Online Etymology Dictionary

Adventist (n.): "one of a religious denomination that believes in or looks for the early second coming of Christ," 1843; see advent + -ist. Church Latin adventus was applied to the coming of the Savior, both the first or the anticipated second, hence Adventist was a name applied to millenarian sects, especially and originally the Millerites (U.S.).
aldehyde (n.): first oxidation product of alcohol, 1833, discovered in 1774 by German-born Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786), the name said to have been coined by German chemist Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) from abbreviation of Modern Latin alcohol dehydrogenatum "dehydrogenated alcohol."
marguerite (n.): "oxeye daisy," 1866, from French marguerite (see Margaret). "According to French etymologists, this use of F. marguerite is not from the personal name, but comes directly from the sense 'pearl.' " [OED] In Middle English, margaret "a daisy" is attested from early 15c.
knuckleball (n.): also knuckle-ball, baseball pitch, by 1909, from knuckle (n.) + ball (n.1). So called from the position of the fingers in throwing it. Short form knuckler attested from 1914 (earlier this was the name of a type of toy marble, 1895, and slang for "a pick-pocket," 1834). Related: Knuckleballer.
pyrolusite (n.): "manganese dioxide," 1828, the name given in Roman times, when it was used, in a heated state, to de-colorize glass, from Greek elements pyro- "by heat, by fire" (see pyro-) + lysis "a loosening" (see lose).
serpentine (adj.): "twisting, winding," 1610s; see serpent + -ine (1). An earlier adjective meaning "having the evil qualities of a serpent" is recorded from late 14c., from the French source of serpentine (n.). The winding lake of that name in Hyde Park, London, was constructed in 1730.
polyvinyl (n.): 1930, polymer of vinyl chloride. In chemistry, vinyl was used from 1863 as the name of a univalent radical derived from ethylene, from Latin vinum "wine" (see wine (n.)), because ethyl alcohol is the ordinary alcohol present in wine.
Miami: place name in U.S.; the one in Florida is of unknown origin, attested in Spanish as Maymi (1566), Mayaimi (1575). The one in Ohio is from the Miami, native people there, attested from 18c., apparently from a native word /myaamiwa "downstream person."
Melbourne: city in Australia, named 1837 for William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (1779-1848) then British Prime Minister; the title is from Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire. The place name is literally "mill stream," Old English Mileburne (1086).
merry-go-round (n.): 1729, from merry (adj.) + go-round. Figurative use by 1838. Merry-totter (mid-15c.) was a Middle English name for a swing or see-saw. Also compare merry-go-down "strong ale" (c. 1500); merry-go-sorry "a mix of joy and sorrow" (1590s).
Modena: Italian city, the name probably is from a pre-Latin language, but folk etymology connects it with Mutina, epithet of the nymph Lara who was stricken dumb by Zeus in punishment for her loquacity, from Latin mutus. Related: Modenese.
Morocco: country in northwest Africa, from Italian, from Berber Marrakesh (properly the name of the city of Marrakesh), from Arabic Maghrib-al-Aqsa "Extreme West." Compare French Maroc, German Marokko. In English, the first vowel has been altered, apparently by influence of Moor. Related: Moroccan.
poke (n.3): "an act of poking," 1796, originally pugilistic slang, from poke (v.). Also (1809) the name of a device, like a yoke with a pole, attached to domestic animals such as pigs and sheep to keep them from escaping enclosures. Hence slowpoke, and compare pokey. Slang sense "act of sexual intercourse" is attested from 1902.
Nassau: capital of the Bahamas, from a site name attested from 1690s, in honor of King William III of England (1650-1702), of the House of Orange-Nassau, from the duchy of Nassau in western Germany, named for a village in the Lahn valley, from Old High German nass "wet." Related: Nassauvian.
swift (n.): type of bird (several species of the family Cypselidæ, resembling swallows), 1660s, from swift (adj.) in reference to its swift flight. Regarded as a bird of ill-omen, if not downright demonic, probably for its shrill cry. The name earlier had been given to several small fast lizards (1520s).
pog (n.): disc used in playing a game said to have originated in Hawaii and popular in U.S. during the mid-1990s; said to be from the name of a brand of juice, the bottle caps from it being used to play the game originally.
butt (n.4): "flat fish," c. 1300, a general Germanic name applied to various kinds of flat fishes; compare Old Swedish but "flatfish," German Butte, Dutch bot, perhaps ultimately related to butt (n.1). "Hence butt-woman, who sells these, a fish-wife." [OED]
Chartres: cathedral city in central France, said to be named for the Carnutes, Gaulish people who had a sacred place there, whose name is said to be from a root meaning "rock, stone," but there is a famous "Druid Stone" at the church.
