Passaic

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A river flowing through northern New Jersey into Newark Bay ; a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, located along that river
2. The waterway running across northern New Jersey toward Newark Bay ; a municipality in Passaic County on the banks of that same river
3. A stream in the northeastern United States that empties into Newark Bay ; a New Jersey city in Passaic County named after the river

Etymology: The Passaic River is named after the Lenape people who lived along it, and the name is generally understood to derive from a Lenape word for "valley" or "the valley," though the exact Lenape form and its meaning are debated among scholars. Dutch and English colonists recorded the name in many spellings before it settled into the modern form, a common pattern for Native place names that passed through European hands. The city of Passaic, on the river's banks in Passaic County, took its name from the waterway rather than the reverse. Because the river itself was named first, the town inherited a word whose original sense was simply a place in the landscape, not a person or a founder's claim.