How Idaho got its name

[underpants]

Origin of name
Idaho is the only state that was likely named as the result of a hoax (the so called "Idahoax"). In the early 1860s, when the United States Congress was considering organizing a new territory in the Rocky Mountains, eccentric lobbyist George M. Willing suggested the name "Idaho," which he claimed was derived from a Shoshone language term meaning "the sun comes from the mountains" or "gem of the mountains." Willing later claimed that he had made up the name himself<5><6>. Congress ultimately decided to name the area Colorado Territory when it was created in February 1861.

However, the name "Idaho" did not go away. The same year Congress created Colorado Territory, a county called Idaho County was created in eastern Washington Territory. The county was named after a steamship named Idaho, which was launched on the Columbia River in 1860. It is unclear whether the steamship was named before or after Willing's claim was revealed. Regardless, a portion of Washington Territory, including Idaho County, was used to create Idaho Territory in 1863.

Despite this lack of evidence for the origin of the name, many textbooks well into the 20th century repeated as fact Willing's account that the name "Idaho" derived from the Shoshone term "ee-da-how".

An excerpt from an Idaho History Textbook:
"Idaho" is a Shoshoni Indian exclamation. The word consists of three parts. The first is "Ee", which in English conveys the idea of "coming down". The second is "dah" which is the Shoshoni stem or root for both "sun" and "mountain". The third syllable, "how", denotes the exclamation and stands for just the same thing in Indian that the exclamation mark (!) does in the English language. The Shoshoni word is "Ee-dah-how", and the Indian thought thus conveyed when translated into English means, "Behold! the sun coming down the mountain".
"IDAHO in the Pacific Northwest". Barber -Martin. 1956. Caxton Printers Ltd. Library of Congress 55-5192.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho#Origin_of_name

[global1]

1. What Larry Craig Said When He Got Caught........

I - the - hoe.

[soothsayer]

2. no, craig's a slut, it was the repug in FLA who offered the dude $20 to

give the dude a hummer. HE da ho.

[Wiley50]

3. Prostitute named Ida? n/t