the states

[Damummis]

CONNECTICUT is derived from an Indian word (Quinnehtukqut) meaning beside the long tidal river (referring to what is now known as the Connecticut River).

Yup, specifically it's a Mohegan word. I didn't realize that the Connecticut River was tidal all the way up to Windsor Locks, which is kind of embarrassing since my hometown in ON the river south of there!!

So what is/are your state's nicknames? Formally CT is known as the Constitution State and informally as the Nutmeg State. We are more likely to be called Nutmeggers, but I wonder if we mostly call ourselves that??


The "Constitution State"
Connecticut's official nickname is the "Constitution State". According to the Connecticut State Register and Manual, 1998, p. 832:

"Connecticut was designated the Constitution State by the General Assembly in 1959. As early as the 19th Century, John Fiske, a popular historian from Connecticut made the claim that the Fundamental Orders of 1638/1639 were the first written constitution in history. Some contemporary historians dispute Fiske's analysis. However, Simeon E. Baldwin, a former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, defended Fiske's view of the Fundamental Orders in Osborn's History of Connecticut in Monographic Form by stating that 'never had a company of men deliberately met to frame a social compact for immediate use, constituting a new and independent commonwealth, with definite officers, executive and legislative, and prescribed rules and modes of government, until the first planters of Connecticut came together for their great work on January 14th, 1638-39.'

However, Connecticut is also sometimes referred to as:

The "Nutmeg State"
According to the book State Names, Flags, Seals, Songs, Birds, Flowers, and Other Symbols by George Earlie Shankle (New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1941):

"The sobriquet, the Nutmeg State, is applied to Connecticut because its early inhabitants had the reputation of being so ingenious and shrewd that they were able to make and sell wooden nutmegs. Sam Slick (Judge Halliburton) seems to be the originator of this story. Some claim that wooden nutmegs were actually sold, but they do not give either the time or the place."

Yankee peddlers from Connecticut sold nutmegs, and an alternative story is that:

"Unknowing buyers may have failed to grate nutmegs, thinking they had to be cracked like a walnut. Nutmegs are wood, and bounce when struck. If southern customers did not grate them, they may very well have accused the Yankees of selling useless "wooden" nutmegs, unaware that they wear down to a pungent powder to season pies and breads." Elizabeth Abbe, Librarian, the Connecticut Historical Society; Connecticut Magazine, April 1980.

Some of us are called Swamp Yankees.
OR The Buffy and Bobby State.

I almost peed myself when someone told me that. When asked where I was from and I told them Mystic, CT. They replied, "Oh, the Buffy and Bobby State."

Now, Swamp Yankee I've heard lots of times but never Buffy and Bobby State. That would only apply down toward Greenwich, not up where I am! Definitely Swamp Yankee territory up here!!

You are RIGHT!!! For all that are wondering....
Picture Greenwich, Stonington, or any wealthy Ct town with the Izods and tennis skirts, sweaters draped over the shoulder. "Hi, I am Buffy, and I am Bobby". You know, the rich folk that live in CT but commute to NY. Yup,yup, yup, I too am the Swamp yankee. That moved to Maine.
It is funny, there is a woman down the end of the road that is from Ct and she wears Izods, but tucked in....

 

[Henrietta23]

Need a nodding in agreement smiley. Izods were the first thing I pictured. I went to school in New Haven. I knew quite a few Buffy and Bobby wannabees and a few of the real deal.

 

[Neko-chan]

I'm from California, but want to share the states of my new country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_and_territories_of_Australia

The mainland has six states (Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria), one capital territory (Canberra, which is like Washington D.C.) and the island state of Tasmania (which is where I live).

A bit on Tasmania:

The state is named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642. Tasman named the island "Anthony van Diemen's Land" after his sponsor Anthony van Diemen, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. The name was later shortened to Van Diemen's Land by the British. It was officially renamed Tasmania in honour of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856.

Tasmania was sometimes referred to as "Dervon", as mentioned in The Jerilderie Letter written by the notorious Australian bushranger Ned Kelly in 1879. The colloquial expression for the state is "Tassie" (pronounced "Tazzie"). This name is often used in advertising campaigns, for example by the Bass Strait ferry, Spirit of Tasmania.