States
- Arizona (either from árida zona, meaning arid zone, or from a Spanish word of Basque origin meaning the good oak)
- California (from the name of a fictional island country in "Las sergas de Esplandián", a popular Spanish chivalric romance by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo)
- Colorado (meaning "red " or "ruddy". Named after the Colorado River, whose waters were of that color.)
- Florida (Meaning "flowery" or "florid", because it was discovered by Ponce de León on Easter Sunday, called Pascua Florida to distinguish this holiday, which occurs in springtime when flowers are abundant, from other Christian holidays called Pascua in Spanish, such as Christmas and Epiphany.
- Montana (from montaña, meaning "mountain")
- Nevada (meaning "snowy", from Sierra Nevada, meaning "snow capped range of mountains". Sierra means "a range of mountains,", literally "a saw," from Latin serra.
- New Mexico (Calqued from Nuevo México)
- Texas (based on the Caddo word teshas meaning "friends" or "allies", which was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas). The letter x had a "sh" sound in 16th century Spanish which gradually evolved to an "h" sound, which under later spelling reforms was assigned to the letter j (which originally also had a "zh", "j" or "y" sound). Thus the modern Spanish spelling Tejas, which sounds like "Tehas".
- Utah (Spanish word of Nahuatl origin, first used by friar Gerónimo Salmerón as Yuta or Uta in Spanish)
Read more about this topic: List Of U.S. Place Names Of Spanish Origin
Famous quotes containing the word states:
“The moment a mere numerical superiority by either states or voters in this country proceeds to ignore the needs and desires of the minority, and for their own selfish purpose or advancement, hamper or oppress that minority, or debar them in any way from equal privileges and equal rights—that moment will mark the failure of our constitutional system.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“I believe the citizens of Marion County and the United States want to have judges who have feelings and who are human beings.”
—Paula Lopossa, U.S. judge. As quoted in the New York Times, p. B9 (May 21, 1993)
“It may be said that the elegant Swann’s simplicity was but another, more refined form of vanity and that, like other Israelites, my parents’ old friend could present, one by one, the succession of states through which had passed his race, from the most naive snobbishness to the worst coarseness to the finest politeness.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)