Detroit
Does this word have a general definition?
A historical map of the Detroit River, showing the two lakes it connects.
The word “detroit” is French for “narrow strip of water” or “strait.”
Why I Looked It Up
Annie and I spent some time at Detroit Lake, Minnesota. Clearly, I associated the word with the major American city, but when I looked it up, I found there are a lot of American place names with the word “detroit” in them.
The city of Detroit is named for the Detroit River. The river was named by the French as “The River of the Strait,” as it connects Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie.
I looked up the satellite view of several of the other places named Detroit. I couldn’t find much in common – several of them weren’t even anywhere near a body of water.
Detroit Lake in Minnesota is apparently so-named because it has a narrower portion which connects two larger sub-bodies of water.
Incidentally, I checked some pronunciations, and in French, “detroit” is pronounced “deh-TWA.”