The meaning of the state nicknames in the Tri-State

HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – Every state has a nickname, but why do certain states get certain nicknames?

The U.S. Consulate Krakow provided examples of those nicknames. The nicknames that are relevant to the Tri-State are:

• Illinois: Land of Lincoln
• Indiana: Hoosier State
• Kentucky: Bluegrass State

The U.S. Consulate Krakow offers the following explanations for each state in the Tri-State’s nicknames.

Illinois

The U.S. Consulate Krakow says Illinois is the Land of Lincoln, and that nickname was given in reference to President Abraham Lincoln. The Illinois State Museum explained the reason why the state took that nickname.

According to the museum, Lincoln spent most of his adult life in Illinois. Abraham Lincoln moved to Macon County, Illinois, from Indiana in 1830, when he was 21 years old. He lived in Illinois until he became president in 1861. In addition to serving as president, Lincoln represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives for one term. He was a member of the Illinois Legislature from 1834 to 1841.

The museum notes Lincoln’s Springfield, Illinois, home is a National Historic Site administered by the National Park Service. The Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, is a state historic site. New Salem, the village where Lincoln lived prior to moving to Springfield, is in Petersburg.

Indiana

The U.S. Consulate in Krakow says the reason why Indiana is the Hoosier state is lost to time. However, the Indiana Historical Bureau (IHB) has offered a few possible origins for the term “Hoosier.”

The IHB says the term came into general usage in the 1830s. John Finley of Richmond wrote a poem, “The Hoosier’s Nest,” which was used as the “Carrier’s Address” of the Indianapolis Journal on January 1, 1833. It was widely copied throughout the country and even abroad.

IHB says these are among the more popular theories:

• When a visitor hailed a pioneer cabin in Indiana or knocked upon its door, the settler would respond, “Who’s yere?” And from this frequent response, Indiana became the “Who’s yere” or Hoosier state. No one ever explained why this was more typical of Indiana than of Illinois or Ohio.
• Indiana rivermen were so “successful” in trouncing or “hushing” their adversaries in the brawling that was then common that they became known as “hushers” and eventually Hoosiers.
• There was once a contractor named Hoosier employed on the Louisville and Portland Canals who preferred to hire laborers from Indiana. They were called “Hoosier’s men,” and eventually all Indianans were called Hoosiers.
• A theory attributed to Governor Joseph Wright derived Hoosier from an Indian word for corn, “hoosa.” Indiana flatboatmen taking corn or maize to New Orleans came to be known as “hoosa men” or Hoosiers. Unfortunately for this theory, a search of Indian vocabularies by a student of linguistics failed to reveal any such word for corn.
• Quite as plausible as these was the facetious explanation offered by “The Hoosier Poet,” James Whitcomb Riley. He claimed that Hoosier originated in the “pugnacious habits” of Indiana’s early settlers. They were “enthusiastic and vicious fighters” who “gouged, scratched, and bit off” noses and ears. This was such a common occurrence that a settler coming into a tavern the morning after a fight and seeing an ear on the floor would touch it with his toe and casually ask, “Whose ear?”

One more fact IHB brings in regard to this nickname is when Jacob Piatt Dunn, Jr., an Indiana historian and longtime secretary of the Indiana Historical Society, noted that “hoosier” was frequently used in many parts of the South in the 19th century for woodsmen or “rough hill people.” He traced the word back to “hoozer” in the Cumberland dialect of England. This derives from the Anglo-Saxon word “hoo,” meaning high or hill.

According to IHB, Dunn offered the explanation that in the Cumberland dialect, the word “hoozer” meant anything unusually large, presumably like a hill. Immigrants from Cumberland, England, settled in the Cumberland Mountains, Cumberland River and Cumberland Gap, among other areas in the “southern mountains.” Their descendants brought the name with them when they settled in the hills of southern Indiana.

Kentucky

The U.S. Consulate Krakow says when looked at from a distance, bluegrass looks bluish, but on closer examination, it appears bright green. As it is a common sight on many pastures in Kentucky, it is responsible for Kentucky’s nickname, “the Bluegrass State.”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Kentucky bluegrass is a cool-season perennial sod-forming grass. Kentucky bluegrass is native to portions of North America, including areas within the United States. Data seems to indicate that it is native in parts of the southeast, northeast and upper Midwest regions and has been introduced or naturalized elsewhere. It occurs throughout the United States, although it is most prevalent in the northern half.

More details about this type of grass can be found below.

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