Rhode Island

Meaning

Proper Noun

• state US (country), formerly officially State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
• The official name of Aquidneck Island.

Origin

• Originally spelled Rode-Island. From unstandardized Early Modern Dutch Roode Eylant, after a description of Aquidneck Island given by navigator Adriaen Block: een rodlich Eylande (Modern Dutch een roodlijk eiland).
• Modern spelling due to influence from Rhodes, as Giovanni da Verrazzano had once likened an isle somewhere about the Narragansett Bay to it, though the precise identity of the isle he was referring to remains unknown. The earliest spelling showing influence from this is Rhod-Island.