Etymology of Pittsburgh

The name of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has a complicated history. Pittsburgh is one of the few U.S. cities or towns to be spelled with an h at the end of a burg suffix.

Pittsburgh was named in honor of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, often referred to as William Pitt the Elder to distinguish him from his son William Pitt the Younger.

The suffix burgh is the Scots language and Scottish English cognate of the English language borough, which has other cognates in words and place names in several Indo-European languages. Historically, this morpheme was used in place names to describe a location as being defensible, such as a hill, a fort, or a fortified settlement.

Pittsburgh (originally Fort Duquesne) was captured by British forces during the Seven Years War. The earliest known reference to the new name of the settlement is in a letter sent from General John Forbes to William Pitt the Elder, dated 27 November 1758, notifying Pitt that his name had been given to the place. In that letter, the spelling is given as "Pittsbourgh." As a Scotsman, General Forbes probably pronounced the name /ˈpɪtsbrə, -bərə/ (PITS-brə or PITS-bə-rə), similar to the pronunciation of "Edinburgh" as a Scotsman would say it: ⁱ/ˈɛdɪnbrə, -bərə/ (ED-in-brə or ED-in-bə-rə).

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