Alaskan.

Etymology: < Alaska, the name of a state in the extreme north-west of the continent of North America, consisting of a large land mass (including the Alaska Peninsula in the south-west), the Aleutian Islands, and a strip of coastal territory reaching south along the Pacific coast. Compare Russian Aljaska (1762 or earlier; forms attested in the 18th cent. include Alakšak, Alaxšak, Alaskak, Alakšan, Alaxšan, Alakša, Alaška, Aljaksa), initially denoting only the Alaska Peninsula. Compare also ( < Russian) German †Alaschka, †Alaksa, †Alaksu, †Aljaska (1774 or earlier), which sometimes acted as an intermediary between Russian and English (subsequently reborrowed < English as Alaska, the name of the state of Alaska).The names in English and Russian probably derive < Eastern Aleut alaxsxix̣ mainland (with reference to the Alaska Peninsula), lit. ‘the object toward which the action of the sea is directed’, a derivative of the base alag- sea. Variants of the place name include the following: α. 17 Alachshak, 17 Alagshak, 17-18 Alakshak. β. 17 Alaksu. γ. 17-18 Alaschka, 17-18 Alashka, 17-18 Alaxa, 17- Alaska. δ. 18 Aliaska, 18 Aliaksa, 18 Alyaska. Compare the following earlier attestations of the place name in English contexts:1774 tr. J. von Stæhlin Map New Northern Archipel. Alaschka I[sland].1780 W. Coxe Acct. Russ. Discov. 167 Beyond it [sc. the Aleutian Island of Unimak] the inhabitants said there was a large tract of country called Alashka, of which they did not know the boundaries.1784 in J. Cook & J. King Voy. Pacific III. 372 But here, as well as on the continent of Alaska, they met with so warm a reception..that they never afterward ventured so far. Alaska first became known to Europeans in the course of a Russian expedition led by V. Bering in 1741. The territory came under formal Russian administration in the first half of the 19th cent.; it was purchased by the United States in 1867, and became a state in 1959.