Vol. 67 No. 4 (2019)
Article

Upstate, Downstate, and Outstate Across the United States

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  • Michael D. Sublett
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00277738.2019.1659531

Published 2019-10-02

Copyright (c) 2019 American Name Society

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Upstate, downstate, and outstate are informal place names, informal in that they do not have locational coordinates or defined dimensions. They are, however, useful designators for the peripheral areas of US American states with dominant urban population cores. Beginning with upstate, this study focuses on the earliest known printed uses of each peripheral term in connection with the 50 states. It looks at how core area newspapers and other critics have deprecated the rural aspect of these peripherals, leading rural residents in some states to argue against further use of the informal name. The study also reports on the results of promotional efforts to capitalize on upstate, downstate, or outstate in naming of enterprises.

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