Chimay

English

Etymology 1

From French Chimay, sometimes further derived via Vulgar Latin, from Proto-Celtic *koimos (“pretty, pleasant”).

Proper noun

Chimay

1. A city and municipality in Hainault, Belgium.

Translations

Translations

• Walloon: Chimai (wa)

Etymology 2

Lake Chiamay or Cunabetee on a 1692 map of the Mughal Empire by Vincenzo Coronelli.

Variant of earlier Chiamay, from Portuguese Lago de Chiamay in João de Barros's 1553 Décadas da Ásia, Dec. III, Bk. II, presumably from the Chiamay and Chiammay in manuscripts of Fernão Mendes Pinto's Peregrinação, variously referring to an imaginary lake and to the kingdom and town of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, Thai เชียงใหม่ (Chiiang Mai), from เชียง (chiiang, “walled city”) + ใหม่ (mài, “new”).

Proper noun

Chimay

1. (geography, historical) An imaginary lake thought for centuries to exist in southern China or northern Indochina, once believed to be the source of the Brahmaputra or Meghna, the Irrawaddy, the Salween, and the Chao Phraya Rivers.
   • 1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., Vol. II, p. 184:

     CHIMAY, the name of a great lake, lying in the province of Acham, between the Eaſt-Indies and China.

Alternative forms

• Chiamay, Chiammay, Chiamai, Chiang Mai, Chaamay, Chiama, Cunebete, Singapamor, Jamahey

References

• Michael Pearson, "Lake Chiamay: Asia's Mythical Mother of Rivers", The Globe: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Map Society, No. 83 (2018), pp. 43 ff.