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Origin and history of Montana

Montana

U.S. state, from Latinized form of Spanish montaña "mountain" (used in South America specifically of the forested region on the eastern slopes of the Andes), from Latin mont-, stem of mons (see mountain). The territorial name was proposed in 1864 by U.S. Rep. James H. Ashley of Ohio when it was created from Nebraska Territory, in reference to the Rocky Mountains, which however traverse only one end of it. Admitted as a state in 1889. Related: Montanan.

Entries linking to Montana

mountain(n.)

"natural elevation rising more or less abruptly and attaining a conspicuous height," c. 1200, from Old French montaigne (Modern French montagne), from Vulgar Latin *montanea "mountain, mountain region," noun use of fem. of *montaneus "of a mountain, mountainous," from Latin montanus "mountainous, of mountains," from mons (genitive montis) "mountain" (from PIE root *men- (2) "to project").

Until 18c., applied to a fairly low elevation if it was prominent (such as Sussex Downs or the hills around Paris); compare hill (n.). As an adjective, "of or situated on a mountain," from late 14c.

Mountain dew "raw and inferior whiskey" is attested by 1839; earlier a type of Scotch whiskey (1816); Jamieson's 1825 "Supplement" to his Scottish dictionary defines it specifically as "A cant term for Highland whisky that has paid no duty." Mountain-climber is recorded from 1839; mountain-climbing from 1836. Mountain laurel is from 1754; mountain-lion "puma" is from 1849, American English; the mountain goat of the Western U.S. is so called by 1841 (by 1827 as Rocky Mountain goat).

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    Trends of Montana

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    faithful
    Henry Dana Washburn, surveyor-general of the Montana Territory, in reference to the regularity of its outbursts....
    tenderfoot
    ["A Year in Montana," Atlantic Monthly, August 1866] Tender-footed (adj.)...
    sin city
    but in earlier headline use (and other movie ads) it referred to Lavallette, N.J. (1949), Baghdad (1950), Great Falls, Montana...
    grocery
    [Bartlett, "Dictionary of Americanisms," 1859] Self-service groceries were a novelty in 1913 when a Montana, U.S., firm...
    dude
    For even the Montana cowboy recognizes the latter....
    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
    milk
    "opaque white fluid secreted by mammary glands of female mammals, suited to the nourishment of their young," Middle English milk, from Old English meoluc (West Saxon), milc (Anglian), from Proto-Germanic *meluk- "milk" (source also of Old Norse mjolk, Old Frisian melok, Old Saxon
    praise
    c. 1300, preisen, "to express admiration of, commend, adulate, flatter" (someone or something), from Old French preisier, variant of prisier "to praise, value," from Late Latin preciare, earlier pretiare "to price, value, prize," from Latin pretium "reward, prize, value, worth,"
    mafia
    1875, from Italian Mafia "Sicilian secret society of criminals" (the prevailing sense outside Sicily), earlier, "spirit of hostility to the law and its ministers." A member is a mafioso (1870), fem. mafiosa, plural mafiosi, and this may be the older word in this sense. Arabic is

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