Harrisburg

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The capital city of the state of Pennsylvania, located on the Susquehanna River in the eastern part of the United States
2. A city in the eastern United States that serves as the seat of government for Pennsylvania, situated along the Susquehanna River
3. The state capital of Pennsylvania, a river city on the Susquehanna in the northeastern part of the American mainland

Etymology: Harrisburg is a place name, and its history is a plain one: it combines a personal name with a common German-derived element. The first part honors John Harris Sr., a fur trader and ferry operator who settled on the Susquehanna River in what is now Pennsylvania. The second part, "-burg," is the familiar suffix meaning "fortified town" or "town," which appears in countless German and Dutch place names and reached English through the many settlers of Pennsylvania who spoke German. The city took its name when it was laid out as the seat of a new capital. Harris's settlement, founded on the riverbank where he had established his ferry, grew into a town, and when Pennsylvania chose a state capital, the place was named after him in the same pattern that gave the state many other place names honoring founders and officials.