# "Back east" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 3, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390 "2011-08-03T22:32:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/1 "2011-08-03T22:32:46Z")
It’s a term I hear sometimes on American telly. Is it only used by Easterners who have moved out west or is it a general term for the east? ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/2 "2011-08-03T22:36:50Z")
It’s pretty general in both Canada and the US. Out West, Down South, Back East and Up North. Two make sense, two are (I believe) a remnant of the general movement across the country ---
**Author:** ![foxymoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d26b3c/32.png) [@foxymoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foxymoron)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/3 "2011-08-03T22:39:52Z")
Speaking only for myself, and having never lived in the Eastern U.S., I use the term '“back east” if I’m referring to the northeastern section of the country. I’m guessing I picked it up from books, movies, tv, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/4 "2011-08-03T22:45:54Z")
I have only ever lived in CA and I use the term “back east” the same way **foxymoron** does. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/5 "2011-08-03T22:57:51Z")
Back east means the eastern mid and northern coastal states. Settlers referred to those states as back east and it’s stuck. Florida wouldn’t be part of this grouping. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/6 "2011-08-03T23:20:25Z")
> [@Moonlitherial](#): > > It’s pretty general in both Canada and the US. > > Out West, > Down South, > Back East and > Up North. > > Two make sense, two are (I believe) a remnant of the general movement across the country I’d say two make sense, two are the product of an arbitrary cartographic convention. 😉 IME, it refers to all of the original thirteen Atlantic coast colonies, not just the northeast. ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/7 "2011-08-03T23:36:35Z")
I grew up in California; my parents moved there from Illinois in the 1940’s. “Back East” referred to the places in the midwest where extended family lived; my father had brothers in Michigan and Ohio; my mother had a brother in either Kansas or Missouri and a sister in Iowa. It seemed to be a sort of nebulous area that I didn’t understand until I learned US geography! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/8 "2011-08-03T23:37:54Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > I’d say two make sense, two are the product of an arbitrary cartographic convention. 😉 > > IME, it refers to all of the original thirteen Atlantic coast colonies, not just the northeast. I don’t think that someone from South Carolina would consider themselves “back east.” In fact, they might take offense to it. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/9 "2011-08-03T23:54:10Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I have only ever lived in CA and I use the term “back east” the same way **foxymoron** does. Me too. It’s just an idiom left over from the westward expansion. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/10 "2011-08-04T00:00:57Z")
Oddly enough, “way down East” (as in the old stage mellerdrammer and Lillian Gish movie) refers to Maine, which is way up North. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/11 "2011-08-04T00:14:00Z")
I’ve lived in California for the past 16-some years, but grew up, er, back east. I use the term to mean anywhere on the east coast, but I’m usually talking about the Mid-Atlantic area where I grew up and where my family still is. And… > [@Eve](#): > > Oddly enough, “way down East” (as in the old stage mellerdrammer and Lillian Gish movie) refers to Maine, which is way up North. I did a double-take and had to see if I was about to bump a zombie thread! Hi Eve, good to see you around! ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/12 "2011-08-04T02:04:01Z")
I’ve lived on the East Coast my whole life, and it’s not a term I’ve ever heard anyone here use. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/13 "2011-08-04T02:12:50Z")
back east to me is northeast, down south is south east, out west is colorado to the left coast and up north is where I am, but thats just me ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/14 "2011-08-04T02:12:54Z")
Lifelong West Coaster and I hear it all the time. I sometimes use it, but it irritates me. I’m starting a one-man movement by using “back West” and “out East.” ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/15 "2011-08-04T02:16:28Z")
“Down East” is the vernacular for the East coast, from an Ontario perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/16 "2011-08-04T02:20:50Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > I don’t think that someone from South Carolina would consider themselves “back east.” In fact, they might take offense to it. > [@GilaB](#): > > I’ve lived on the East Coast my whole life, and it’s not a term I’ve ever heard anyone here use. Well, I don’t think anyone thinks of themselves or their homes as being “back” anywhere. I mean, of course. They’re _there_. Just as Europeans don’t think of the living, present cultures around them as “the old country.” But I have, for example, heard people speak of “back in Georgia”–the state their grandparents had moved away from. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/17 "2011-08-04T02:32:45Z")
Back East = Jersey Shore, Queens, Piscataway… ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/18 "2011-08-04T03:02:06Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Well, I don’t think anyone thinks of themselves or their homes as being “back” anywhere. I mean, of course. They’re _there_. Just as Europeans don’t think of the living, present cultures around them as “the old country.” > > But I have, for example, heard people speak of “back in Georgia”–the state their grandparents had moved away from. I think the objection would be over the “east” part rather than the “back” part. I would think that South Carolinians identify with the South moreso than the East. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-east/591390/19 "2011-08-04T04:37:12Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Back east means the eastern mid and northern coastal states. Settlers referred to those states as back east and it’s stuck. Florida wouldn’t be part of this grouping. > [@spark240](#): > > I’d say two make sense, two are the product of an arbitrary cartographic convention. 😉 > > IME, it refers to all of the original thirteen Atlantic coast colonies, not just the northeast. I tend to use it for anything east of the Rockies. When I think about it, though, I wouldn’t use it for the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, or Texas. I’m an Oregonian of Back Eastern extraction, for what it’s worth. > [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > I don’t think that someone from South Carolina would consider themselves “back east.” In fact, they might take offense to it. They probably would. However, I would still probably refer to them as such 😉