Kansan

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A person who was born in or lives in the Midwestern American state of Kansas
2. Someone native to or residing in the U.S. state of Kansas, known for its prairie landscape
3. An individual associated with Kansas, the Great Plains state in the central United States

Etymology: Kansas itself is named after the Kansa (or Kaw) people, whose name the state took and then passed on to the people who live there. The word "Kansan" is a simple formation: the state name "Kansas" with the suffix "-an" attached. That suffix has a long pedigree. It came into English through Old French from the Latin "-anus," which was itself built from the Proto-Italic "-anos" and ultimately from a much older Indo-European ending, and English has used it for centuries to mark a person or thing belonging to a place or group, as in "American" or "Lutheran." The word is therefore less a coinage than a standard application of a familiar pattern, so its history is largely the history of that ending. Its use in English as a demonym for residents of the state follows the same method: take the name of the place, add "-an," and the result names its inhabitants.