| Texas
is a large state in the South and Southwest regions of the United States of
America. With an area of 268,581 square miles (695,622 km²) and a
population of 22.8 million, Texas is the second-largest U.S. state in both
area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous 48 states in
area. The state name derives from a word in a Caddoan language of the
Hasinai, táyshaʔ, tecas (or tejas, as the Spaniards spelled it),
meaning "those who are friends," friends or allies. Spanish
explorers mistakenly applied the word to the people and their location.
Texas joined the United States in 1845 as the 28th state, after nearly 10
years as the Republic of Texas—an independent country. Texas
historically had a "larger than life" reputation, especially in
cowboy films. The term "Texas sized" is used to describe
something larger than average, and large geographic areas are often
described in terms of the size of Texas. Texas is also home of Texas size portions
at meal time. And remember, "Don't mess with Texas". |
Copyright 2006 Internet Brands, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".