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It was the Greeks who coined the term "Amazon." The word literally means "without breast." It is said that in order to facilitate the drawing of a bow, the female's right breast was removed, either in early childhood or with a red-hot iron after she became an adult. Even though the Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen are said to have agreed that this operation would enhance the ability to use weapons, it is doubtful whether such operations were actually performed. Herein lies a linguistic riddle - whether the prefix "a-" in their language does indeed mean "without." It has been suggested that it means the opposite - that an Amazon was a woman with especially large breast. Nor is there a single example in any museum of a drawing, amulet, or statue of a woman without her right breast, which should have been a common motif had the legend about breast amputation been based on fact.

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[a. L. Amazon, a. Gr. {Alenis}{mu}{alpha}{zeta}{gwacu}{nu}, -{goacu}{nu}{alpha}; explained by the Greeks from {alenis} priv. + {mu}{alpha}{zeta}-{goacu}{fsigma} a breast (in connexion with the fable that they destroyed the right breast so as not to interfere with the use of the bow), but prob. pop. etym. of an unknown foreign word.]

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late 14c., from Gk. Amazon "one of a race of female warriors in Scythia," probably from an unknown non-I.E. word, but in folk etymology long derived from a- "without" + mazos "breasts," hence the story that the Amazons cut or burned off one breast so they could draw bowstrings more efficiently. The river in South America (originally called by the Sp. Rio Santa Maria de la Mar Dulce) rechristened by Francisco de Orellana, 1541, after an encounter with female warriors of the Tapuyas (or, as some say, beardless, long-haired male tribesmen; still others hold that the name is a corruption of a native word in Tupi or Guarani meaning "wave").

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An alternative etymology rivaled the "breastless" one in popularity in ancient times, but is not so well known today: a- + maza ("without barley bread"). The idea here is that the Amazons, as barbaric nomads, did not sow fields as the civilized Greeks did, so they were condemned to eat meat instead of grain products. The evidence in favor of this one is no better than the other.

If the word didn't mean "breastless" and it didn't mean "breadless," what did it mean? The ancient Greeks and Romans offered many other etymologies, all speculative, suggesting that the "breastless" etymology just wasn't cutting it. In the last couple hundred years, there has been a revival in the cottage industry of making up new origins for the name. Indeed Amazon has had more proposed etymologies than any other word I know by far. Here's a selection of ancient and modern attempts:

Greek a-massein ("unapproachable"), a-mangion ("manless"), ama-hazo ("with honor"), ama-zoonais ("with belts [for cinching armor]"), ama-zoone ("with belts [for cinching dresses]"), ama-zoosai ("living together"), Amazo-nes ("daughters of [somebody named] Amazo"); Old Iranian hemeh-zen ("all women") or ha-mazan ("warrior"); Caucasian amaze ("youth"); Hebrew ammitz ("strong") or zouheh ("fallen woman"); Mongolian aeme-zaïne ("excellent woman"); Gothic magath ("virgin"); undifferentiated Germanic metze ("slut"); Sanskrit Uma-soona ("children of Uma [an Indian goddess]"); Armenian ama-zon ("children of the moon goddess"); Phoenician am-azon ("mother-lord"); or Slavic omuzhony ("masculine women").

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Herein lies a linguistic riddle - whether the prefix "a-" in their language does indeed mean "without." It has been suggested that it means the opposite - that an Amazon was a woman with especially large breast.

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I'm confused - the prefix a- does mean "without" in Greek, so I don't know what he's talking about.

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History

In 1906 The Corn Products Refining Company of New York is formed by a merger of the leading corn refiners in the United States. In 1911, Mazola® is introduced to the market, the first cooking and salad oil made from corn.

The brand is first sold in Canada in 1919 when The Corn Products Refining Company, purchased a 55% interest in The Canada Starch Company. This was the start of 70 years of uninterrupted production of Mazola® Corn Oil at Cardinal Ontario. Sold in square, yellow tins, the new product is the first refined corn oil, made from 100% golden corn. The brand name, Mazola®, was derived from the New World word for corn – maize – and oil (emphasis mine).

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"Canola" is defined as any of several varieties of the rape plant having seeds that contain less than 2% erucic acid, and whose solid component contains less than 30 micromoles per gram of glucosinolates. (This has been the statutory definition in Canada since 1986.) If you ever come across rapeseed oil that is *not* canola, avoid it, because erucic acid causes heart lesions, and glucosinolates cause thyroid enlargement and poor feed conversion!

Dictionaries have variously explained "canola" as standing for "Canada oil, low acid", and as a blend of "Canada" and "colza". I imagine that "Mazola" (a brand name for corn [= "maize"] oil) had an influence.

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The name "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid" in 1978.

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Its name is a combination of 'Canada' and 'oil' (Canadian oil low acid).

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Originally posted by zmježd:
On the other hand, Greek μαζα (μαζος ([i]mazos) 'nipple, pap'.