[PW] "The Great State of . . ."

[Bye, Dan J]

If you search google books, you can find examples of the formula used in relation to different states way back into the eighteenth century.

Dan 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org 
> [mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On 
> Behalf Of Nichael Cramer
> Sent: 20 December 2007 13:23
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: Re: [PW] "The Great State of . . ."
> 
> Peter Underwood wrote:
> > >From time-to-time one hears of politicians in the United States
> > referring to "The Great State of . . .", (Georgia, for 
> example).  Is 
> > this a rhetorical flourish or part of the official name of the 
> > jurisdiction?  If the former, at what period did this affectation 
> > begin?
> 
> I can only answer part of the question; i.e. no, this is not 
> an official/formal part of the name of the state (can't help 
> with the question as to when this formula began to be used).
> 
> However, as an aside, my favorite variant of this occurred 
> during the (I believe) 1972 Democratic National Convention 
> when the speaker for the state's delegation rose and 
> proclaimed that "The Almost Heaven State of West Virginia[*] 
> casts its sixty votes for [CandidateX]".
> 
> N
> [* For those who might not recognize this, the phrase is from 
> the song "Country Roads", by the pop singer John Denver, 
> which had been very popular in the US at the time.  It's also 
> interesting to note that the quote above almost scans 
> properly against the melody.  But, alas, the speaker didn't 
> try to sing it.]
> --
> Nichael Cramer
> Guilford VT
> nichael at sover.net
> http://www.sover.net/~nichael/ 
> 
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