Massachusetts

 

  

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was named after the indigenous population, the Massachusett, whose name can be segmented as mass-adchu-s-et, where mass- is “large”, -adchu- is “hill”, -s- is a diminutive suffix meaning “small”, and -et is a locative suffix, identifying a place. It has been translated as “at the great hill,” “by the many small hills” “at the little big hill,” or “at the range of hills,” referring to the Blue Hills, or in particular, Great Blue Hill, located on the boundary of Milton and Canton, to the southwest of Boston.