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Carson City

Carson City

1 2.5
The capital city of Nevada in the United States
  • proper noun
  • /ˈkɑːrsən ˈsɪti/
translation icon : Carson City
  • Carson City, Nev.

Examples

  • Without John Oceguera in Carson City, Nevada would not have some of the most progressive pro-equality laws in the nation.

    Blog text (28)
  • We have Pastor Pat Spearman as our Vice-Chair, who in a few weeks will be going to Carson City as the first-ever Lesbian State Senator in Nevada's history.

    Blog text (28)
  • Carson City is the capital of Carson City and is known for its historic architecture.

  • I visited Carson City last summer and enjoyed exploring its many museums.

  • The annual festival in Carson City attracts visitors from all over the state.

Surface Forms

Morphology

Carson + city

The structure Name + city is compositionally clear: a B1 learner who knows 'Carson' is a name and 'city' will infer this refers to a city called Carson. However, the detailed sense given (that it is the capital of Nevada) is encyclopedic and cannot be derived from the constituents alone, so the understanding is only partial.

Etymology

Carson City gets its name from the American explorer Kit Carson. Early settlers named the town after him when they built it by the Carson River during the Nevada silver boom, and that name stayed when it became the state's capital.