What's the origin of the name "Canada"?

Search: Cañada, canada

Why: On I Love Charts (from Derek Watkins):

Name That Waterway

Is that a run, a kill or a fork? Or is it actually just a regular old stream? When it comes to naming waterways, it all seems to depend on your geography.

This map, created by designer Derek Watkins, color-codes the waterways of the U.S. by names they’re given. As Watkins explains, these names have their own name: toponyms, which are general descriptions of geographic features. The degree of geographical concentration of certain name types is pretty striking. Brooks tend to stay in New England, and bayous are primarily in the Louisiana-Mississippi area. Cañadas, rios and arroyos are concentrated in the Southwest. Branches seem to have the widest territory, covering much of the southeastern corner of the country.

Say wha?

Answer: It comes from a First Nations word kanata (or canada) that means "settlement," "village," or "land"!

Interestingly (just kidding; I don't even know why I'm posting this), the Spanish word cañada ("glen") is etymologically unrelated to Canada, which looks (to me) like the exact same word. I guess they are homonyms.

This is Corbett's Glen in New York:

Source: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

The More You Know: More fun with words!

The words bow and bough are interesting because there are two meanings associated with a single pronunciation and spelling (the weapon and the knot); there are two meanings with two different pronunciations (the knot and the act of bending at the waist), and there are two distinct meanings sharing the same sound but different spellings (bow, the act of bending at the waist, and bough, the branch of a tree). In addition, it has several related but distinct meanings – a bent line is sometimes called a 'bowed' line, reflecting its similarity to the weapon. Thus, even according to the most restrictive definitions, various pairs of sounds and meanings of bow and bough are homonyms, homographs, homophones, heterophones, heterographs, and are polysemous.

• bow – a long wooden stick with horse hair that is used to play certain string instruments such as the violin
• bow – to bend forward at the waist in respect (e.g. "bow down")
• bow – the front of the ship (e.g. "bow and stern")
• bow – the weapon which shoots arrows (e.g. "bow and arrow")
• bow – a kind of tied ribbon (e.g. bow on a present, a bowtie)
• bow – to bend outward at the sides (e.g. a "bow-legged" cowboy)
• bough – a branch on a tree. (e.g. "when the bough breaks...")
• bō – a long staff, usually made of tapered hard wood or bamboo
• beau – a male paramour