name originally applied to the lake, perhaps from Old Ojibwa (Algonquian) *meshi-gami "big lake." The spelling is French. Organized as a U.S. territory 1805, admitted as a state 1837. A resident might be a Michigander (1848) or a Michiganian (1813).
State in the northern United States bordered on the north by Lake Superior; on the east by Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Ontario, Canada; on the south by Ohio and Indiana; and on the west by Wisconsin and Lake Michigan. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit.