"picture taken with an early photographic process involving silver plates, iodine, and vapor of mercury," 1839, from French daguerreotype, coined from the name of the inventor, Louis J.M. Daguerre (1789-1851) + -type (see type (n.)). As a verb from 1839. Related: Daguerreotypist.

type of cast-iron smooth-bore naval artillery cannon, by 1854, named for its inventor, U.S. naval ordnance officer John A. Dahlgren (1809-1870), who was of Swedish ancestry.

genus of plants native to Mexico and Central America, 1804, named 1791 by Spanish botanist Antonio José Cavanilles for Anders Dahl (1751-1789), Swedish botanist and pupil of Linnaeus, who discovered it for science in Mexico in 1788.

The likelihood that a true blue variety of the flower never could be cultivated was first proposed by French-Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, and noted in English by 1835; hence blue dahlia, figurative expression for "something impossible or unattainable" (1843).

18c.-19c. West African kingdom, a native name of unknown etymology. Made a French protectorate in 1894, it gained full independence in 1960, and in 1975 changed its name to Benin. Related: Dahoman, Dahomean.

"happening or being every day," mid-15c.; see day + -ly (1). Compare Old English dglic, a form found in compounds: twadglic "happening once in two days," reodglic "happening once in three days." The more usual Old English adjective was dghwamlic (also dgehwelc), which became Middle English daiwhamlich. Cognate with German tglich.

As an adverb, "every day, day by day," early 15c. (the Old English adverb was dghwamlice. As a noun, "a daily newspaper," by 1832.

a transliteration of Greek daimōn "lesser god, guiding spirit, tutelary deity," 1852; see demon. Employed to avoid the post-classical associations of demon. Related: Daimonic.

also daimio, former title of the chief feudal nobles of Japan, vassals of the mikado, 1839, from Japanese, literally "big name," from Chinese dai "great" + mio, myo "name."

c. 1300, deinteli, "sumptuously, with delicate attention to the palate;" late 14c., "elegantly, in a dainty manner," from dainty (adj.) + -ly (2).

c. 1300, deinte, "delightful, pleasing" (late 12c. as a surname), from dainty (n.); see below. Meaning evolved in Middle English to "choice, excellent" (late 14c.) to "delicately pretty, exhibiting exquisite taste or skill" (c. 1400). Sense of "fastidious, affectedly fine, weak, effeminate" is from 1570s. Related: Daintiness.

The noun is Middle English deinte "regard, affection" (mid-13c.), from c. 1300 as "excellence, elegance;" also "a luxury, a precious thing, fine food or drink;" from Anglo-French deinte, Old French deintie (12c.) "price, value," also "delicacy, pleasure," from Latin dignitatem (nominative dignitas) "greatness, rank, worthiness, worth, beauty," from dignus "worthy, proper, fitting," from PIE *dek-no-, from root *dek- "to take, accept."

alcoholic drink made with rum, lime juice, and sugar, 1920 (F. Scott Fitzgerald), from Daiquiri, name of a district or village in eastern Cuba. Said to have been invented by a U.S. mining engineer in Cuba in 1896.