosen, editors, A Gay Person's Guide to New England, 2nd edition:
- In some parts of Africa, Asia, and South America, amazon cultures still existed during the Middle Ages, such as that ruled by Queen Nzingha in Angola, who led her amazon army against the Portuguese in a series of wars during the first half of the seventeenth century. In Dahomey also in traditionally gynarchal West Africa, the army was made up of amazons even through the nineteenth century.
- A tall, strong, or athletic woman.
- (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]Mythological female warrior
|
See also
[edit]Etymology 2
[edit]
From Spanish Río Amazonas. It is common belief that the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana fought a battle against a tribe of Tapuya natives, in which the women fought alongside the men, and that he derived the name from the Amazons in Greek mythology.
Proper noun
[edit]the Amazon
- (sometimes attributive) A river in South America, that flows through Brazil for about 4000 miles to the Atlantic.
- (sometimes attributive) A region including much of this river; specifically, the region of the Amazon Rainforest, or of the Amazon River Basin.
- 2025 April 4, Lex Harvey and Esha Mitra, “US tourist arrested after allegedly attempting to contact ‘world’s most isolated’ tribe”, in CNN[1], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 14 April 2025:
- In February, a young man from an isolated Indigenous tribe in Brazil made brief contact with the outside world before returning to the Amazon rainforest.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]river
|
region of the Amazon rainforest — see Amazonia
used attributively in compounds
Noun
[edit]Amazon (plural Amazons)
Etymology 3
[edit]Chosen by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as a word beginning with 'A' which had existing connotations (see meanings listed in etymologies 1 & 2) of being exotic, different, and (as the Amazon River) the largest of its kind in the world.[1]
Proper noun
[edit]Amazon
- Amazon.com Inc., a very large Internet retailer.
- 2021 February 1, Rishi Iyengar, “Google will stop making video games for its Stadia platform”, in CNN[2], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 8 October 2025:
- Google is one of several Big Tech firms that has made an aggressive push into gaming in recent years, along with Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB).
Derived terms
[edit]Verb
[edit]Amazon (third-person singular simple present Amazons, present participle Amazoning, simple past and past participle Amazoned)
- (transitive) To overwhelm or obliterate, in the context of an Internet start-up vastly outperforming its brick and mortar competition.
- 1998 November 4, George Anders, “Discomfort Zone: Some Big Companies Long to Embrace Web But Settle for Flirtation — They Fear Online Marketing Could Cause Sales Staffs And Distributors to Rebel — A Risk of Getting ‘’’’Amazoned’’’’”, in The Wall Street Journal[3], New York, N.Y.: Dow Jones & Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page A1:
- Those who hesitate risk being "amazoned," forfeiting business to an Internet newcomer, in the way that bookstore chains have lost ground to Amazon.com Inc., the online bookseller.
- 1999 Aug, Andrew Wileman, “Smart cookies: Get set to Amazon”, in Management Today, page 79:
- Venture capitalists' desks are thick with business plans promising ‘we're going to Amazon the insurance/travel/property business...’
- 1999, Tim Smith, InternetWeek (786), "Getting Customers Totally Integrated – Cisco CIO Pete Solvik", 1999-10-25, p. 98 [4]
- Take the example of MetalSite.com, which is owned by steel companies. The steel companies aren't getting "Amazoned" by a start-up but, rather, they are doing the "Amazoning" within their own industry.
- 1999, "Amazon Expands", InternetWeek (789), 1999-11-15, p. 11 [5]
- Amazon.com may soon be "amazoning" a few more industries.
- 2000 November 20, Bob Tedeschi, “E-Commerce Report: Web and catalog businesses are crossing into storefront territory, creating parallel avenues of retailing”, in The New York Times[6], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page C12:
- Gone are the days when they agonized about being "Amazoned", or blind-sided by a dot-com ....
