Kowloon

English

Alternative forms

• Kln

Etymology

From Cantonese 九龍／九龙 (gau² lung⁴, literally “nine dragons”), named after its eight mountains and the Chinese emperor Zhao Bing (1272–1279).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaʊˈluːn/

Proper noun

Kowloon

1. An urban area of Hong Kong.
   • 1968, Jack M. Potter, Capitalism and the Chinese Peasant: Social and Economic Change in a Hong Kong Village‎^[1], University of California Press, page 36:

     By the late 1930's some modern factories, built by outside interests and producing such goods as bricks, beer, and chinaware for export abroad, had already appeared in Tsuen Wan, a market town near Kowloon.

   • 2015 January 12, Austin Ramzy, “Firebombs Thrown at Jimmy Lai’s Home and Company in Hong Kong”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-08-15, Sinosphere‎^[3]:

     Next Media said two entryways to its headquarters in Hong Kong’s Tseung Kwan O neighborhood were hit with firebombs around 1 a.m. Monday. At about the same time, a masked man got out of a car outside Mr. Lai’s home in the Ho Man Tin neighborhood and threw a firebomb at the sidewalk outside the gate. Two cars suspected of being those used in the attacks were later found burning in nearby areas of Kowloon.

   • 2019 November 17, “Hong Kong protesters fend off police with arrows, petrol bombs as unrest spreads”, in France 24‎^[4], sourced from Reuters, archived from the original on November 17, 2019, Asia / Pacific‎^[5]:

     Several protesters took up positions on the rooftops of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, armed with bows and arrows, as unrest spread across the territory's central Kowloon district.

   • 2023 March 24, “Hong Kong warehouse fire forces thousands to evacuate”, in Deutsche Welle‎^[6], archived from the original on 24 March 2023, Society‎^[7]:

     Hong Kong authorities evacuated at least 3,400 people from buildings after a fire broke out in a warehouse in the city's Kowloon district on Friday.

Derived terms

• Kowloon Bay
• Kowloon Tong
• Kowloon Tsai

 

Translations

area of Hong Kong

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 九龍／九龙 (gau² lung⁴)

  Hakka: 九龍／九龙 (Kiú-liùng)

  Hokkien: 九龍／九龙 (Kiú-liông)

  Mandarin: 九龍／九龙 (zh) (Jiǔlǒng)

• Japanese: 九龍 (きゅうりゅう, Kyūryū), カオルーン (Kaorūn), クーロン (ja) (Kūron), ガウロン (Gauron), ジウロン (Jiuron)
• Korean: 주룽 (Jurung)
• Russian: Коулу́н m (Koulún), Цзюлу́н m (Czjulún)
• Thai: เกาลูน (kao-lun)
• Vietnamese: Cửu Long

Further reading

• Kowloon at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.
• “Kowloon”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “Kowloon” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.