The Savoy is a very famous, very expensive hotel in central London, on the Strand beside the River Thames. People say “the Savoy” as if it were a place-name; they mean this hotel, not a brand on every corner. It opened in the late nineteenth century and became the sort of London people picture in evening dress: rich travellers, theatre nights, heads of state, afternoon tea. The name is older than the hotel. It comes from the Savoy Palace on that site, and that name comes from French Savoy / Savoie — a region in the western Alps — from the Roman name Sapaudia, probably tied to a kind of fir tree. Though actually English also has Savoy cabbage, named from the same place; this word, in this entry, is the hotel. You will meet it in films, songs, travel talk, and general-knowledge quizzes more than in everyday chat.