So we have Mainers, Vermonteers, New Hampshirites, New Yorkers, and Pennsylvanians. What is the correct designation for a person who lives in Massachusetts, other than a "Masshole?"
Yes, and "Commonwealthies" sounds doubly stupid because there are other Commonwealths.
Bay Staters isn't quite it. That's a nickname, like Hoosiers or Tar Heels. Yet I've never heard anybody say "Massachusetters" or anything like that. If I had to coin one, I'd go for "Massachucians." Sounds all ritzy n'stuff.
I spell it Massachusan. But that's only in my head; I haven't had occasion to write it down, nor do I recall seeing anyone else's solution written down until today.
A person from Illinois is known as a "Sucker" - at least it was so in the time of Abe Lincoln, when one of the lines in his campaign song was "the pride of the Suckers, so lucky". Dont ask me where the designation started, but it was over 150 years ago that Lincoln ran for the Presidency.
It's always been "Bay Stater" for me. "Masshole" is relatively new, and very unflattering. I think it started during the Reagan years at just about the time that "Liberal" suddenly and for the first time became a dirty word. What people do not realize about us is that over time we are generally proved to be correct.
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Date: 2008-05-14 03:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-14 03:10 pm (UTC)(Do people really say "Vermonteer" ?)
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Date: 2008-05-14 03:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-05-14 03:22 pm (UTC)Bay Staters isn't quite it. That's a nickname, like Hoosiers or Tar Heels. Yet I've never heard anybody say "Massachusetters" or anything like that. If I had to coin one, I'd go for "Massachucians." Sounds all ritzy n'stuff.
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Date: 2008-05-14 03:30 pm (UTC)I use "Massachutian" in speech and "resident of Massachusetts" in writing.
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Date: 2008-05-14 03:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
-Dee
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