- 2001 July 4, Saul Hansell, “Web Sales of Airline Tickets Are Making Hefty Advances”, in The New York Times[7], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page A1:
- In other industries, established companies are pulling people and money away from their Internet operations, as their fear of being "Amazoned" by start-ups has subsided.
- 2001 November 18, Steve Lohr, “Gearhead Nation: A Time Out for Technophilia”, in The New York Times[8], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page WK4:
- Meanwhile, traditional companies would be obliterated — "Amazoned" — by Internet upstarts.
- 2002 June 30, Scott Harris, “Roots in Israel, Head in Silicon Valley”, in The New York Times[9], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page B8:
- "Everybody was afraid of getting Amazoned," Mr. Landan said. "They didn't want to get left behind."
- (transitive) To order (something) on Amazon.
- 2025 June 30, Adrienne Matei, quoting Josh Lora, “‘Hey man, I’m so sorry for your loss’: should you use AI to text?”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian[10], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 July 2025:
- […] “There are people who Uber everywhere, who Seamless everything, who Amazon everything, and render their lives completely smooth.”
References
[edit]Finnish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Ancient Greek Ἀμαζών (Amazṓn).
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈɑmɑtson/, [ˈɑ̝mɑ̝ts̠o̞n]
- IPA(key): /ˈɑmɑzon/, [ˈɑ̝mɑ̝zo̞n]
- Rhymes: -ɑmɑtson
- Syllabification(key): A‧ma‧zon
- Hyphenation(key): A‧ma‧zon
Proper noun
[edit]Amazon
- Amazon (river)
Declension
[edit]| Inflection of Amazon (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | Amazon | — | |
| genitive | Amazonin | — | |
| partitive | Amazonia | — | |
| illative | Amazoniin | — | |
| singular | plural | ||
| nominative | Amazon | — | |
| accusative | nom. | Amazon | — |
| gen. | Amazonin | ||
| genitive | Amazonin | — | |
| partitive | Amazonia | — | |
| inessive | Amazonissa | — | |
| elative | Amazonista | — | |
| illative | Amazoniin | — | |
| adessive | Amazonilla | — | |
| ablative | Amazonilta | — | |
| allative | Amazonille | — | |
| essive | Amazonina | — | |
| translative | Amazoniksi | — | |
| abessive | Amazonitta | — | |
| instructive | — | — | |
| comitative | See the possessive forms below. | ||
| Possessive forms of Amazon (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Japanese
[edit]Romanization
[edit]Amazon
Latin
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ᾰ̓μᾰζών (Ămăzṓn).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [aˈmaːz.zoːn]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [aˈmad.d͡zon]
Noun
[edit]Amāzōn f (genitive Amāzonis); third declension
Declension
[edit]Third-declension noun (Greek-type, normal variant).
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | Amāzōn | Amāzones |
| genitive | Amāzonis | Amāzonum |
| dative | Amāzonī | Amāzonibus |
| accusative | Amāzonem Amāzona |
Amāzonas |
| ablative | Amāzone | Amāzonibus |
| vocative | Amāzōn | Amāzones |
References
[edit]- “Amazon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “Amazon”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “Amazon”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 109/3.
Categories:
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Old Persian
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Greek mythology
- English terms with quotations
- English terms derived from Spanish
- English proper nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Rivers in South America
- en:Rivers in Brazil
- en:Places in Brazil
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Parrots
- en:People
- English exonyms
- Finnish terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Finnish 3-syllable words
- Finnish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Finnish/ɑmɑtson
- Rhymes:Finnish/ɑmɑtson/3 syllables
- Finnish lemmas
- Finnish proper nouns
- Finnish terms spelled with Z
- Finnish risti-type nominals
- Finnish uncountable nouns
- fi:Rivers
- Japanese non-lemma forms
- Japanese romanizations
- Latin terms borrowed from Ancient Greek
- Latin terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Latin 3-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin nouns
- Latin third declension nouns
- Latin feminine nouns in the third declension
- Latin terms spelled with Z
- Latin feminine nouns
