Etymology

Proper noun

1. Honshu, the largest island of Japan.
   • 1619: W. W. Gent, A Briefe Relation of the Persecution Lately Made Against the Catholike Crhstians, in the Kingdome of Iaponia, vol. 1, p. 20

     The greateſt of theſe three, which is called Niphon, doth lye from Eaſt to Weſt, and is 700. miles in length and 180. in breadth, and it deuided into three & fifty little Kingdomes or Prouinces, and therein is the noble Citty of Meaco the chiefe and head of all Iapone.

   • 1853: "Japan", Putnam's Monthly, vol. 1, no. 3, p. 242

     Niphon, the chief island, is nine hundred miles long, and one hundred miles in average width.