Chinadom
noun · first attested 1859
Before Chinatown settled into English, American writers tried Chinadom.
Dated: Chinese culture and society, or a district inhabited by Chinese people, especially San Francisco's Chinatown.
People's Republic of China·People's Republic of China
35.8447°N 103.4519°E · Q148
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1859
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
People's Republic of China
- In English
Chinadom
The word uses the dom of kingdom and Christendom, the old ending for a realm or a domain. The Reverend J. C. Holbrook wrote on Chinadom in California in Hutchings' Illustrated California Magazine in September 1859, using it for the Chinese quarter of San Francisco. Chinatown, recorded in the same city in the following decades, won out, and Chinadom is now obsolete.