Of Arizona’s name

“The whole area was soon known by the Papago word, and in time, the name was give to an entire state to the north,” Comeaux said.

Historian Thomas E. Sheridan, author of “Arizona, a History” agreed that the discovery of silver brought Spaniards to the mining camp Arizonac.

In his book Sheridan wrote, “the name may have come from two Piman words, ‘ali’ and ‘shonak,’ which mean ‘small springs.’ “Alternatively, he said, the name may have come from “prominent Basques in the area who may have called the camp ‘valuable rocky places’ (arritza onac) or ‘good oak’ (aritz onac).”

Marshall Trimble, Arizona’s official historian, confirmed that there are several versions of the origin of the word “Arizona.”

Ali-shonak” is a “Tohono O'odham word meaning ‘Place of the Small Springs,’ “Trimble said. “Ali Shonak didn't roll off the Spanish tongues easi- ly, so they corrupted it to Arizonac and when the Americans arrived more than a century later, they corrupted it again to ‘Arizona.’ "

Trimble said that the late Don Garate of the Tumacacori National Park claimed that Arizona derives from a Basque word.

According to Garate’s “Arizona A Land of Good Oak Trees,” the state’s name is Basque with a straight forward meaning.

“Ariz” is oak tree, “on” is good and “a” is the, and it means the good oak tree, according to Garate.

But there are flaws in that interpretation, Trimble said.

“Once we all agree the term was used when the Spaniards ruled, then it would have been Zona Arida, noun first, adjective following,” Trimble said. “In addition, the spot where the (silver) mine was located was at an elevation above 5,000 feet. Five varieties of oak trees grow there, and they do not grow in an arid climate.”