Etymology

Yangtze

Yang·tze
Y4A1N1G2T1Z10E1

Today it means: The chief river of central China and the third longest river in the world, flowing a total of 6300 km. Full definition →

Mandarin 揚子 /扬子 ← Latin Iansu
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromIansu
  2. Mandarin · borrowed from揚子 /扬子
  3. English todayYangtze

From the Postal Romanization of Mandarin 揚子 /扬子 (Yángzǐ) and 揚子江 /扬子江 (Yángzǐ Jiāng), a former name for the lower stretches of the Yangtze derived from 揚子津 (Yángzǐjīn)(zh-wikipedia), a former ferry crossing near Yangzhou, applied by foreign visitors to the entire length of the river. The folk etymology that it means "Son of the Ocean" derives from the homophonic misnomer 洋子江 which was apparently given to Matteo Ricci, whose posthumously published journals popularized the river in Europe as Latin Iansu and Iansuchian.

Words from the same roots

Mandarin揚子 all →

Yangzi

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.