I thought it was just a name of a forum… but I get here and I’m seeing it embedded in names of places around town. What does it mean?
Ah! Stewart Pendous has been busy. Good job!
OP. You’re seeing “Formosa”, not “Forumosa”. 
Republic of Formosa. Got it. Thank you!
Any relation to the forum name?
[quote=“Diomedes”]Republic of Formosa. Got it. Thank you!
Any relation to the forum name?[/quote]
It’s a forum on Formosa, the old name for Taiwan.
Forum+Formosa=Forumosa.
“Formosa” refers to formic acid, because the island’s volcanic cones led the Portuguese to believe that Taiwan was inhabited by the giant ants they had read about in Herodotus. That’s why they never colonized it. They simply marked it on their charts with the poison symbol, and the label “danger! Formic acid!” hence the name.
It’s a portmanteau, as MM explains.
Portmanteau? You mean a blend. 
Portmanteau? You mean a blend. [/quote]
Same thing (as I understand it). [quote=“Wiki”]“Portmanteau word” is used to describe a linguistic blend, namely “a word formed by blending sounds from two or more distinct words and combining their meanings.”[4] …a portmanteau word is typically formed by combining two or more existing words that all relate to a singular concept which the portmanteau word is meant to describe, such as Spanish and English, into Spanglish.[/quote]
A Formosa-oriented forum is such a singular concept, which the portmanteau or blend “Forumosa” is meant to describe, and it combines both their sounds and meanings.
Don’t listen to all the rumors about this forum’s name. The simple truth is this: the founder dedicated this site to his beloved wife Umosa
I thought it was for his ex-wife, Osa. “I created this forum for…um…Osa. That’s right, Osa. That’s her name.”
Really or are you joking?
I always thought it means something like pretty or so in Spanish/Latin.
After looking it up in the dictionary I found that it means shapely in the masculine form formoso.
On the forumosa’s logo the U is wiped by the Island. It’s a blend of forum and Formosa.
No… her name was Mosa. “I created this forum for u, Mosa!”
Maybe he was Canadian. “I created this forum for Umos, a.”
[quote=“Hamletintaiwan”]I always thought it means something like pretty or so in Spanish/Latin.
After looking it up in the dictionary I found that it means shapely in the masculine form formoso.[/quote]
Not Spanish, but close. Formoso is Portuguese for beautiful, and the -a ending is used because island is feminine. The Spanish equivalent is hermoso and hermosa, and the Latin is fōrmōsus, with the feminine the same as the Portuguese, fōrmōsa. It’s obviously related to ‘form’ in Latin and English, as, conceptually, well formed = shapely = beautiful.
Almost. I think he was a gay Canadian: For U Mos, A?
FORUMOSA= Foreigners Online Randomly Unleash Many Obviously Stupid Answers
And I think, we just found our new leader, or are you Taiwanese?
Don’t be bitter.
It is For You, MO?
SAH!