I hear it in movies so the time. We’re going upstate. I went upstate. Etc
I never hear downstate, or similar. Does it just mean going north?
I’m probably wrong, but I think it means somewhere north of the capital city, and maybe it’s only used in New York
You are very wrong. Albany is part of “upstate NY” and Albany is literally the capital city… In NY it means basically anywhere that isn’t NYC.
Oh well, I tried. Thanks for clarifying!
Ok, so upstate means north of the capital or north NYC if in New York?
The term upstate has no relation to the capital city, that was a mistaken assertion. It isn’t used very widely at all, it’s just a local term in a couple of states for their northern portions. Most states don’t have an area that is referred to as upstate.
In NY state it essentially means anywhere north of NYC, the capital city Albany is upstate NY. It doesn’t seem to mean north of the capital in any state unless that capital is at the southern part.
Only New York. It means all the parts of New York state that aren’t New York City
Long Island is excluded too
Is Long Island named Long Island because its long?
It appears so, it was called other things by native people but the Dutch seem to be the first to call it Long Island in the 1600s. Many geographic features in the area have similar sort of names, like Short Hill, East River, West River, Indian Hill, Short Beach, Beaver Swamp, the colonists really weren’t very clever with their naming.
yes. 100 miles or so
Upstate in NY is literally the entire state other than NYC and Long Island.
