Search & Destroy: Demonyms

Sandancer for South Shields

haha, I like that.

I went to a chippy in South Shields once, it was very good. had pictures of Tony Blair, D Miliband, and Ainsley Harriot on the wall

It's kind of weird how some cities just lend themselves to this and others don't. Like, the word Glaswegian probably gets used 10 times more than Edinburger. Liverpudlians and Mancunians, everyone knows; Loiners I just had to look up for Leeds.

Is this something to do with the respective strength of identity, or just that Loiner sounds really stupid?

in north america there's basically a choice between settler names and native names, all of which are fairly recent. (largely) the latter 'got' the rivers and the former 'got' the cities

if i had a city with 2000+ years of history i'd totally pick the wackest possible name for a demonym

also i feel like this heritage of demonyms is related to accepted prepositions of travel (which fascinates me)

i live in brooklyn; i can go (or used to go!) *into* the city or *out* to long island. where i grew up one could go up to butler or erie, over to harrisburg, down to morgantown

totally lost with uk references, although i think one goes *up* to either oxbridge?

Re: Oxbridge, yes you come up to them at the start of the term. It's a bit of a dated term but I'm sure some Rees-Mogg wannabees still trot it out.

I think in the UK the going up to vs down to is as much of a puzzle as it is in the US. I suppose it's vaguely related to north and south but not very strictly. See also an ancient ILX discussion about which end the "top" of Oxford Street is.

Oh, and of course the US has 'downtown' and 'uptown', which the UK doesn't.

never heard of brummagem before, or thought to wonder where 'brummie' came from despite being one now. apparently derived from 'bromwich-ham'.

"Brummagem" and "Brummagem ware" are also terms for cheap and shoddy imitations, in particular when referring to mass-produced goods. This use is archaic in the UK, but persists in some specialist areas in the US and Australia.

The term's pejorative use appears to have originated with the city's brief 17th-century reputation for counterfeited groats.

weegee ftw

Edinburgh is Eberdonian surely, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Edinburger.

I think you've just made Eberdonian up, Ed. Are you thinking of Aberdonian for Aberdeen?

i did not know that about the negative connotations of Brummagem goods. That, and the time when Birmingham steel considered a byword for quality, especially for firearms, suggests some interesting trade and competition dynamics at play.

edinborogovian.

I thought you just went up to things north of you and down to things south of you? I sometimes get them muddled and you can "go down" to anywhere if you think of it like "I'm going down the pub" (oi oi oi), but I think in general it's just north/south.

Also I don't actually know what my proper demonym is - Nottinghamian? Nottinghammer? Nottsoid? I tend to use the first but not sure if it's correct.

I'm an Orlandolt Floridiot

I thought you just went up to things north of you and down to things south of you?

this explains it better than i could.

I thought you just went up to things north of you and down to things south of you?

i think this is largely the case, but with exceptions due to elevation, river flow and general local weirdness

nottinghamian appears to be the most common despite nottinghammer being much more \m/

googling reveals a few people and places using “DCite” to refer to residents of the District, but wiki and the majority of the world still stand by “Washingtonian” (boring).

OK I just had to google what people from LA are called. Angelenos?! Does anyone use this. Maybe LA is just a state of mind, or a figment of all our imaginations.

Also sounds a bit gendered.

I've heard Angelenos a number of times before and I'm not even in the States, so it's definitely in use.

Angels are gender-neutral iirc.

angelenx

Angelenos definitely widely used

Anyone who participated in the Billy Joel listening thread knows about Los Angelenos and how they like to go into garages for exotic massages

IT'S BETTER THAN DRINKIN' ALONE: The Official ILM Track-by-Track BILLY JOEL Listening Thread

weegee ftw

― assert (MatthewK), Thursday, October 15, 2020 4:30 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's spelled weegie, and we hate it!

This is clearly a blind spot of mine (as is Billy Joel).

Google ngrams, comparing usage of New Yorkers, Bostonians and Angelenos. The latter two are closer than I would have guessed. Went for the singular rather than plural to avoid the New Yorker magazine giving it an unfair advantage. New Yorkers is still far ahead but interesting how it's plummeted since 2004.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Angelenos%2CNew+Yorkers%2CBostonians&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CAngelenos%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CNew%20Yorkers%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CBostonians%3B%2Cc0

I think last time I looked at Ngrams, the data ran out at 2010 so very pleased it now goes to 2019.

Hmm, not sure I trust the recent years' data. It's meant to be relative to the size of the corpus I think, but all seem to be plummeting too!

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Glaswegians%2CEdinburgers%2CScousers%2CBrummies%2C+Geordies&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CGlaswegians%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CEdinburgers%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CScousers%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CBrummies%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CGeordies%3B%2Cc0