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Origin and history of Arizona

Arizona

1861, originally as the name of a breakaway Confederate region of southern New Mexico; later applied to a U.S. territory organized in 1863 roughly along the lines of the modern state and admitted in 1912. From Spanish Arizonac, which is probably from a local name among the O'odham (Piman) people meaning "having a little spring." An alternative theory is that it derives from Basque arizonak "good oaks."

also from 1861

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phoenix
The city in Arizona, U.S., was so called because it was founded in 1867 on the site of an ancient Native American settlement...
rock
Common in Arizona in recent panics; sporadic in California....
us
Old English us (cognate with Old Saxon, Old Frisian us, Old Norse, Swedish oss, Dutch ons, German uns), accusative and dative plural of we, from PIE *nes- (2), forming oblique cases of the first person plural personal pronoun (source also of Sanskrit nas, Avestan na, Hittite nash
America
1507, "the western hemisphere, North and South America," in Cartographer Martin Waldseemüller's treatise "Cosmographiae Introductio," from Modern Latin Americanus, traditionally after Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) who made two trips to the New World as a navigator and claimed to h
southwest
also south-west, "in a direction between south and west, to or toward the southwest," Old English suð-west; see south + west. As a noun, "direction or region between south and west," from early 12c. In U.S. use by 1835 (in reference to Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana). Related:
mesa
"high table land, in the U.S. Southwest, a broad and flat region between canyons or rivers," 1759, from Spanish mesa "plateau," literally "table," from Latin mensa "table" for sacred offerings or for meals (source of Romanian masa, Old French moise "table"), which de Vaan writes
same
"identical, equal; unchanging; one in substance or general character," from Proto-Germanic *samaz "same" (source also of Old Saxon, Old High German, Gothic sama, Old High German samant, German samt "together, with," Gothic samana "together," Dutch zamelen "to collect," German zus
seam
Middle English seme, from Old English seam, "seam of a garment, suture, junction made by sewing together the edges of two pieces of cloth or two edges of the same piece," from Proto-Germanic *saumaz (source also of Old Frisian sam "hem, seam," Old Norse saumr, Middle Dutch s
Tuesday
third day of the week, Old English tiwesdæg, from Tiwes, genitive of Tiw "Tiu," from Proto-Germanic *Tiwaz "god of the sky," the original supreme deity of ancient Germanic mythology, differentiated specifically as Tiu, ancient Germanic god of war, from PIE *deiwos "god," from roo
macabre
early 15c., in Macabrees daunce, daunce of Machabree, a kind of morality show or allegorical representation of death and his victims, from Old French (danse) Macabré "(dance) of Death" (1376), which is of uncertain origin. John Lydgate (c. 1370–c. 1451), the monk/poet who first t

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