Words and Their Stories: State Nicknames, Part 2
November 21, 2012
Winter turns Traverse City into a sparkling white playground
Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
As we told you last week, every American state has a nickname. Here are some more of them.
Idaho is known as the
Gem State
. This is not because it has diamonds but because it believes it is the jewel of the western Rocky Mountains.
Illinois is the
Land of Lincoln
. It is named for Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president who led the nation through the Civil War in the eighteen sixties.
The Midwestern state of Indiana is called the
Hoosier State
, but nobody is quite sure why. One story is that the word was used to mean poor farmers or uneducated people. No wonder the state legislature instead calls Indiana the
Crossroads of America
.
Iowa's nickname, the
Hawkeye State
, is in honor of Black Hawk, an Indian chief who spent most of his life in neighboring Illinois!
Kansas also has a "hawkish" nickname: the
Jayhawk State
. Jayhawkers were free-state guerrilla fighters opposed to the pro-slavery fighters in the years before the Civil War.
Kentucky is the
Bluegrass State
. Bluegrass is really bright green but looks bluish from a distance. Louisiana is the
Bayou State
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