Alabama: Lizard (nickname)

Entry in progress -- B.P. Google BooksApril 1845, Cincinnati Miscellany (Cincinnati, OH), pg. 240, col. 1:Alabama, Lizards. Chronicling America23 August 1845, Ripley (MS) Advertiser, pg. 1, cols.…

Alabama: Yellowhammer State (nickname)

Entry in progress -- B.P. OCLC WorldCat recordAlabama : the yellowhammer stateAuthor: Marathon Oil Company.; Rand McNally and Company.; Rand McNally Collection (Newberry Library)Publisher:…

Alaska: The Last Frontier (nickname)

Entry in progress -- B.P. (Oxford English Dictionary)last frontier n. (a) orig. and chiefly U.S. that part of a country, region, etc., which is the last to be settled, explored, or developed; spec.…

Arizona: Valentine State (nickname)

Arizona is called the "Valentine State" because it was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912 -- Valentine's Day. U.S. President William Howard Taft purposely chose the special…

Arkansas: Bear State (nickname)

Entry in progress -- B.P. (Oxford English Dictionary)Bear State n. U.S. the state of Arkansas (occas. also California).1848 J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms App. s.v., I once asked a Western man…

Arkansas: The Natural State (nickname)

Entry in progress -- B.P. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & CultureState Nicknamesaka: Official State Nickname(...)In the early 1940s, a group of Little Rock (Pulaski County) businessmen…

Arkansas: Wonder State (nickname)

Entry in progress -- B.P. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & CultureState Nicknamesaka: Official State Nickname(...)In the early 1940s, a group of Little Rock (Pulaski County) businessmen…

Autism (summary)

My sister has a son with "autism." On October 12, 2002, I first posted this to the American Dialect Society list, then re-posted it to alt.support.autism. The Oxford English Dictionary…