Arkansas
pronunciation
How to pronounce Arkansas in British English:
UK [ˈɑ:kənsɔ:]
How to pronounce Arkansas in American English:
US [ˈɑrkənˌsɔ]
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- Noun:
- a state in south central United States; one of the Confederate states during the American Civil War
- a river that rises in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and flows southeast through Kansas and Oklahoma and through Arkansas to become a tributary of the Mississippi River
Word Origin
- Arkansas
- organized as a U.S. territory 1819 (admitted as a state 1836), named for the Arkansas River, which was named for a Siouan tribe. The spelling of the term represents a French plural, Arcansas, of a name applied to the Quapaw people who lived on the Arkansas River; their name was also written in early times as Akancea, Acansea, Acansa (Dickinson, 1995). This was not the name used by the Quapaws themselves, however. The term /akansa/ was applied to them by Algonquian speakers; this consists of /a-/, an Algonquian prefix found in the names of ethnic groups, plus /kká:ze, a Siouan term refering to members of the Dhegiha branch of the Siouan family. This stem is also the origin for the name of the Kansa tribe and of the state of Kansas; thus the placenames Arkansas and Kansas indirectly have the same origin. [William Bright, "Native American Placenames of the United States," 2004]
Example
- 1. The arkansas democrats were an even more diverse group .
- 2. Only the arkansas legislature remains in democratic hands .
- 3. It was like arkansas ten years earlier .
- 4. A battle is brewing in batesville , arkansas .
- 5. They were committed to improving education and the economy in arkansas .