Amoy
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈmɔɪ/
ipa: /ɑˈmɔɪ/
ipa: /æˈmɔɪ/
ipa: /ˈæmɔɪ/
enpr: ǔmoiʹ
enpr: ä-moiʹ
rhymes: -ɔɪ
Etymology: From the Postal Romanization of Hokkien 廈門 /厦门 (Ēe-mûi), specifically the Zhangzhou Hokkien dialect. Compare Spanish Emuy.
Senses: examples: text: Near the Coaſt of the Province of Fokien lie Quemuy and Eymuy : Further off at Sea, oppoſite to them, appear Formoſa and Tayowan ; the firſt by the Chineſes, who now poſſeſs it, call'd Talieukich ; but to the Eaſt, near the Province Chekiang are the Iſles Changque and Chenxan.
ref: [1671, Arnoldus Montanus, translated by John Ogilby, Atlas Chinensis, London: Tho. Johnson, translation of original in Dutch, →OCLC, page 468:
text: Passing one or two headlands to the northeastward of this place, we reach the harbor of Amoy, as pronounced by the natives, or, as more generally pronounced Heämun. This harbor is in the southwestern corner of a considerable bay, in which are two large and many smaller islands. The largest and westernmost island, named Amoy, forms the northern limit of the harbor, which is sheltered on the east by the smaller of the two principal islands, while the mainland shelters is on the west and south. The town of Amoy is situated at the south end of the larger island, and the anchorage for ships is immediately in front of it.
ref: 1837 May, “Coast of China: the division of it into four portions ; brief description of the principal places on the southeastern, eastern, and northeastern portions.”, in The Chinese Repository, volume VI, number 1, Canton, →OCLC, page 12:
text: Leaving Namoa, and sailing up the coast towards Amoy, the stranger is continually struck with the barren rocky nature of the coast, and in some parts has a view of hills of sand, the particles of which, when a hurricane blows, mix with the wind, and whiten the ropes of vessels and render it most unpleasant to be in the vicinity.
ref: 1847, Robert Fortune, Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China: Including a Visit to the Tea, Silk, and Cotton Countries; with an Account of the Agriculture and Horticulture of the Chinese, New Plants, Etc., 2nd edition, John Murray, Albemarle Street, pages 23–24:
text: He told me of a place on the mainland, near his native village—some seventy miles up the coast, between Foochow and Amoy—where game was plentiful, and sportsmen rare.
ref: 1896, Charles J. H Halcombee, The Mystic Flowery Land: A Personal Narrative, London: Luzac & Co., page 110:
text: The tea grown in the southern Fukien hills goes out through Amoy; in a shallow bay on one side of town there stand out of the mud at low tide hundreds of upright granite blocks like Western tombstones, on which oysters are grown. But the only unique industry Amoy and its island seem to boast is the making of toy cats, dogs, lions, tigers, and even more fearsome beasts from mud gaudily painted, the heads and tails so balanced that they wag gravely back and forth.
ref: 1925, Harry A. Franck, Roving Through Southern China, The Century Company, →OCLC, page 198:
text: The Merope stopped at Namoa, an island off the coast of Kwangtung and Fukien, where some small sales were made, and then, proceeding to Amoy, attempted to open trade relations there.
ref: 1934, David Edward Owen, British Opium Policy in China and India, Yale University Press, →OCLC, page 122; republished Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1968:
text: In February last year, he went to Amoy in Fukien Province on business. Amoy lies opposite Kinmen. One February day he swam to Kinmen and reached freedom. He has since worked for the General Political Warfare Department of the Ministry of National Defense.
ref: 1975 October 12, “Escapees from mainland plan wedding in Taipei”, in Free China Weekly, volume XVI, number 40, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4:
text: In October 1662, Constantin Nobel, the Dutch negotiator with the Bort expeditions, was told by Chinese officials that "along the sea-coast we have nothing but ruined cities and villages, where some poor fishermen, with their vessels and nets, with leave of the governors, live to maintain themselves, because all the greatest towns and villages in those parts were by the emperor's orders pulled down to the ground, to prevent the sending of provisions and merchandise to the islands Eymuy [Amoy] and Quemoy."
ref: 1976, Lawrence D. Kessler, “The Regency”, in K'ang-hsi and the Consolidation of Ch'ing Rule, 1661–1684, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 44:
text: Aung San escaped by disguising himself as a Chinese crewman on a Norwegian boat. He arrived in Amoy seeking contact with Chinese communists to help in Burma's drive for independence.
ref: 2013, Myanmar (Burma) (Insight Guides), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 41:
text: Naming it for the city-state’s Fukienese people, who hailed from Amoy, China, the company wove in Chinese-themed detailing throughout the hotel.
ref: 2014 November 11, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, “Hotel Review: Amoy Hotel in Singapore”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2014, Travel:
text: Kinmen Island lies in the Amoy (Xiamen) Bay, southeast of mainland China's Fujian Province, with a total area of 150.456 square kilometers. The outlying island is 277 kilometers off the coast of Taiwan proper and a mere 10 kilometers from Xiamen Harbor.
ref: (Can we date this quote?), “Kinmen Battlefield Culture”, in Ministry of Culture, archived from the original on 16 Sep 2021, Potential World Heritage Sites in Taiwan:
text: Files from the US consulate in Xiamen (Amoy) held by the US National Archives as microform material and digitized by TBMC include the consulate’s official dispatches to the US Department of State from 1844 to 1906.
ref: 2023 August 11, “Unlocking the Past: Digital Archives Illuminate Taiwan’s History”, in Taiwan News, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2024, Culture:
text: Back in China, the American vice-consul in Amoy was one Le Gendre, married to Clara. His responsibilities lay in Amoy plus four other locations on Formosa (Taiwan) — Tamsui, Anping, Keelung and Takao.
ref: 2023 October 12, Bradley Winterton, “Book review: ‘Puppet Flower’: the roots of modern Taiwan”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 Nov 2023, Features, page 14:
glosses: Former name of Xiamen: a prefecture-level city and subprovincial city of Fujian, in southeastern China.
glosses: The Amoy dialect of the Hokkien language.
glosses: The Hokkien language.
Derived terms: Amoyan
Amoyese