Okay, so you spend the morning looking at pictures of traffic through the Dakotas and things get stuck in your head. Things like the Wyoming license plate, and the word itself–Wyoming–and how cool it is, and how you really want more words that start Wy, and then…well, then you write Wyoming instead of Montana. I’m correcting the original text, but just in case anyone’s wondering why my road trip stopped with Wyoming, it’s because I meant to write Massachusetts to MONTANA.
Missoula, to be exact. At which point it becomes a train trip. But that’s secret. Shhhh.
December 11, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Hehehehe!
December 11, 2013 at 9:28 pm
Hey! No laughing at the woman who can’t remember…wait, where was I?
December 12, 2013 at 7:26 am
Wyoming is a native Indian word meaning “At the big river flat” or something similar. The online etymology diction (http://www.etymonline.com) says it’s from the word chwewamink “at the big river flat,” from /xw-/ “big” + /-e:wam-/ “river flat” + /-enk/ “place.” How “chwewamink” morphed into “Wyoming” is beyond me. Anyway, the word isn’t from any of the plains Indian tribes, but from Algonquin. Settlers moving west transplanted the name from the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania.
December 12, 2013 at 9:58 am
And look, it’s my favorite etymology dude! You couldn’t resist a good wy word, could you? 🙂