Kensucky
noun · first attested 2000s
One consonant swap turns a state's name into a verdict on the state.
A mocking nickname for the US state of Kentucky, extended to its university sports teams and to particular towns in it.
37.5000°N -85.0000°W · Q1603
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
Kentucky
- In English
Kensucky
The name cuts the middle out of Kentucky and puts suck in its place, so that the word reads as Ken-sucky. Wiktionary labels it slang, derogatory and humorous. Dated uses from 2007 onward come mostly from rival college basketball fans, who aim it at the University of Kentucky as readily as at the state, and it also attaches to individual towns, as in Boring Green, Kensucky.