Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
U.S. state, the region is traditionally said to have been named by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano when he passed through in 1524, based on an imagined similarity between modern Block Island and the Greek Isle of Rhodes. More likely from Roodt Eylandt, the name Dutch explorer Adriaen Block gave to Block Island c.1614, literally "red island," so called for the color of its cliffs. Under this theory, the name was altered by 17c. English settlers by influence of the Greek island name (see Rhodes), and then extended to the mainland part of the colony. Block Island later (by 1685) was renamed for the Dutch explorer.
Wikipedia
Rhode Island , officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the eighth least populous, and the second most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states, following New Jersey. Its official name is also the longest of any state in the Union. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound. The state also shares a short maritime border with New York.
On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, and was the fourth to ratify the Articles of Confederation on February 9, 1778 among the newly sovereign states. It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution, and initially refused to ratify it. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th and last state to ratify the Constitution.
Rhode Island's official nickname is "The Ocean State", a reference to the fact that the state has several large bays and inlets that amount to about 14% of its total area. Rhode Island covers , of which are land.
- redirect Aquidneck Island
Rhode Island is a constituent state in the United States, officially titled the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Rhode Island may also refer to:
- Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a former British colony in North America.
- Aquidneck Island, officially named Rhode Island, part of the U.S. state and the source of its name
- University of Rhode Island
- Rhodes, the Greek island
- Road Island, an album by Ambrosia
Usage examples of "rhode island".
Others (such as the Sign of the Half Moon in Newport, Rhode Island) were dives.
I'll thank the Rhode Island vermin for this much: They're forcing you to leave, and to leave right now.
And perhaps he'll know something else as well: how a woman who runs a flower shop and greenhouse in Central Falls, Rhode Island could have known my address.
Knowing nothing of armed ships, he made himself expert, and would call his work on the naval committee the pleasantest part of his labors, in part because it brought him in contact with one of the singular figures in Congress, Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, who was nearly as old as Franklin and always wore his broad-brimmed Quaker hat in the chamber.
One student - an elderly eccentric of Providence, Rhode Island, who had enjoyed a long and close correspondence with Carter - had a still more elaborate theory, and believed that Carter had not only returned to boyhood, but achieved a further liberation, roving at will through the prismatic vistas of boyhood dream.
When it mounts, she is the voluble Eliza Bowen of Providence, Rhode Island.
A hobo for much of his life, he died in luxury in the Ernest Hemingway Suite of the writers' retreat Xanadu in the summer resort village of Point Zion, Rhode Island.