savannah n.

also savanna, "treeless plain," 1550s, from Spanish sabana, earlier zavana "treeless plain," (Oviedo, 1535) from Taino (Arawakan) zabana. In U.S. use, especially in Florida, "a tract of low-lying marshy ground" (1670s). Savannah-grass is by 1756.

port city in U.S. state of Georgia, from savana, the name applied to the Native Americans in that part of the coast by early European explorers, perhaps from a self-designation of the Shawnee Indians, or from the topographical term (see savannah).