Michigander in Mass

So I've known for a while that people from Cambridge are Cantabrigians. But I never knew why. Well now I do. First, you need to know that the English city of Cambridge was formed on the shores of the River Cam. Add a bridge over it, and you get Cambridge. But still, whence Cantab?

Well it turns out that the River Cam, which is a tributary of the Great Ouse, used to be called the Granta (in fact, it's still called the Granta in a few parts). Cambridge, thus, started out calling itself Grantebrycge (brycge I presume being the Old English word for bridge). This evolved into Grentabrige and then to Cantebrigge. The English, as they are prone to do (and New Englanders have inherited this trait), altered and shortened the pronunication to Cambridge, and the spelling followed suit (which doesn't always happen there or here, hence Worcester = "Woostah", etc. etc.).

But its modern spelling and pronunciation came too late for the word that was created to describe people from the town (and, more specifically, the town's university): the pseudo-Latin "cantabrigiensis," meaning I think roughly "one who is from Cantabrigia," a Medieval Latin alternative spelling of the town.

Hence the "Cantab Lounge," "Cantabrigians," etc.