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?
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this really only applies to New York, as New York City is in the bottom little bit of the state’s southern nubbin and the rest of the state is commonly called “Upstate New York” since when people outside the northeast refer to New York, they’re talking about New York City, rather than the state of New York. thus Upstate New York was shortened to Upstate. (it seems to hold that most people i know who grew up in the northeast call New York City “NYC” rather than what i used growing up which was “New York.”
I am an american, I grew up in a state in the south west, no one ever used the term “going upstate” for anything because there was so such place to go.
I guarantee you only see dialog such as this in media set in NYC.
It refers to a rural area of the state. Usually with a higher income bracket.
Yeah! I’ve never heard it in BC, Canada. “I’m going upstate BC.” “Prince George?! Fort Saint John!?!”
Doesn’t sound right.
That might be due to the fact that Canada does not have states
It’s a New York thing to refer to the rural Northern and Western parts of New York State that are not New York City. No one (or at least very very few) outside of New York State uses it to refer to any other place.
Really? Well, I’m from Utica and I never heard anyone use the term “upstate.”
seymour you fucking liar, everyone here calls it upstate new york
Not in Utica, no. It’s all Albany expression.
Damn the fidelity of that pic is strangely satisfying
Not in Utica, no; it’s an Albany expression.
New Yprk the state or NYC?
“The Northern and Western parts of New York State that are not new York City” how is there any confusion?
It’s a New York thing
New York the state or NYC?
In my experience people in the Northeast US pretty much never refer to New York City as just ‘New York’. New York will mean the state, they will say ‘the city’ or ‘NYC’ to differentiate from the state. Or they will say upstate to mean the rest of the state outside of NYC metro area.
You’re being downvoted because your question makes no sense. Both NYC and New York State are mentioned, so what are you even asking for clarification on?
I feel like the answer to this lies within the word itself
Anything north of 34th Street is upstate, fight me
In NY it means "north or west, but definitely not east or south of NYC
My understanding is that it means going, loosely, to the opposite side of the state of the major metropolitan area in that state. Upstate NY is the northwest part, upstate MA is the west part, upstate PA is the northeast part. I’m looking around, and it seems to also 1) only be used on a few states, 2) usually is on the north half (but not always), and 3) is somewhat interchangable with “rural”.
upstate: situated or occurring in the northern part of a state, especially the northern part of New York State as contrasted with New York City. “upstate New York”
Yes, the northern part of the state. Typically its also far away from major cities into a more rural area.
It’s a New York thing. That state loosely divides into two regions: New York City to the south, and everything else to the north (“upstate”). I have heard people refer to the New York City area as “downstate” but that term is less common.
Similarly, Manhattan is loosely split into its northern portion (uptown), middle portion (midtown), and southern portion (downtown).
it’s very common in the greater NYC area to refer to the rest of the state, esp. the more rural parts (even if a lot of the state does not consider itself “upstate”).
In Michigan, there is “downstate” it means heading to the southern part of the state.
Where does the line for this lie? I’ve lived in Northern LP most of my life and I’ve never heard it
The bridge
I’m also in northern LP. We use it for when we are planning a trip to Detroit, for example.
A place where people use the phrase steamed hams.
Really? I’m from Utica, and I’ve never heard such a phrase.
Oh no it’s an Albany expression
Def depends where you’re at. In Virginia we call upstate Nova (northern VA). In NJ it’s North Jersey (I’m originally from South Jersey) PA is more east west oriented since Philly and Pittsburgh are east and west ends of the state.
I find Jersey quite silly because there’s a distinct North and South Jersey, but then people in the middle still have some ambiguous Central Jersey pride to them
Outside main city? For NY it’s any area outside New York City. Like Albany or Rochester.
I guess you might be hearing it movies set in New York City, which is in the southern tip of the state of New York. All the other notable cities, the Catskill mountains, Niagara Falls, and other attractions are all further north, or upstate. I wouldn’t be totally surprised if the expression got picked up by a wider crowd to mean “north”.
