Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A region of southern Indochina including the rich delta area of the Mekong River. Originally a part of the Khmer Empire, it fell to the Annamese in the 1700s and to the French in the 1800s. The region forms the southern part of present-day Vietnam.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A former region comprising southern Vietnam and part of Cambodia.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Ultimately from Portuguese Cauchichina : archaic Malay Kuchi, Vietnam (akin to Vietnamese Giao Chỉ, Annam, from a Chinese source equivalent to Mandarin Jiāozhǐ) + Portuguese China, China.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French Cochin-China; from Portuguese corruption of Ko-chen, + China to distinguish from the Indian town of Cochin (which has a different etymology).

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Examples

  • Jamaica, thence make the short run to "Cochin China," and then turn southwards.

    The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest John Fiske 1871

  • [[User: Howard C. Berkowitz | Howard C. Berkowitz]] 18: 03, 13 October 2008 (UTC):: '' 'Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11the Edition' '', which is about as standard a mainstream source as you can find, calls it '' 'Cochin China' ''.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2008

  • Anything other than "Cochin China" is just plain wrong!

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2008

  • After that war France attempted to reestablish control over its former Indochinese possessions of Cochin China, Annam, and Tonkin, as well as Cambodia and Laos.

    Between War and Peace Col. Matthew Moten 2011

  • After that war France attempted to reestablish control over its former Indochinese possessions of Cochin China, Annam, and Tonkin, as well as Cambodia and Laos.

    Between War and Peace Col. Matthew Moten 2011

  • At this time Jefferson was determined to have the dry rice of Cochin China, and, fortuitously, there was an envoy from that distant land actually in Paris.

    how it goes on the Internet asakiyume 2008

  • There are therefore, in a single department in Europe, between the Alps and the Pyrenees, more than forty distinct small populations, who call themselves fellow-countrymen, but who are in reality as much strangers to one another as Tonquin is to Cochin China.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • Twenty different authors, who lived in Cochin China, have successively written about it; it is incumbent on you to collate these twenty authors, to weigh their testimonies, to consult ancient records, to see if there is any mention of this elephant in the public registers; to examine whether the whole account is not a fable, which certain impostors have an interest in sanctioning.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • There was a large piece of ground devoted to an agricultural exhibition; and here, as at home, Cochin China fowls were

    The Englishwoman in America 2007

  • In Cochin China, Tonquin, and China, where all Christian teachers are obliged to live in secret, and are liable to persecution, expulsion, and sometimes death, every province — even those farthest in the interior — has a permanent Jesuit mission establishment constantly kept up by fresh aspirants, who are taught the languages of the countries they are going to at Penang or Singapore.

    The Malay Archipelago 2004

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