bantamyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
bantam: [18] When these diminutive chickens were first imported into Europe in the middle of the 18th century, it was thought that they had originated in a village called Bantam in Java, now in Indonesia, and they were named accordingly. This version of their history has never been firmly established, but the name stuck. Bantamweight as a category of boxing weights dates from the 1880s.
bantam (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1749, after Bantam, former Dutch residency in Java, from which the small domestic fowl were said to have been first imported. Extension to "small person" is 1837. As a light weight class in boxing, it is attested from 1884, probably from the birds, which are small but aggressive and bred for fighting.
banter (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1670s, origin uncertain; said by Swift to be a word from London street slang. Related: Bantered; bantering. The noun is from 1680s.
Banting (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
system for weight loss through diet control, named for William Banting (1797-1878), English undertaker who invented it, tested it himself, and promoted it in his 1863 booklet "Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public." Although the word is a surname, it was used like a verbal noun in -ing. ("She is banting").
BantuyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
1862, applied to south African language group in the 1850s by German linguist Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek (1827-1875), from native Ba-ntu "mankind," from ba-, plural prefix, + ntu "a man, person." Bantustan in a South African context is from 1949.
BrabantyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
region in eastern Belgium (in Middle Ages much more extensive), from Old High German brahha "newly broken land" (see break (v.)) + bant "region."