Tallahassee

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The capital city of the state of Florida, located in the northern part of the state near the Georgia border
2. A city in northwestern Florida that serves as the seat of the state government and legislature
3. The southern United States city that is the political capital of Florida, known for its government buildings and universities

Etymology: The name comes from the Muscogee (Creek) language, where "tvlvhasse" (pronounced roughly "talahaassi") joins "etvlw," meaning "town," with "vhassē," meaning "old." The result is roughly "old town," a name that points to a settlement already long established when Europeans arrived in the region. The Creek word is a close relative of the name "Tulsa," which probably shares the same or a similar root. Florida's capital took the name as a place name, not a coined word, so its meaning is about the site rather than an abstraction. Speakers of Muscogee gave the name to a town in what is now the Florida panhandle, and English-speaking settlers borrowed it as it was spoken, which is why the spelling of the city sounds more like its Creek source than most American place names do.