English
Arizona
Arizona may come from O'odham alĭ ṣonak.
- O'odhammodernalĭ ṣonakliterally ‘small spring’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2020Arizona
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- O'odhammodernalĭ ṣonakliterally ‘small spring’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2020Arizona
Earliest quotation: 2020, Scottie Andrew: “A 15-year-old orphan is being forced from the Arizona…”
The story
Possibly from O'odham alĭ ṣonak (literally “small spring”) (traditionally through the Spanish intermediary form Arizonac; compare modern Arizona), a name initially applied to an area around a silver-mining camp in Sonora. Alternatively, perhaps from Basque haritz ona (literally “good oak”), as the area had many Basque herders, and a descendant of them established the ranchería of Arizona (circa 1735) in Sonora.disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it. Suggestions of derivation from *arizuma, supposedly a Nahuatl word meaning “silver-bearing”, are considered implausible, and derivation from árida zona (literally “dry zone”) is considered a folk etymology.folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted.
Every English word from O'odham alĭ ṣonak
Today it means
name A state in the southwestern United States, established 1912. Capital: Phoenix.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / O'odham alĭ ṣonak / Arizona