Columbus
verbEtymology From Latin columbus (“a dove”). Doublet of Colombo. The common noun and verb are references to the Italian explorer.
- "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!"1893, American Boys Afloat: Or, Cruising in the Orient, page 150:
- 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, Out West, volume 28, page 90:
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- 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 […]1908, Sunset, volume 20, page 271:
- 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.1921, Forest Leaves, volume 15, page lxx:
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US, Derogatory, Slang To appropriate; to lay claim to something, especially a discovery, which is perceived as belonging to someone else.
- 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, Justin Simien, Dear White People, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 97:
- 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.2014 July 6, Brenda Salinas, “‘Columbusing’: The Art Of Discovering Something That Is Not New”, in NPR, archived from the original on 08 Aug 2020:
1 more example
- He then lists other things that have been Columbused, such as twerking by Miley Cyrus and hummus by “health conscious whities.”2015, Frederic Charles Schaffer, Elucidating Social Science Concepts, Routledge, →ISBN, page 54: