*SET-U

English word origin

Etymology of Idaho

Uncertain; possibly from Plains Apache ídaahȩ́ (“Comanche”), though the Oxford English Dictionary states that the development of the state’s name from that word remains undocumented. The name Idaho was said to have been

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In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗
name

A state in the western United States. Capital and largest city: Boise. · An unincorporated community in Pike County, Ohio, United States, named for Idaho Territory. · University of Idaho

noun

In full Idaho potato: a variety of potato grown in Idaho, especially the Russet Burbank.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Uncertain; possibly from Plains Apache ídaahȩ́ (“Comanche”), though the Oxford English Dictionary states that the development of the state’s name from that word remains undocumented. The name Idaho was said to have been considered around 1860 for what was eventually called the Colorado Territory (now the state of Colorado) in 1861, and in 1863 was given to Idaho County (now part of Idaho); the county was named after a steamship launched on the Columbia River in 1860. The eccentric political lobbyist George Maurice Willing, Jr. (c. 1829 – 1874) claimed to have coined the name after a girl named Ida, though saying it was a Shoshoni term meaning “gem of the mountains” (no such term exists), but evidence suggests that there was use of the name in Colorado pre-dating Willing’s arrival in the West in 1859. The common noun (“type of potato”) is derived from the name of the state.

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

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Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for Idaho →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source provenance
Source SHA-256
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Import run
73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID
w-SWRhaG8