Etymology

Lake Superior

Today it means: A lake in Canada and the United States: the largest of the Great Lakes, the largest freshwater lake in the world by area, and the third largest freshwater lake in the world by volume. Full definition →

French lac Supérieur
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The story

  1. French · calque oflac Supérieur“uppermost lake”
  2. English todayLake Superior

lake + superior. Calque of French lac Supérieur (“uppermost lake”), from lac+supérieur, named by 17th-century French explorers for its location as the furthest upstream and highest in altitude of the Great Lakes. By surface analysis, a proprialization from superior.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.