Chattanooga: city in Tennessee, of uncertain origin, said to be either Cherokee or Muskogee; compare Muskogee cvto "rock" (in Chattahoochee, etc.); the entire name is said to mean "rock rising to a point," which might describe nearby Lookout Mountain.
psychiatrist (n.): 1875, from psychiatry + -ist.
A psychiatrist is a man who goes to the Folies Bergère and looks at the audience. [Anglican Bishop Mervyn Stockwood, 1961]
An older name was mad-doctor (1703); also psychiater "expert in mental diseases" (1852), from Greek psyche + iatros. Also see alienist.
Rhodes: Greek island, one of the Dodecanese, from Greek Rhodos, perhaps from rhodon "rose," or rhoia "pomegranate," but "more likely" [Room] from a pre-Greek name, from Phoenician erod "snake," for the serpents which were said to have anciently infested the island.
Sac: central Algonquian people who lived near the upper Mississippi before the Black Hawk War of 1832, from French Canadian Saki, probably a shortened borrowing of Ojibwa (Algonquian) /osa:ki:/, literally "person of the outlet" (of the Saginaw River, which itself contains their name, and means literally "in the Sauk country").
Sandy (n.): late 15c. as a nickname for Alexander; as the typical name for a Scotsman from 1785, also drawing on the hair-color sense of sandy (adj.). Also Sawney, and with diminutive form Saunder preserved in surnames.
slowpoke (n.): also slow poke, 1848, American English from slow (adj.) + poke (n.3), the name of a device, like a yoke with a pole, attached to domestic animals such as pigs and sheep to keep them from escaping enclosures. Bartlett (1859) calls it "a woman's word."
Turin: city in northern Italy, Italian Torino, Roman Augusta Taurinorum, probably from the Taurini, a Ligurian people who had a capital there, the name perhaps from Celtic *tauro "mountain" or *tur "water," but long interpreted by folk etymology as from Latin taurus "bull."
split-second (n.): 1884, originally the name of a type of stopwatch with two second hands that could be stopped independently. Meaning "a fraction of a second" is from 1912, from split (adj.) + second (n.1); adjectival meaning "occurring in a fraction of a second" is from 1946.
stroboscope (n.): "instrument for studying motion by periodic light," 1896, from -scope + comb. form of Greek strobos "a twisting, act of whirling," from PIE *streb(h)- "to wind, turn" (see strophe). Earlier as the name of a similar device used as a "scientific toy" [OED]. Related: Stroboscopic (1846).
Susquehanna: river through Pennsylvania, named for a native people who lived along the southern reaches of it at the time of European contact, "An Algonquian name for an Iroquoian people; it has been translated as 'people at the falls' or 'roily water people'" [Bright].
Swanee: in Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home," river in Georgia and Florida, usually Suwanee, sometimes said to be a corruption of Spanish San Juan [Room]; Bright says the river name is from the Cherokee village of Sawani, for which no etymology is offered.
thulium (n.): 1879, Modern Latin, from thulia (thulite), name of an earth found in Scandinavia, from which the element was identified in 1879 by Swedish geologist Per Tedor Cleve (1840-1905), from Thule, which sometimes was identified as Scandinavia. With metallic element ending -ium.
toots (n.): slang familiar form of address to a woman or girl, 1936, American English, short for tootsie, tootsy, from tootsy-wootsy (1895), a familiar form of address to a sweetheart, originally a playful or nursery name for a small foot, from childish pronunciation of foot (n.); compare tootsy.
Vesta: Roman goddess of hearth and home, late 14c., corresponding to, and perhaps cognate with, Greek Hestia, from hestia "hearth," from PIE root *wes- (3) "to dwell, stay" (source also of Sanskrit vasati "stays, dwells," Gothic wisan, Old English, Old High German wesan "to be"). As the name of a planetoid from 1807 (Olbers).
fool (n.2): type of custard dish, 1590s, of uncertain origin. The food also was called trifle, which may be the source of the name (via verb and noun senses of fool). OED utterly rejects derivation from Old French fole "a pressing."
