Maryland
- 1A state of the United States in the mid-Atlantic region, named for Queen Mary; its capital is Annapolis and its largest city is Baltimore.
Maryland borders the Chesapeake Bay, which shapes much of its economy.
Thousands of commuters travel from Maryland into Washington, D.C., each day.
Note
The queen behind the name was born in France. She was Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, and the "Mary" is the English form of her name. The word itself is a plain English compound, Mary plus -land, built like many "land of" names. Several other places called Maryland, from a New York town to a London neighborhood, take their name from the state rather than from the queen.
- 2A colony of England from 1632 to 1707, then of Great Britain until 1776, covering roughly the area of the present-day state.
The planters of Maryland shipped their tobacco harvests to merchants in London.
In 1776, Maryland joined the other colonies in declaring independence from Britain.
Note
Historians use the name for the colony that the state grew out of. Its history spans two sovereigns: it was a colony of England from 1632, then of Great Britain from 1707, when England became part of that larger kingdom, until independence in 1776. In writing about the period, "colonial Maryland" or "the colony of Maryland" keeps it distinct from the present state, whose borders it only roughly matched.
- 3The main campus of the University of Maryland, located in College Park.
Maryland defeated its rival in overtime on Saturday night.
She transferred to Maryland to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering.
- 4A town in New York; named for the state.
- 5A suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
- 6A neighbourhood in the borough of Newham, Greater London, England; named for the state (OS grid ref TQ3984).
- 7A village in Monmouthshire, Wales.
- 8A deserted village on Brownsea Island in Dorset, England; named for the wife of the founder (OS grid ref SZ0188).
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Origin
Formed from "Mary" and the suffix "-land," the name honors Henrietta Maria of France, the wife of Charles I of England.