Schuylkill

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A river flowing through eastern Pennsylvania into the Delaware River near Philadelphia ; a county in eastern Pennsylvania that takes its name from that river
2. The Pennsylvania waterway that joins the Delaware near Philadelphia ; the surrounding county in the state's east that is named after this same stream
3. A stream in eastern Pennsylvania that drains into the Delaware ; an eastern Pennsylvania county bearing the river's name

Etymology: The Schuylkill River, which runs past Philadelphia, takes its name from the Dutch settlers who got there first. The second element, "kill," is the Dutch word for a creek or stream, a term that also survives in place names such as Catskill and Peekskill in New York. The first element is the harder part. The Dutch "schuil" is a plausible source, perhaps meaning "hide" or "shelter," which would give a sense of a hidden or sheltered creek, but the exact sense of the first part is not settled. What is clear is that the name is an import from Dutch rather than English. In the English-speaking world, the river's spelling and pronunciation drifted far from the original, and visitors have long been unsure how to say it.