Jack de Selby once wrote that California's mountains should not be referred to as "the Sierras."
De Selby's attempts to change how people talk seldom succeed, but I became curious enough to check check out his claim.
"Sierra" is Spanish for a carpenter's saw. By extension, I suppose, it is also Spanish for a sawtooth mountain range in Spain.
"Nevada" means snowy.
"Sierra Nevada" means snowy, sawtooth range. Range is singular. The plural (if you saw two ranges) would be Sierras Nevada.
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