Who Are Nutmeggers and Bay Staters?
With the U.S. presidential election in two months, the names of the residents of various states will be in the news a lot. Here’s a quick quiz on two of the more obscure names for state residents.
The names Bay Stater and Nutmegger are acceptable, respectively, for residents of which states?
Maine and Mississippi
Maryland and Hawaii
Massachusetts and Connecticut
Virginia and Louisiana
The right answer is Massachusetts and Connecticut. The former's official nickname is the Bay State. The latter's used to be the Nutmeg State, but is now the Constitution State. However, "nutmeg" stuck as a name to refer to residents and has remained more standard than the ungainly "Connecticuter."
But what's the connection between Connecticut and nutmeg? The name of the spice is short for wooden nutmeg, which comes from the notion that wooden or imitation nutmegs came from Connecticut and were examples of Yankee ingenuity.