The apostrophe is because the French like to run words together. So the word of (de) which is pronounced more like “duh” than “day” gets shortened to “d’” and contracted with état where the accent mark tells you to pronounce it “ay”.
Source: high school French because Washington and Lafayette. It’s an important part of our history. Especially how ultimately wrong our founding fathers came to view the subsequent French Revolution.
That’s a coup d’état. Literally a shot of state.
Our country is Les États Unis. The states united.
The apostrophe is because the French like to run words together. So the word of (de) which is pronounced more like “duh” than “day” gets shortened to “d’” and contracted with état where the accent mark tells you to pronounce it “ay”.
Source: high school French because Washington and Lafayette. It’s an important part of our history. Especially how ultimately wrong our founding fathers came to view the subsequent French Revolution.