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Glite Dictionary
Little Rock

Little Rock

73 2.4
A city that is the capital of Arkansas on the Arkansas River
  • proper noun
  • /ˈlɪtəl rɑk/
: Little Rock
  • The next school year, Governor Faubus closed all Little Rock high schools in a last-ditch effort to avoid integration.
  • Little Rock, Arkansas
  • Little Rock, AR
  • Little Rock Central High

I got them all off of YouTube, and then I I went to the Joker in Little Rock, and his name's Kev.

Examples

  • I'm calling you from Little Rock, I'm with Aunt Mary, so...

    Boy Erased (2018)

  • Send federal troops to Little Rock?

    The Butler (2013)

  • We're gonna have to go to Little Rock.

    Daddy and Them (2001)

  • This little town outside of Little Rock.

    After Sex (2007)

  • You see, when my father moved to Little Rock from Toronto...

    Daddy and Them (2001)

  • I grew up in Little Rock, AR and I was born the year that this photograph was taken.

  • Last November, President Clinton awarded the Little Rock Nine the Congressional Gold Medal.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The troop convoy is entering Little Rock to take up positions at Central High School.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • I have today issued an executive order directing the use of troops under federal authority to aid in the execution of federal law at Little Rock, Arkansas.

    The Butler (2013)

  • All moved away for a while, at least, and Little Rock tried to move on.

Surface Forms

Little Rock main

Morphology

Little + Rock

Little Rock is a proper name for a city and its meaning (the capital of Arkansas) is not compositionally derived from the constituents 'little' and 'rock'; a B1 learner who knows those words would likely interpret it as 'a small stone' rather than as a place name. Place names are largely arbitrary/lexicalized and thus unpredictable from the parts, so the MWE is not transparently interpretable from its words.

Etymology

Little Rock may come from a small stone on the bank of the Arkansas River that early French explorers called 'La Petite Roche', which means little rock. That stone was a clear river marker and meeting place, so the town that grew there kept the name 'Little Rock'.