Oregon

Origin

From earlier Ouragon, likely corruption of Spanish orejón (“big ears”), probably describing the banks of the Columbia River, although this remains uncertain. Multiple theories of further origins persist, usually an ultimate derivation from a Native American language: * A clipping of French Ouariconsint, itself a corruption of Ouisconsin(k), allegedly from Algonquin meskousing (“it lies in red, Wisconsin”). * Corruption of French ouragan (“hurricane”) * Borrowing from Abenaki wligen (“good”), cf. Algonquin wauregan (“beautiful”) * Borrowing from Shoshone ogoe (“river”) + paanangkwa (“west”) * Borrowing from Chinook Jargon ulakan (“candlefish”) See Wikipedia article on the toponym Oregon for more information.