Tennessean

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A person who was born in or lives in the American state of Tennessee, located in the southeastern United States
2. Someone native to or residing in Tennessee, the southern U.S. state known for Nashville and the Great Smoky Mountains
3. An inhabitant of the United States state of Tennessee, often identified by regional ties to its cities and landscape

Etymology: Tennessee takes its name from the Cherokee town of Tanasi, which stood on the Little Tennessee River in what is now eastern Tennessee. In the 1700s, British colonists and traders, who were already calling the region by that name, applied it to the territory, and the name "Tennessee" was later extended to the river itself. Some sources also trace an element of the name to a Cherokee word for a town or settlement, but the connection to Tanasi is the one most histories rely on. "Tennessean" is a straightforward formation: the place name plus the suffix "-an," which English uses to make nouns and adjectives meaning "a person from" or "relating to" a place, as in "American" or "Mexican." The noun and adjective forms appeared in print in the early 1800s, shortly after Tennessee became a state in 1796.