A curated atlas, not a complete dictionary
Geography Words maps English terms whose names hide a place. Search denim and the globe flies to Nîmes. Open Bikini Atoll and the swimsuit is waiting there. The point is a shareable discovery with a pin, not a claim that every etymology is settled.
This first public set has 843 hand-checked entries across 604 places and 98 countries. Each one records a relationship type, a confidence label, a short original explanation, and links to Wiktionary and Wikidata. Dictionary prose is not copied into the database.
6 kinds of link
Origin is disputed
Three confidence states
Etymology is often contested. Every entry carries a label, and 160 of the 843 entries are not fully settled. If one is wrong, the sources are there to challenge it.
The place link is the standard scholarly account.
683 entries
The conventional story is likely, with caveats.
128 entries
Competing explanations remain live.
32 entries
Where the data comes from
| Source | Role | License |
|---|---|---|
| Wikidata | Place identifiers, coordinates, country | CC0 |
| Wiktionary | Candidate terms and page links | CC BY-SA 4.0 / GFDL |
| OpenFreeMap & OpenStreetMap | Vector map tiles | ODbL |
| Geography Words | Explanations, relationship types, confidence labels | Written here |
Wikimedia text carries attribution and share-alike obligations, so this site writes its own short explanations rather than republishing dictionary articles.
What this is not
It is not a complete etymological dictionary, a prevalence map, or medical or legal advice. A pin marks the place a name is associated with. It does not mean the thing originated there in a physical sense, or that it is typical of that place today.