Min·ne·so·ta
(mĭn′ĭ-sō′tə) Abbr. MN or Minn. A state of the northern United States bordering on Lake Superior and on Manitoba and Ontario, Canada. It was admitted as the 32nd state in 1858. Explored by the French in the mid-1600s, the area became part of the United States through the Treaty of Paris (1783) and the Louisiana Purchase (1803). St. Paul is the capital and Minneapolis the largest city.
Min′ne·so′tan adj. & n.
Word History: Minnesotans may tell you that Minnesota in Lakota means "10,000 lakes," and they may attempt to prove it by pointing to the motto on their license plates. Minnesota in Lakota actually means "cloudy water," an accurate description of the Minnesota River. Another popular etymology of a similar-sounding Indian name has Minnehaha meaning "laughing waters." It doesn't; it means "waterfalls." The misinterpretation began around 1849 when European settlers, not unreasonably, assumed that the -haha was an imitation of laughter just as in English, and hence that minnehaha meant "laughing waters." The folk etymology caught on and wound up in 1855 as the name of the heroine in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Song of Hiawatha.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Minnesotan
(ˌmɪnɪˈsəʊtən)n
(Placename) a native or inhabitant of Minnesota
adj
(Placename) of or relating to Minnesota or its inhabitants
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
Minnesotan - a native or resident of Minnesota