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Formosa

for·mosa

UK/fɔːˈməʊ.sə/ US/fəˈməʊ.sə/ uncommon dated

noun

1.

an island in southeastern Asia 100 miles off the coast of mainland China in the South China Sea

Synonyms

Origin

From Portuguese Formosa, as in Ilha Formosa (literally “Beautiful Island”) and Vila Formosa da Imperatriz (literally “Beautiful Town of the Empress”), from formosa (“beautiful, shapely”), from Latin fōrmōsus (“beautiful, well-formed”), from fōrma (“shape”) + -ōsus (“-ful”), literally “shapeful”. The Brazilian city was named in honor of Empress Teresa Cristina, in the 1840s.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.