Upstate

How to spell upstate

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce upstate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does upstate mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the northern or inland part of a state, away from its largest city.
2. adverbTo or in the northern or inland part of a state.

Upstate in a sentence

• adjective

  They bought a quiet upstate farmhouse for the weekends.

• adverb

  Every summer the family drives upstate to escape the city heat.

• adjective

  The upstate economy depends heavily on agriculture and tourism.

• adverb

  He moved upstate after taking a job near the lakes.

Where does upstate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is an American English compound that joins the everyday directional word 'up' to 'state'. The 'state' element traces back through Old French estat to the Latin status, which literally meant 'a standing' or 'condition' and came from stare, 'to stand'; over centuries it narrowed to mean an organised political territory. The 'up' element reflects an old habit of treating north and inland areas as 'up' on the map and 'down' toward the coast or city. Americans began pairing the two in the nineteenth century to describe the northern, rural reaches of a state as opposed to its main metropolis, and the usage is most strongly tied to New York, where 'upstate' means everything north of New York City. Because the word simply welds two familiar parts together with no silent letters or doubled consonants, the only real spelling decision is whether to write it as one solid word, which is the standard modern form.

How the word is built

• up- (toward a higher or northern position)
• state (a political region; from Latin status, 'condition, standing')