Letter to the Editor: Origin of “the Bronx”

I’ve been enjoying Beth Quinn’s articles about our ever-evolving American English language. (Did I correctly use the hyphen Ms. Quinn?) In response to one of your readers’ annoyance with the Bronx being “the only borough that requires a definite article,” there’s a simple explanation. In 1639 Jonas Bronck emigrated from Denmark to New York, bought a 500-acre track of land on the mainland and named it Bronck’s Land. When people would visit they’d simply say, “We’re going up to the Broncks.” It’s no slight on the other four boroughs, so fuhgedda bout it.

John Curtin
Milford, originally from da Bronx