Taiwan

The story

1. Literary Chinese · derived from臺灣
2. Wade–Giles · borrowed fromTʻai²-wan¹
3. English todayTaiwan

The specific form "Taiwan" in English emerged from the Wade–Giles Tʻai²-wan¹ romanization of Mandarin 臺灣／台湾 (Táiwān), and also perhaps the romaji of Japanese 臺灣(たいわん) (taiwan), both of which are ultimately from Literary Chinese 臺灣, from Hokkien 大員 (Tāi-oân), 大圓, 臺員, 大灣, 臺灣, and other forms, a placename initially referring to a sandbank peninsula that later silted up; now wholly part of the island in the area of modern-day Anping District, Tainan, and eventually became the name of the entire island. The original placename itself was originally likely the transcription of a loanword from Siraya. Cognate with Dutch Tayouan / Taioan / Taiwan / etc., and other early variant forms of Hokkien 臺窩灣 /台窝湾 (Tâi-o-oân), etc. The name is sometimes folk-etymologized to have originally meant "terraced bay" (臺灣 /台湾), "great bay" (大灣 /大湾), or similar parsings from interpretations of the Chinese characters alone.

First known use, by meaning

• from 20th c. A partly-recognized country in East Asia consisting of a main island and 167 smaller islands. Official name: Republic of China. Capital: Taipei.
• 1600s An island between the Taiwan Strait and Philippine Sea in East Asia.
• from mid 20th c. A claimed province of the People's Republic of China (from 1949).
• from mid 20th c. 2169 Taiwan, a main belt asteroid.