Mississippi

Mis·sis·sip·pi  (ms-sp) Abbr. MS or Miss.

A state of the southeast United States. It was admitted as the 20th state in 1817. The first settlers in the region (1699) were French, and the area became part of Louisiana. It passed to the British (1763-1779) and then to the Spanish before being ceded to the United States in 1783. The Mississippi Territory, organized in 1798 and enlarged in 1804 and 1813, also included the present state of Alabama. Jackson is the capital and the largest city. Population: 2,920,000.

Word History: In a letter dated August 27, 1863, Abraham Lincoln wrote, "the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea," referring to General Grant's capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The sentence has all the simplicity and nobility of Lincoln's style, but Mississippi doesn't mean "Father of Waters." This colorful but false phrase first appears in print in 1812, is repeated by James Fenimore Cooper in his novel The Prairie (1827), and thereafter was in common circulation. Our name for the river has a different source. In 1666 French explorers somewhere in the western Great Lakes region recorded Messipi as their rendering of the Ojibwa name for the river they had come upon, misi-sipi, "big river." The French took the name with them as they went down Big River to its delta, and it superseded all the other names for Big River used by local Indian tribes and by earlier Spanish explorers. In 1798 Congress applied the Ojibwa name of the river to the territory of Mississippi, newly organized from lands inhabited by the Natchez, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. Still, "Father of Waters" is a happy error: "The Big River again goes unvexed to the sea" just doesn't have the right Lincolnian ring.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	Mississippi - a major North American river and the chief river of the United States; rises in northern Minnesota and flows southward into the Gulf of Mexico Mississippi River U.S.A., United States, United States of America, US, USA, America, the States, U.S. - North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776
	2.	Mississippi - a state in the Deep South on the gulf of Mexico; one of the Confederate States during the American Civil War Magnolia State, MS siege of Vicksburg, Vicksburg - a decisive battle in the American Civil War (1863); after being besieged for nearly seven weeks the Confederates surrendered U.S.A., United States, United States of America, US, USA, America, the States, U.S. - North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776 Gulf States - a region of the United States comprising states bordering the Gulf of Mexico; Alabama and Florida and Louisiana and Mississippi and Texas Confederacy, Confederate States, Confederate States of America, Dixie, Dixieland, South - the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861 South - the region of the United States lying to the south of the Mason-Dixon line Deep South - the southeastern region of the United States: South Carolina and Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana; prior to the American Civil War all these states produced cotton and permitted slavery Biloxi - an old town in southern Mississippi on the Gulf of Mexico Columbus - a town in eastern Mississippi near the border with Alabama Greenville - a town in western Mississippi on the Mississippi River to the north of Vicksburg Hattiesburg - a town in southeast Mississippi capital of Mississippi, Jackson - capital of the state of Mississippi on the Pearl River Meridian - a town in eastern Mississippi Natchez - a town in southwest Mississippi on the Mississippi River Tupelo - a town in northeast Mississippi Vicksburg - a town in western Mississippi on bluffs above the Mississippi River to the west of Jackson; focus of an important campaign during the American Civil War as the Union fought to control the Mississippi River and so to cut the Confederacy into two halves Pearl River - a river in Mississippi that flows southward to the Gulf of Mexico Tombigbee, Tombigbee River - a river that rises in northeastern Mississippi and flows southward through western Alabama to join the Alabama River and form the Mobile River Yazoo, Yazoo River - a river that rises in west central Mississippi and flows southwest to empty into the Mississippi River above Vicksburg