From Middle English, from Latin, from Ancient Greek Ἀμαζών (Amazṓn); perhaps Ionian Greek pronunciation of Old Persian *hamazan- (“warrior”), as the Amazon women were known warriors. A popular folk etymology, of Ancient Greek provenance, claims that the word derives from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + μαζός (mazós, “breast”), referencing the belief that Amazons cut off their right breast so that it would not hinder their ability to fire a bow or throw a spear.
Meanings
(Greek) A member of a mythical race of female warriors inhabiting the Black Sea area.
When, therefore, one envisions a matriarchy, one should not conjure up visions of a gang of Amazons lopping off breasts and testicles to rule by force of arms. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 149:
A female warrior.
In some parts of Africa, Asia, and South America, amazon cultures still existed during the Middle Ages, such as that ruled by Queen Nzingha in Angola, who led her amazon army against the Portuguese in a series of wars during the first half of the seventeenth century. In Dahomey also in traditionally gynarchal West Africa, the army was made up of amazons even through the nineteenth century. 1976, Xenia S. Williams, “The Power of History...or History Is Written by the Powerful”, in Dave Peterson, Jonathan Cross, Lyn Rosen, editors, A Gay Person's Guide to New England, 2nd edition:
From Spanish Río Amazonas. It is common belief that the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana fought a battle against a tribe of Tapuya natives, in which the women fought alongside the men, and that he derived the name from the Amazons in Greek mythology.
From Spanish Río Amazonas. It is common belief that the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana fought a battle against a tribe of Tapuya natives, in which the women fought alongside the men, and that he derived the name from the Amazons in Greek mythology.
Meanings
(attributive, sometimes) A river in South America, that flows through Brazil for about 4000 miles to the Atlantic.
(attributive, sometimes) A region including much of this river; specifically, the region of the Amazon Rainforest, or of the Amazon River Basin.
In February, a young man from an isolated Indigenous tribe in Brazil made brief contact with the outside world before returning to the Amazon rainforest. 2025 April 4, Lex Harvey and Esha Mitra, “US tourist arrested after allegedly attempting to contact ‘world’s most isolated’ tribe”, in CNN, archived from the original on 14 Apr 2025:
Chosen by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as a word beginning with 'A' which had existing connotations (see meanings listed in etymologies 1 & 2) of being exotic, different, and (as the Amazon River) the largest of its kind in the world.
Meanings
Amazon.com Inc., a very large Internet retailer.
Google is one of several Big Tech firms that has made an aggressive push into gaming in recent years, along with Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB). 2021 February 1, Rishi Iyengar, “Google will stop making video games for its Stadia platform”, in CNN Business:
Chosen by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as a word beginning with 'A' which had existing connotations (see meanings listed in etymologies 1 & 2) of being exotic, different, and (as the Amazon River) the largest of its kind in the world.
Meanings
(transitive) To overwhelm or obliterate, in the context of an Internet start-up vastly outperforming its brick and mortar competition.
Those who hesitate risk being "amazoned," forfeiting business to an Internet newcomer, in the way that bookstore chains have lost ground to Amazon.com Inc., the online bookseller. 1998 November 4, George Anders, “Discomfort Zone: Some Big Companies Long to Embrace Web But Settle for Flirtation — They Fear Online Marketing Could Cause Sales Staffs And Distributors to Rebel — A Risk of Getting ‘Amazoned’”, in The Wall Street Journal, page A1:
Amazon.com may soon be "amazoning" a few more industries. 1999, "Amazon Expands", InternetWeek (789), 1999-11-15, p. 11 http://search.proquest.com/docview/226901337
Gone are the days when they agonized about being "Amazoned", or blind-sided by a dot-com .... 2000 November 20, Bob Tedeschi, “E-Commerce Report: Web and catalog businesses are crossing into storefront territory, creating parallel avenues of retailing”, in The New York Times, page C12:
In other industries, established companies are pulling people and money away from their Internet operations, as their fear of being "Amazoned" by start-ups has subsided. 2001 July 4, Saul Hansell, “Web Sales of Airline Tickets Are Making Hefty Advances”, in The New York Times, page A1:
Meanwhile, traditional companies would be obliterated — "Amazoned" — by Internet upstarts. 2001 November 18, Steve Lohr, “Gearhead Nation: A Time Out for Technophilia”, in The New York Times, page WK4:
"Everybody was afraid of getting Amazoned," Mr. Landan said. "They didn't want to get left behind." 2002 June 30, Scott Harris, “Roots in Israel, Head in Silicon Valley”, in The New York Times, page B8:
Venture capitalists' desks are thick with business plans promising ‘we're going to Amazon the insurance/travel/property business...’ 1999 Aug, Andrew Wileman, “Smart cookies: Get set to Amazon”, in Management Today, page 79:
Take the example of MetalSite.com, which is owned by steel companies. The steel companies aren't getting "Amazoned" by a start-up but, rather, they are doing the "Amazoning" within their own industry. 1999, Tim Smith, InternetWeek (786), "Getting Customers Totally Integrated – Cisco CIO Pete Solvik", 1999-10-25, p. 98 http://search.proquest.com/docview/226888867
(transitive) To order (something) on Amazon.
[…] “There are people who Uber everywhere, who Seamless everything, who Amazon everything, and render their lives completely smooth.” 2025 June 30, Adrienne Matei, quoting Josh Lora, “‘Hey man, I’m so sorry for your loss’: should you use AI to text?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 05 Jul 2025: