Pennsylvania
pronunciation
How to pronounce Pennsylvania in British English:
UK [pensɪl'veɪnjə]
How to pronounce Pennsylvania in American English:
US [ˌpensəl'veɪnjə]
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- Noun:
- a Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies
- one of the British colonies that formed the United States
- a university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Word Origin
- Pennsylvania
- American colony, later U.S. state, 1681, literally "Penn's Woods," a hybrid formed from the surname Penn (Welsh, literally "head") + Latin sylvania (see sylvan). Not named for William Penn, the proprietor, but, on suggestion of Charles II, for Penn's late father, Admiral William Penn (1621-1670), who had lent the king the money that was repaid to the son in the form of land for a Quaker settlement in America. The story goes that the younger Penn wanted to call it New Wales, but the king's secretary, a Welshman of orthodox religion, wouldn't hear of it. Pennsylvania Dutch is attested from 1824.
Example
- 1. It has been so bitterly cold here in pennsylvania .
- 2. Pennsylvania is known for chocolate factories , not cowboys .
- 3. Now he is a neurosurgeon in pennsylvania .
- 4. Pennsylvania 's land has always been oil and methane rich .
- 5. Pennsylvania lost half of its peach population last season .