Why do we say "the Hague," "the Congo," and "the Bronx"?

Especially "the Bronx."

Sheer curiosity--
Thank you,
Apteryx

Hello apteryx,

Believe it or not, someone wrote an article entitled, "From the Hague
to the Bronx: Definite Articles in Place Names".  While I have not
come across the actual article, I did find a good description of it. 
As to your questions, the description says:

"Hess dispenses quickly of 'the Hague' (Den Haag) by noting that it is
an abbreviation of the full (apparently legal) name "s' Gravenhage" (a
name which will live forever in the history of linguistics), meaning
'the Count's
enclosure, or hedge.'"

"And how about the Bronx?  Just as The Hague is shortened from s'
Gravenhage, The Bronx is abbreviated from 'Borough of the Bronx
River,' an older term designating the surrounding area.  Jonas Bronck,
from whom The Bronx takes its name, would love the attention."

"Tue 27 Oct 1992 - Disc: Place-Names and Articles - Message 1: The Bronx"
LINGUIST List 3.838: Place-Names and Articles
http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/3/3-838.html

Another page claims (perhaps incorrectly) that "the Bronx" arose in a
different way:

"The area was owned by a family named Bronck, so people would say they
were going to the Broncks.  Spelling was changed to reflect the
pronunciation."

This page also observes that taking away a noun after an adjective may
result in a place name with a "the" -- thus, "the Bahamas" (from "the
Bahama Islands") and "the Philippines" (from "the Philippine
Islands").

"Article 'the' In Country Names"
E.L. Easton
http://eleaston.com/the-us.html

This phenomenon may best explain "the Bronx" and "the Congo" -- both
appear to be named for a river ("the Bronx River" and "the Congo
River").

"RE: Why THE Bronx", by Alan Jacobs (20 Jan 1998)
University of California, Davis, Law Library
http://lawlibrary.ucdavis.edu/LAWLIB/Jan98/0484.html

"Re: Non-functioning articles [was: Pet peeves]", by David Sider (19 Apr 1996)
Classics-L Archive [Department of Greek and Latin at Ohio State University]
http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/mailing_lists/CLA-L/Older/log96/9604c/9604c.231.html

Conceivably, "the Congo" might derive, at least in part, from "the
Congo Free State."  However, I didn't find any pages mentioning that
possibility.

- justaskscott


I used the following search terms in various combinations on Google:

"the bronx"
"the hague"
"the congo"
"the broncks"
"s gravenhage"
"the congo free state"
"definite article"

Terrific, justaskscott--all questions answered, or close enough so I'm
no longer wondering.

Thank you,
Apteryx

And of course there is always that expensive piece of property, The Donald.

Another great question, Apteryx.

Have you ever wondered about The Orange Free State?

Was it because Oranges were free?

Or because the place was free of Oranges?

All the Very Best

Bryan

This is especially bad with highway names in California.  "The 101",
"The 10", etc...

Wasn't The Congo The Belgian Congo?

THE BELGIUM CONGO

To PB 
It relates to the colour  and cost its taxpayers nothing.

Yes, it was the Belgian Congo, and I used to wonder about that too,
and the Orange Free State as well.  Oddly, even though my father spent
half a year in the OFS while on sabbatical, I never asked him about
the name.

There are lots of other peculiar uses of definite articles, and some
of them are just a normal kind of truncation or ellipsis such as we
see in everyday speech--omitting the noun and just using the adjective
as a stand-in (No, I don't want the yellow one--hand me the blue. 
Youth is wasted on the young.  I don't want to be the last.  Ethelred
the Unready.).  My question here was about specific place names. 
Thanks, everyone, for your comments.

Apteryx

Ever notice that British patients are "in hospital," but American
patients are "in the hospital?" That one puzzles me. Americans say
that people are "in jail," "in school," or "in court," but when they
get ill, they are "in THE hospital."

>tnsdan-ga wrote:
>This is especially bad with highway names in California.  "The 101",
>"The 10", etc...
That's only in southern California.  In northern California it's "101"
etc. Go figure.

That's such a great thought Pink, I've never thought about our
(American's) strange use of the word "the".  It is kinda random.

One thought that comes to mind is that if I'm talking about a place I
would go where everyone would assume they knew why I was going there
then I don't say "the".  When I go to court then everyone would assume
I'm on trial, but if I were to say I'm going to the court then I think
people would think there must be another reason I have to go to the
court.
"I am in school" would suggest that I am a student in the school.  But
"I am in the school" suggests that I have another purpose for being in
the school.

Just a random thought I had.  Perhaps I'm way off base here :)