Amoy
/əˈmɔɪ/noun
A historical English name for Xiamen, a port city in Fujian, China.
Did you know?“Amoy” came through European renderings of the local Hokkien pronunciation, not from Mandarin, revealing how colonial trade routes reshaped Chinese place-names in English.
Etymological Timeline
Early Chinese
Chinese
廈門
“The Chinese characters for the place-name later read as Xiamen; the name is traditionally analyzed as meaning “lower gate” in the local language.”
Minnan speech
Hokkien
Ē-mn̂g
“The local Southern Min pronunciation of 廈門.”
16th–17th Century
Portuguese/Dutch
Amoy
“A European rendering of the Hokkien pronunciation used in maritime trade and cartography.”
17th–19th Century
English
Amoy
“The established English name for the Chinese port and surrounding island area.”
Modern English
English
Xiamen
“The standard modern English form, based on Mandarin pinyin; Amoy survives mainly in historical, commercial, and cultural contexts.”