Vancouver

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A major seaport city on the southwestern coast of Canada in the province of British Columbia ; an island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington state ; a city in southwestern Washington state across the river from Portland ; a surname honoring the English navigator George Vancouver
2. A large Pacific coastal city in British Columbia, western Canada ; a large island lying off the Pacific shore of Washington state ; a river city in the southwest of Washington state in the United States ; a family name borne by the eighteenth-century English explorer George Vancouver
3. Canadian port city on the Pacific coast of British Columbia ; Pacific island near the Washington state shoreline ; American city in southwest Washington state beside the Columbia River ; a name associated with the British navigator George Vancouver

Etymology: The name "Vancouver" started as a Dutch family name taken from a town. Its root is "Coevorden," a place in the Netherlands whose name meant roughly "the place where cows ford the river," built from "koe" (cow) and "voorden" (a ford). A family that came from there became known as "van Coevorden," meaning "from Coevorden," and over generations that surname shifted into the form we know. The English explorer George Vancouver, who charted the northwestern Pacific coast of North America during an expedition from 1791 to 1794, bore this family name. Places later named after him carried the surname onward. The city in British Columbia, the island off Washington's Pacific shore, and the river city in southwest Washington all took their names from him, so a single Dutch cattle crossing ended up on the map of North America.