Saguaro cactus on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson
18 March 2022
The name Arizona comes from the Oʼodham arizonac, meaning little spring or few springs. Oʼodham is an Uto-Aztecan language of southern Arizona and northern Sonora. The language is also known as Papago-Pima, but the Tohono Oʼodham people have rejected the name Papago as being insulting. That name is a Spanish variation of the Pima name for the people, Ba꞉bawĭkoʼa, meaning “eating tepary beans.”
The earliest use of the name Arizona in English that I have found is from the New Orleans Weekly Delta of 23 June 1849. The article indicates why the territory was attractive to the United States:
The silver mines of Sonora are also said to be of unequaled richness. It is alleged that lumps of pure silver have been discovered at Arizona weighing three thousand five hundred pounds (?)
Many believe the name Arizona comes from the Spanish arida (dry) + zona (area). While this is not the origin, this Spanish combination influenced the form and adoption of the word in both Spanish and English.
The territory of what is now the state of Arizona was once part of the Mexican state of Sonora. The United States acquired the territory north of the Gila River during the Mexican-American War of 1846–48 and the area south of the river in the Gadsen Purchase of 1854.
Sources:
Everett-Heath, John. Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names, sixth ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2020. Oxfordreference.com.
Harder, Kelsie B. Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names: United States and Canada. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
“Tohono O'odham (Papago) Literature.” Indigenouspeople.net, 2019.
“Later from Mexico and California.” New Orleans Weekly Delta, 23 June 1849, 5. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Photo credit: David Wilton, 2018.