I wrote a sentence in another thread that talked about an effect working “locally, by state, and nationally.”
That looks horrible. Why isn’t there a state-level equivalent for “locally” and “nationally”? The U.S. has had states for 224 years, and the concept was around long before then.
Sure, local and national end in an “l” and that makes the -ly ending fit in nicely. You can add an “ly” to state. “Stately” is already a word. So it has one meaning. It could have another. “State” itself has multiple meanings. Locally, stately, and nationally. In context, everybody would get it.
If not, we need a word. Statally would work. Why isn’t statally a word? It’s been two centuries!
My computer version of the OED has “statal”, citing:
statal, a.
Of or pertaining to a State (of the U.S. or other federation), as distinguished from national. rare.
1862: E. Bates in Official Opinions Attorneys Gen. X. 388 “I have no knowledge of any other kind of political citizenship, higher or lower, statal or national.”
1880: A. TourgÉe Fool’s Errand & Invisible Empire ii. xi. 489 “Public education flourished as a part of the statal economy.”
1949: Times 7 Feb. 5/3 “All the states outside this special category have already been merged with provinces or have joined one or another of the six great statal groups.”
So, statal’s a word, albeit a rare one. Statally obviously follows. A few other sites I checked briefly suggest “statewise” is the term of choice.
I have absolutely read the words statal and parastatal. But the context was academic / professional prose on international relations.
IOW, it’s a word used by Foreign Affairs fairly regularly, the New York Times or Washington Post nearly never, and by USA Today absolutely never.
As always you have the confusion that in formal international parlance, a “state” is a region of land with a top-level internationally recognized sovereign government, while a “nation” is a cultural / ethnic / linguistic grouping. Conversely of course in informal USA parlance, the USA (and other countries) are examples of “nations”. In the USA 's case a “nation” that consists of 50 subordinate “states”.
Provincially could work in some countries, except it’s taken on a different meaning. Each of the United States of A is sovereign in some sense, so nationally should be the word used for them and unionally used for the entire union of states. I’m pretty confident that won’t catch on.
Statal is obscure enough that etymonline.com doesn’t list it. It’s not a great fit. I could see local, statal, national but not locally, statal, nationally. Ordinary readers would stumble.
We should put AI on the case to write us a new vocabulary.
Natalie, Natalie
You’re oh so statally
Pursuing fine philately
My double entendre laterally
Needs a much better leering climax than I can think of right now.
