That classic term we all know and use! Show  Photo via Getty Images/ Oleksii Liskonih Let’s just get this out of the way right now. No one, exactly no one, from Massachusetts uses the term “Massachusettsan.” You know it and I know it and I’d guess the rest of New England knows it. But according to an official government style guide, a photo of which has been traveling far and wide online over the past day, that is what we are called.
The term appears in the U.S. Government Publishing Office Style Manual, a reference for spelling and punctuation in official government documents that was last updated in 2016. It is, according to the GPO’s website, “the product of many years of public printing experience, and its rules are based on principles of good usage and custom in the printing trade.” It seems to exist basically nowhere else. If you try a Google Trends search for “Massachusettsan,” you’ll get a message telling you “your search doesn’t have enough data to show here.” Occasionally, news sites will refer to “Massachusettsans” in articles, including this one published by Politico in July about Rep. Seth Moulton, or this 2018 story from Business Insider about John Adams. The last time it appeared in a Boston Globe article was a 1977 story about… how there’s really no agreed-upon way to refer to people from Massachusetts. Author Sinclair Lewis, according to the Globe story, invented the term for use in a 1934 novel. (The Globe’s affiliate website Boston.com also used “Massachusettsan” in a 2015 post about John Kerry.) The question of what to call ourselves has persisted since at least then. If we want to get all technical about it, there’s actually a state law on the books that says the official name for someone from the Commonwealth is “Bay Stater.” Others have suggested we adopt another, more commonly used nickname: “Masshole.” After all, unlike “Massachusettsan,” the “Masshole” is actually in the dictionary.
As of Thursday afternoon, the screenshot of the style guide shared on Twitter has been shared and commented on thousands of times, mainly by people who, uh, do not agree with the government’s official records. And for good reason, as there are several real head-scratchers in there. What’s up, Connecticuters? How ya doin’, New Hampshirites!?
Many people often wonder where the name Massachusetts came from. The answer is the state of Massachusetts was named after the Massachusetts Indian tribe that lived in the Great Blue Hill region near Massachusetts Bay. What Does the Name Massachusetts Mean?The word Massachusetts is an Algonquin Indian word which roughly translates to “large hill place” or “at the great hill.” In the native language the word is spelled massa-adchu-es-et, where “massa” means “large,” “adchu” means “hill,” “es” is a diminutive suffix and “et” is a locative suffix that identifies a place. The word specifically refers to the Great Blue Hill in Milton, Massachusetts which is an ancient volcano that was last active over 400 million years ago. There are other interpretations of the word though. A Jesuit missionary named Father Rasles believed that it came from the word Messatossec which means “Great-Hills-Mouth”: “mess” meaning “great,” “atsco” meaning “hill” and “sec” meaning “mouth.” Boston minister Reverend John Cotton believed it meant: “mos” and “wetuset” meaning “Indian arrowhead.” Another theory is that the word comes from “massa” meaning “great” and “wachusett” meaning “mountain place.” Great Blue Hill, Milton, Mass What is the Origin of the Name Massachusetts?The name Massachusetts was first recorded in Captain John Smith‘s book, a Description of New England, which was published in 1616. In the book, Smith describes New England, which he visited on a scouting trip in 1614, and he specifically mentions the area of Massachusetts. Although Smith was the one who gave New England its name, it seems from the text that the natives were the ones who gave Massachusetts its name, although, at the time it only applied to the specific area the Massachusetts tribe lived in near the Massachusetts Bay:
Smith referred to these specific areas that the tribes lived in as each tribe’s “frontier” and refers to Massachusetts as a specific place:
Smith also makes several references in his text to the Massachusetts Bay, which it is still called today. It’s not clear from the text if Smith was the one who named the bay or if it was already called that by the natives. Origins of the Massachusetts name, illustration published in A Pictorial School History of the United States, circa 1877 When colonists eventually decided to settle the area, they adopted the name Massachusetts for their new colony. In March of 1629, the newly restructured New England Company decided to change its name to the Massachusetts Bay Company. When the company sailed to the New World and officially settled the area near the Massachusetts Bay, they called it the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Later, after the colony lost its charter in 1684, the colony was restructured and renamed the Dominion of New England by the British government. The Dominion was overthrown after King James II left the throne in 1688 and the original puritans leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were reinstated. After the America Revolution began, the colonists no longer saw the area as a British colony and instead began to adopt the name Massachusetts for its official title, although it took some time to figure out exactly what the title was. According to the Citizen Information Service website, when the first draft of the Massachusetts Constitution was written, it referred to the area as the State of Massachusetts Bay. In the second draft of this state constitution, it referred to the area as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Seal of Massachusetts, adopted December 13, 1780 When the Massachusetts Constitution was finally passed in 1780, it referred to the residents of the area as “the people of Massachusetts” and the area itself as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Massachusetts became an official state on February 6, 1788. What is Massachusetts’ Nickname?Massachusetts’ official nickname is the Bay State. How Did Massachusetts Get its Nickname?The state earned this nickname because it has a total of five bays which include: Massachusetts Bay, Quincy Bay, Narragansett Bay, Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay. Due to its nickname, people who live in Massachusetts are called Bay Staters. Some unofficial nicknames for Massachusetts are: the Old Colony State, the Old Bay State, the Codfish State, the Pilgrim State, the Puritan State, the Baked Bean State, and the Spirit of America. Sources: |
What are people from Massachusetts called
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