Oregon (toponym)

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The origin of the name of the U.S. state of Oregon is unknown,[1] and a subject of some dispute.

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[edit] Historical usage of the name

The earliest known use of the name "Oregon" was in a 1765 petition by Major Robert Rogers to the Kingdom of Great Britain. The petition referred to Ouragon and asked for money to finance an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage.[2] In 1766, Rogers commissioned Jonathan Carver to lead such an expedition and in 1778, Carver used Oregon to label the Great River of the West in his book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America. The poet William Cullen Bryant took the name from Carver's book and used it in his poem Thanatopsis, published in 1817, to refer to the recent discoveries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which helped establish the name in modern use.

[edit] Possible origins

Why Rogers used the name has led to many theories, which include:

  • George R. Stewart argued in a 1944 article in American Speech that the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 1700s, on which the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin River) was spelled "Ouaricon-sint", broken on two lines with the -sint below, so that there appeared to be a river flowing to the west named "Ouaricon". This theory was endorsed in Oregon Geographic Names as "the most plausible explanation".[3]
  • Others derive the name as a corruption of the French word ouragan (hurricane), referring to the tumultuous nature of the winter storms that batter the northwest Oregon Country (Oregon, Washington, and Idaho).[citation needed]
  • a corruption of the French Origan (Oregano), a theory dismissed by Harvey W. Scott.[citation needed]
An abundance of beavers gave Oregon the nickname the Beaver State.
An abundance of beavers gave Oregon the nickname the Beaver State.
  • In 2001, archaeologist Scott Byram and David G. Lewis published an article in the Oregon Historical Quarterly arguing that the name Oregon came from the word oolighan (see eulachon), referring to grease made from fish, which was and is a highly prized food source for Native Americans of the region. Allegedly, those trade routes brought the term eastward.
  • In a 2004 article for the Oregon Historical Quarterly, Professor Thomas Love and Smithsonian linguist Ives Goddard argue that Rogers chose the word based on exposure to either of the Algonquian words wauregan and olighin, both meaning "good and beautiful".
  • In 1863, Archbishop Blanchet advanced the theory that the name derives from early Spanish settlers, who referred to the big, ornamented ears of the region's native people by the name "Orejon."[1]

The theory that it comes from oregano was dismissed years ago by Harvey W. Scott, an early editor of The Oregonian. He wrote that it was "a mere conjecture absolutely without support. More than this, it is completely disproved by all that is known of the name."[citation needed] Others have speculated[citation needed] that the name is related to the kingdom of Aragon: the major part of the Spanish soldiers who conquered the West Coast from California to Vancouver Island in the 18th century were, in fact, from Catalonia, a principate of the ancient Crown of Aragon in Spain. The Spanish garrison at Nootka, and the many Spanish scientific voyages to the Pacific Northwest had, however, no knowledge of the river, nor was there any Spanish colonization or exploration activity of the Columbia or in the Columbia Basin.[citation needed] The name might also be derived from the Spanish last name Obregón, which in turn is related to the Spanish Moorish king of Aragon.[citation needed]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Archbishop Blanchet. "Origin of the name Oregon", Portland Oregonian, reprinted by the New York Times, March 8, 1884. 
  2. ^ Oregon Almanac
  3. ^ McArthur, Lewis A.; Lewis L. McArthur [1928] (2003). Oregon Geographic Names, Seventh Edition, Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. ISBN 0-87595-277-1. 
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[edit] Further reading