Baltimorgue
noun · first attested 2000s
Baltimore and morgue share enough letters that the joke assembles itself.
A disparaging nickname for Baltimore, Maryland, referring to the city's homicide rate.
39.2864°N -76.6150°W · Q5092
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Usage
- DerogatoryUsed to belittle the people or place it names.
- Attested
- 2000s
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Baltimore
- In English
Baltimorgue
The blend folds morgue into Baltimore, and it belongs to a whole set of nicknames built on the same statistic: Bodymore, Bulletmore, Murderland, Murdaland. Wiktionary labels it derogatory and records online citations from 2000 to 2016, a stretch in which Baltimore repeatedly posted one of the highest murder rates in the country. Baltimoreans use it about their own city as readily as anyone else; the homicide rate fell to a near fifty-year low in 2024.