Spinoff of other thread, where I, a New Yorker, needed to be reassured that people from Maine call themselves Mainers.
So if I ran into the governor of Massachusetts–he would say he is a …?
I guess there are certain phonological trends in English leading to one suffix or another, but to my ear “Washingtonian” sounds “better” than “Washingtoner” only by force of habit.
Then I realized I don’t know how a lot of Americans say it of themselves.
FTR, it took 10 minutes of Google hopping before I found “demonym,” previously known as “gentilic,” apparently, to find a word for this issue. SD works its magic again.
Cx: "Hawaian I know, but I think there’s a different one being kicked around for political reasons. It’s just that “Massachusettsers” sounds so bad I think it must be wrong.
Massachusettsian is correct, but sounds weird. IME most people just say they’re “from Massachusetts.” Bay-Stater is also acceptable. Massholes works if you need to drive there.
Indianans (no third i). But most people say Hoosiers.
When I lived outside Boston and worked in Maine, crossing a piece of New Hampshire on the way, I was a Masshole (a more specific form of being “from away”) who commuted through The Shire (home of New Hampsters) to work with Mainiacs.
Bay Staters or Massachusetts residents. There is also Massachusettensians, borrowed from the state seal - a bastardized English suffix on a Latin word taken from Algonquin.
Indianans.
Nutmeggers or Connecticut residents.
I live in Massachusetts but I am not from here. The most common terms are indeed “Masshole” or “Bay Stater” if you want to be more formal. Even Bay Staters use the term Masshole. It means anyone that is currently driving worse than you are (often an impressive feat in its own right) or is outdoing you in dickmanship.
In Texas, I was a Texan. In New Mexico, I was a New Mexican. But I would never have called myself a Hawaiian when I lived in Honolulu, that’s just too ethnically based.
If you are not an ethnic native Hawaiian, there are lots of terms. Anyone who lives there is a Resident. I was a Haole, which basically means “white man,” the Hawaiian equivalent of farang over here. But many people are Hapa, or of mixed heritage, and if white is in the mix then you’re Hapa Haole. A person who grew up there is a Local, while a newcomer is a Malahini.
Oh, and I forgot Kama’aina. It literally means “Child of the Land” and describes Hawaii residents born on the land regardless of racial background. However, businesses often give some pretty deep Kama’aina discounts to anyone holding a Hawaii driver’s license regardless of where they were born or even nationality.
Surely a Caucasian governer of Hawaii would not not say “I am a Hawaiian.”
(Umm…right?)
I mean, political trumps ethnic, ideally. It is not beyond imagination or actual practice for an Arab (Christian or Moslem) or Kurd in Israel to say I am an Israeli, for example, particularly if he is representing himself in a political context as a member of the government.
All the more so, I hope, in the USA.
Neither of which is post-Saddam Iraq, for example, where political ID never strays from ethnic or familial.
I am a Californian, but nobody in California ever uses the word as anything other than a demonym. If I ever hear somebody use it as an adjective, then I know they’re not from here. In fact, they tend to be from the UK, in my experience. “A Californian wine”, for example. We would just say “A California wine”.
The only people who use a term other than “Hoosiers” are those that have never lived here. I know it doesn’t make sense, but “Hoosier” is the demonym of Indiana and has been since the 1840’s.
In fact, they tend to be from the UK, in my experience. “A Californian wine”, for example. We would just say “A California wine”.