Monday, May 2, 2011

OUR TRENTONIAN JUSTICE: Six springs ago we discussed our favorite irregular adjectival and demonymic forms for place names  -- Oxonian, Monégasque, Mancunian and the like. Today, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia waded into the fray, insisting that the name for someone from the Equality State is "Wyoman" as part of his dissenting opinion in a water rights matter:
The dictionary-approved term is “Wyomingite,” which is also the name of a type of lava, see Webster’s New International Dictionary 2961 (2d ed. 1957). I believe the people of Wyoming deserve better.
The Google count is decidedly against Justice Scalia, and wonder what's next: wading into the Arkansan/Arkansawyer dispute?  Connecticutian/Connecticotian/Nutmegger?

13 comments:

  1. Lurker David6:46 PM

    As a long-time resident of Maine, I always preferred Maniac to Mainer.

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  2. I'm a Wyoman. I'm a Wyoman man, and my wife is a Wyoman woman. Why oh why would a Wyoman woman want a Wyoman man? Oh, man.

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  3. I'm a Virgin........ian.  Don't forget the "ian". 

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  4. Sheila8:26 PM

    I've lived in Indiana for 7 years now but I still can't refer to myself as a Hoosier. That is definitely the term locals use, however. I guess I still think of myself as a Michigander. My parents are from Massachusetts, but I can't think what residents of that state are called... I only hear "Bostonian."

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  5. Joseph J. Finn8:45 PM

    Hell, as an Illinoisan I always refer to y'all as Indianans.  Can't stand the Hoosier name myself.  (We're in a pretty easy area, really; Illinoisans, Indianans, Wisconsinites, Minnesotans, Iowans, Michiganders, etc. Kentuckians and Missourians never looks quite right, though.)

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  6. MidwestAndrew11:44 PM

    Kansan. But I'm working on a story on just this issue with people from around here for our paper. What do you call people from Pittsburg and Cherokee? I am leaning toward Pittsburgers and Cherokeese, myself, just for the fun of it.

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  7. Nutmegger. Heh. Sounds like something you'd find a definition for on UrbanDictionary.com.

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  8. Well, I looked it up and apparently in addition to being a person from CT, a "nutmegger" is also someone who "partakes in the recreational use of nutmeg to get high." 

    Not nearly as entertaining as I expected. It's certainly no Cosby Sweater. (A term I'm pretty sure I first heard of around here.)

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  9. Sophietje9:11 AM

    I grew up in NW Indiana and like the Hoosier name.  (I'm also a graduate of IU, so I double-like 'Hoosier'). 
    For Illinois, I usually refer to them as FIPs (Flippin' Illinois Person) or FIDs (flippin' Illinois Driver), unless I'm talking with and Illinoisian friend when I call them 'Illinoisian'.

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  10. I'm *from* Massachusetts, and even I don't know what people from Massachusetts are called.  The problem is the state name is so darn long that you can't add anything to it.  Baystaters, I guess, maybe.  But I don't like that.

    I live in CA now and to everyone out here Massachusetts = Boston.  So I just say I'm from Boston, because it's easier than explaining.

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  11. Could we possibly get away with calling folks from Mass "Chusies or Chusetts"?  Yes, I did just pull that from my arse.

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  12. Aimee1:34 PM

    I can only speak for myself, but I kinda like Chusies.

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  13. J. Bowman8:04 PM

    I fondly recall an episode of Taxi in which Jim got cable, and was fascinated by the Delaware Senate's deliberation over whether they would be "Delawarians" or "Delawarites."

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