Name Origins
- Lake Erie
- from Erie tribe, a shortened form of the Iroquoian word erielhonan (long tail)
- Lake Huron
- named by French explorers for inhabitants in the area, Wyandot or "Hurons"
- Lake Michigan
- likely from the Ojibwa word mishigami (great water)
- Lake Ontario
- Wyandot (Huron) word ontarío (lake of shining waters)
- Lake Superior
- English translation of French term lac supérieur (upper lake), referring to its position north of Lake Huron. The Ojibwe people called it gitchigumi
Read more about this topic: Great Lakes
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)