Soochow

English

Map including WU-HSIEN (SOOCHOW) (WALLED) (AMS, 1955)

Etymology

From the Postal Romanization of Mandarin 蘇州／苏州 (Sūzhōu).

Proper noun

Soochow

1. (dated) Alternative form of Suzhou
   • 1910, J. O. P. Bland, E. Backhouse, China Under the Empress Dowager‎^[1], Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., page 359:

     An official, one of the many provincial deputies charged with the carrying of tribute to the Court at Hsi-an, returning thence to his post at Soochow, sent to a friend at Peking a detailed description of the life of the Court in exile, from which the following extracts are taken.

   • 1967, Yuan-li Wu, The Spatial Economy of Communist China‎^[2], Frederick A. Praeger Publishers, page 145:

     For our purpose new economic centers are defined as those vigorously developed in Communist China prior to the economic crisis in 1960-62, but not necessarily completely new industrial centers. They consist of 26 cities included in categories A-II and B-II in Table 4-8 and B2, B3, B4, B5, and B8 in Table 4-3 (excluding Soochow and Kuei-yang, which are predominantly nonindustrial).

   • 1976, Charlton M. Lewis, Prologue to the Chinese Revolution: The Transformation of Ideas and Institutions in Hunan Province, 1891-1907‎^[3], →ISBN, page 16:

     By the middle of June there had been additional disturbances at Chinkiang, Tan-yang, Wu-hsi and Soochow along the Grand Canal, and at Wu-hsueh, Kiukiang and Sha-shih on the Yangtze.

   • 1982 December 26, Charlotte Summer, “Tung Chih festival a time for rejoicing”, in Free China Weekly [自由中國週報]‎^[4], volume XXIII, number 51, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2:

     In Soochow of Kiangsu Province, people burned incense at daybreak. During the day, stores were closed and people ate and drank, as if they were celebrating the New Year.

   • 2015, Xiao Bai, translated by Chenxin Jiang, French Concession‎^[5], Harper Collins Publishers, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 79:

     He could always just leave on the next train to Nanking, or the little steamboat to Soochow.

Derived terms

• Soochownese (demonym, dialect)

References

• “Soochow, pn.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “Soochow”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• hooscow