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:
“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)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)