Havana
23.1367°N -82.3589°W · Q1563
4 English words in this atlas trace back to Havana. It sits in Cuba.
The dance is the feminine of Havanan.
The contradanza habanera took the name of Havana. It travelled to Spain and into opera, where Bizet used it in Carmen.
The chilli is named for Havana, though it is not from there.
Spanish habanero means of Havana, and the pepper reached wider trade through Cuba. Its cultivation centres are in Mexico, so the name records a trade route rather than an origin.
The cigar is simply the city.
English uses the capital's name for the cigar, as French and Spanish do. Cuban tobacco was shipped through the port.
The name stuck to the illness even after cases turned up on four continents.
United States embassy staff in Havana began reporting the symptoms in late 2016, and the label followed. Later clusters were reported from China, Russia, Austria, Colombia, and Washington itself, so the name now points at the first cases rather than at anything Cuban. A 2023 assessment by United States intelligence agencies concluded that a foreign weapon was very unlikely to be responsible.