Date:    Fri, 6 Mar 1998 16:23:32 +0000
<br>From:    Victoria Neufeldt  vneufeldt[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]M-W.COM 
<br>Subject: Re: connecticut folk (revisited)
<br>
<br>This is from Paul Dickson's _Labels for Locals_:
<br>
<br>"A demonym derived from the name of the state has been a matter of
<br>long-standing debate and deliberation.  For decades the public
<br>printer of the United States has used _Connecticuter_ in publications
<br>created by the Government Printing Office (GPO), but this has been
<br>widely ignored and derided outside government . . .
<br>
<br>"Columbia University Professor Allen Walker Read (who has gone on
<br>record as opposing the GPO's _Connecticuter_ with one _t_) once
<br>researched this topic and found an impressive list of early attempts:
<br>_Connecticotian_ (Cotton Mather, 1702), _Connecticutensian_ (Samuel
<br>Peters, 1781), and _Connecticutter_ (a California periodical, _Land
<br>of Sunshine_, 1897).  The last reference may have been intended as a
<br>slur: 'All the gates the [Hartford] _Courant_ can put up will not
<br>keep the steady stream of Connecticutters from migrating to
<br>California.' "
<br>
<br>Dickson goes on to say that "a number of good writers" have used the
<br>_-cuter_ form, and mentions Stephen Vincent Benet (1944).  Dickson's
<br>article implies that there still is not a generally accepted term.
<br>He does deal with the _Nutmegger_ name too, as well as a host of
<br>jocular names based on _Connecticut_, including, of course,
<br>_Connecticutey_, and ends his discussion with a quote from Allan D.
<br>Pratt of New Haven: "by far the most common term used to describe
<br>residents of Connecticut is 'Commuters.' "
<br>
<br>Victoria Neufeldt
<br>