Arizonaite

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A native or resident of the state of Arizona
2. Someone who lives in or comes from Arizona
3. A person born in or inhabiting the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona

Etymology: Arizonaite is a mineral, and its name is a plain geographic label: it was named for the U.S. state of Arizona, where the mineral was identified. Mineral names built this way, from a place, are common in mineralogy, and the naming follows a standard convention rather than a story about a person. The state's own name is less certain. It is generally traced to a Spanish rendering of an O'odham term, often given as "alĭ ṣonak," usually glossed as "small spring" or "place of the small spring." The exact O'odham source and meaning are debated among scholars, so that gloss should be read as likely rather than settled. The mineral name therefore carries a chain of borrowing: an indigenous place-name, filtered through Spanish, adopted as a state name, and then attached to a rock-forming mineral.

Synonyms: Arizonan