Jody (n.): "civilian who is thought to be prospering back home with a soldier's sweetheart, wife, job, etc.," by 1979, said to date from World War II, from masc. proper name Jody, for no clear reason. Hence Jody call.
Garbo: screen surname of Swedish actress Greta Gustaffson (1905-1990); her name was used allusively to indicate aloofness by 1934; her legendary avoidance of publicity began with her retirement from films in the mid-40s. Related: Garbo-esque.
G.A.R.: 1867, abbreviation of Grand Army of the Republic, the organization founded by union veterans of the American Civil War. The Grand Army was the name given (on the French model) to the army that organized in Washington in 1861 to put down the rebellion.
Wendy: as a woman's given name, apparently coined by James M. Barrie ("Peter and Wendy," 1911); it first registers on the U.S. Social Security list of popular baby names in 1936 and was in the top 40 names for girls born in the U.S. from 1965 to 1976
Wimbledon: district of South London, Old English Wunemannedune (10c.), probably "Wynnman's hill," from proper name *Wynnman. The -m- is intrusive; the -n- to -l- substitution was common in Anglo-French. Used metonymically from 1895 for the lawn tennis championships played annually there.
ear-worm (n.): 1880, "boll-worm, corn parasite" (corn-ear-worm attested from 1855), from ear (n.2) + worm (n.). Also an old alternative name for "earwig" (from ear (n.1)); from 1881 as "secret counselor." From 1989 as "annoyingly unforgettable pop song or part of a song."
Elsevier (n.): early 18c., Elzevir (via French Elzévir), from Dutch Elsevier, the name of a family of Dutch printers famed for the accuracy and elegance of their work; especially in reference to editions of the classics and other works published by them c. 1580-1680.
Ingvaeonic (n.): hypothetical ancestral North Sea Germanic language, 1933, from Latin Ingaeuones, name of a Germanic tribe in Tacitus, literally "people of Yngve," god, demigod, or eponymous ancestor. Earlier the word was used in English in reference to North Sea Germanic tribes (1904).
Ismailite (n.): also Ismaelite, 1570s, in reference to a Shi'ite Muslim sect, from Arabic Isma'iliy, the name of the sect that after 765 C.E. followed the Imamship through descendants of Ismail (Arabic for Ishmael), deceased eldest son of Jafar, the sixth Imam, rather than his surviving younger son.
Italic (adj.): "of or pertaining to ancient Italy," 1680s, from Latin Italicus, from Italia (see Italy). A word of historians and antiquarians. Earlier in the sense "pertaining to the Greek colonies in southern Italy" (1660s) and as the name of one of the orders of classical architecture (1560s).
jigger (n.2): "1.5-ounce shot glass," 1836, American English, in early use also of the drink itself, from jigger "illicit distillery" (1824), of unknown origin; or else perhaps from jigger, a 1756 alteration of chigger "tiny mite or flea." As a name for various appliances, the word is attested by 1825, from jig.
goody (n.2): 1550s, a shortened form of goodwife, a term of civility applied to a married woman in humble life; hence Goody Two-shoes, name of the heroine in 1760s children's story ("The History of little Goody Two Shoes; otherwise called Mrs. Margery Two Shoes") who exulted upon acquiring a second shoe.
kayles (n.): old game similar to bowls except a club or stick was thrown instead of a ball, from kail, from Middle English kayle "a pin, ninepin, skittlepin;" cognate with German Kegel, Danish kegle. Also the name of a game with nine holes drilled in the ground (an iron ball is rolled among them).
Leander: youth of Abydos, lover of Hero. He swam nightly across the Hellespont to visit her in Sestos, on the Thracian side, until he drowned. The name is from Greek Leiandros, literally "lion-man," from leon "lion" + aner (genitive andros) "man" (see anthropo-).
Laertes: king of Ithaca, father of Odysseus, his name is Greek, literally "gatherer of the people," or "urging the men," from laos "people" (see lay (adj.)) + eirein "to fasten together" (see series (n.)) or eirein "to speak, say" (see verb).
Lego: 1954, proprietary name (in use since 1934, according to the company), from Danish phrase leg godt "play well." The founder, Danish businessman Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891-1958), didn't realize until later that the word meant "I study" or "I put together" in Latin.
Lenin: pseudonym or alias chosen c. 1902 (for publishing clandestine political works in exile) by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Il'ich Ulyanov (1870-1924). Related: Leninist (1917); Leninism (1918). Leningrad was the name of Russian St. Petersburg from 1924 to 1991.