Asklemmy

43911 readers

852 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

158

What does "upstate" mean in the US? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

85 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I hear it in movies so the time. We're going upstate. I went upstate. Etc

I never hear downstate, or similar. Does it just mean going north?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

As others have said, going to the northern part. Depending on the state it usually carries with it the idea of a change of scenery abd culture.

For example a New Yorker may say “upstate” referring to the more rural areas.

Similar to how “out west” in early US history meant “wild and untamed country full of potential, opportunities and danger”

While I’ve never heard down state I have heard similar.

“Down south” or “below I10” or “Cajun country” in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi referring to the gulf, more Catholic Cajun areas. And down south in other states referring to the southern states.