Saipan

From Chamorro Saipan. A folk etymology connects it with the Carolinian for “empty place”.

• IPA^(key): /saɪˈpæn/
• enPR: sī-pǎnʹ, sī-pänʹ

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Saipan

1. An island, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands
   • [1748, Richard Walter, A Voyage Round the World, in the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. by George Anson, Eſq; Commander in Chief of a Squadron of His Majeſty's Ships, ſent upon an Expedition to the South-Seas.‎, London: J. and P. Knapton, →OCLC, page 337:

     Theſe Iſlands were diſcovered by Magellan in the year 1521 ; and by the account given of the two he firſt fell in with, it ſhould ſeem that they were the Iſlands of Saypan and Tinian ; for they are deſcribed in his expedition as very beautiful Iſlands, and as lying between 15 and 16 degrees of North latitude. Theſe characteriſtics are particularly applicable to the two above mentioned places ; for the pleaſing appearance of Tinian hath occaſioned the Spaniards to give it the additional name of Buenaviſta ; and Saypan, which is in the latitude of 15° : 22' North, affords no contemptible proſpedt when ſeen from the ſea, as may be ſufficiently evinced from the annexed view of its North Weſt ſide, taken at three leagues diſtance.]

• “Saipan”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “Saipan, pn.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “Saipan”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “Saipan”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “Saipan” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.

• apians, paisan