"action or process of making or being operative," 1906, noun of action from activate (v.).

1906 in reference to a type of lawn or deck chair said to have been designed in 1903 by a Thomas Lee, owner of the Westport Mountain Spring, a resort in the Adirondack region of New York State. Commercial manufacture is said to have begin the following year but it was at first called Westport chair after the town where it was made.

Adirondack Mountains is a back-formation from Adirondacks, which was treated as a plural noun but really it is from Mohawk (Iroquoian) adiro:daks "tree-eaters," a name they applied to neighboring Algonquian tribes. The -s is an imperfective affix.

or anoli, type of American lizard, 1906, from a native name in the Antilles.

1906, of persons, "calm, serene," from Latinized form of Greek ataraktos "not disturbed" (see ataraxia) + -ic. From 1955 of drugs, "inducing calmness."

"an ordinary (non-sex) chromosome," 1906, coined by U.S. cytologist T.H. Montgomery from auto- + -some (3). Related: Autosomal.

"a backwards somersault in the air," 1906; see back (adj.) + flip (n.).

also bell-hop, "attendant in a hotel who carries guests' luggage and performs other services," by 1906, American English, shortening of slang bellhopper (1899), from bell (n.) + hop (v.). The notion is one who "hops" into action when the bell is rung.

1906, from French bistro (1884), originally Parisian slang for "little wineshop or restaurant," which is of unknown origin. Commonly said to be from Russian bee-stra "quickly," picked up during the Allied occupation of Paris in 1815 after the defeat of Napoleon; but this, however quaint, is unlikely. Another guess is that it is from bistraud "a little shepherd," a word of the Poitou dialect, from biste "goat."

also bi-variate, "involving two variables," 1906, from bi- + -variate, from Latin variatio (see variation).

also break-away, 1906 (n.), in reference to sports; 1930s (adj.) in reference to splinter groups; from the verbal phrase (attested from 1530s in the sense "disengage oneself abruptly, escape"); see break (v.) + away (adv.).