Columbus

From Latin columbus (“a dove”). Doublet of Colombo. The common noun and verb are references to the Italian explorer.

• IPA^(key): /kəˈlʌmbəs/

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• Audio (General Australian):

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Columbus

1. A male given name from Latin.
2. A surname.
   1. Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), Italian explorer of the Americas.
3. Any of various cities, towns and villages in the United States:
   1. The capital city of Ohio, and the county seat of Franklin County.
      • 2024 September 21, Heath Owens, “What to Wear to Sabrina Carpenter's 'Short N' Sweet' Tour”, in Cosmopolitan‎^[1], archived from the original on 10 December 2024:

        And exactly a month to the date after kissing the world with her sixth studio album, Short n' Sweet (it's like she planned it or smth...), she's [Sabrina Carpenter] kicking off her Short n' Sweet Tour in Columbus, Ohio on September 23.

   2. A city, the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, with which it is consolidated.
   3. A village in Adams County, Illinois.
   4. A city, the county seat of Bartholomew County, Indiana.
   5. A city, the county seat of Cherokee County, Kansas.
   6. A tiny home rule city in Hickman County, Kentucky.
   7. A small city in Anoka County, Minnesota, previously a township.
   8. A city, the county seat of Lowndes County, Mississippi.
   9. An unincorporated community and inactive township in Johnson County, Missouri.
   10. A town, the county seat of Stillwater County, Montana.
   11. A city, the county seat of Platte County, Nebraska.
   12. An unincorporated community in Burlington County, New Jersey.
   13. A village in Luna County, New Mexico.
   14. A town in Chenango County, New York.
   15. A town, the county seat of Polk County, North Carolina.
   16. A tiny city in Burke County, North Dakota.
   17. A small city, the county seat of Colorado County, Texas.
   18. A small city in Columbia County and Dodge County, Wisconsin.
   19. A town in Columbia County, Wisconsin.
   20. A number of townships, in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan (2), Nebraska and Pennsylvania, listed under Columbus Township.

• (capital city of Ohio): Col's

Columbus (plural Columbuses)

1. A person who makes a great discovery.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘It’s Just the very Biggest Thing in the World’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 58:

     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^[2], archived from the original on 8 August 2020:

     If you've danced to an Afrobeat-heavy pop song, dipped hummus, sipped coconut water, participated in a Desi-inspired color run or sported a henna tattoo, then you've Columbused something. […] Sometimes, though, Columbusing can feel icky. […] 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.”

From Columbu + -s.

Columbus

1. plural of Columbu

• IPA^(key): /ˌkoːˈlʏm.bʏs/

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• Hyphenation: Co‧lum‧bus

Columbus

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

• ei van Columbus