Duluth

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A port city on the western tip of Lake Superior in the northeastern corner of the state of Minnesota in the United States
2. The industrial lakeside city in northeastern Minnesota that sits at the western end of Lake Superior near the Canadian border
3. A city in the state of Minnesota in the United States, located on the shore of Lake Superior at its western end

Etymology: Duluth, the port city on the western tip of Lake Superior in Minnesota, takes its name from Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, a French soldier and explorer who traveled the western Great Lakes region in the late seventeenth century. The city's name is a tribute to him, and the word itself is simply the anglicized form of his surname, with the "Sieur du Lhut" title left behind. Its story is therefore less about a change in meaning than about a man whose name was pressed onto a place.