Name Origin
The origin of Seneca Village's name is not exactly known; however, a number of theories have been advanced.
- One theory suggests the word “Seneca” came from a Roman philosopher named Lucius Annaeus Seneca, whose book was often read by African American activists.
- Another theory is that the village was named after a group of Native Americans, the Seneca nation.
- Sara Cedar Miller, the Central Park Conservancy's historian suggests, "It must have been an ethnic slur," a way to simultaneously denigrate Indians and blacks.
- Some suggest it is a derivative of Senegal, a country in West Africa, where many of the people who lived in the village were from.
- Yet other theories suggest the name could also have been used as a code for the underground railroad.
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Famous quotes containing the word origin:
“For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Someone had literally run to earth
In an old cellar hole in a byroad
The origin of all the family there.
Thence they were sprung, so numerous a tribe
That now not all the houses left in town
Made shift to shelter them without the help
Of here and there a tent in grove and orchard.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)