oregones

• Oregonian

Oregonian.

Oregonian, native or inhabitant of Oregon.

( oregón [oregón] < orejón? [orexón] < Latin auriculam 'little ear' and the Spanish augmentative -ón)

   The thirty-third state admitted to the Union in 1850. Hendrickson's contention that the model for Oregon may be the "Spanish oregones, meaning 'big-earred men' and referring to Indians who lived there" is unlikely, since the form could only result from a scribal error ({g} for {j})in Spanish and a spelling pronunciation in English. More likely sources are the other possibilities he points out: (1) "the Algonquian Wauregan (beautiful water) for the Colorado River" or (2) "an unclear Indian name possibly meaning 'place of the beaver' that was misspelled on an early French map." Thus Oregon is probably not a Hispanicism.