Kentuckiana

Kentuckiana, a portmanteau of Kentucky and Indiana, is the area in the Upland South region of the United States containing metropolitan areas with counties in both Kentucky and Indiana. Kentuckiana is primarily the Louisville metropolitan area, including nine counties in Kentucky (Jefferson, Bullitt, Hardin, Oldham, Meade, Shelby, Trimble, Henry, and Spencer) and five counties in Southern Indiana (Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Scott, and Washington). This area "is regularly referred to as Kentuckiana".<ref name="Applegate">Template:Cite book</ref>

One other area that could lay claim to using the name is the combined metros of Evansville, Indiana and Owensboro, Kentucky, though that region identifies more on its own as "The Tri-State Area" combined. Dearborn, Ohio and Franklin Counties in Indiana make up the western portion of the Cincinnati metropolitan area and make no claims to the Kentuckiana name on their own.

Etymology

The original meaning of the term Kentuckiana dates back to the 19th century as a collection of items from or relating to Kentucky.<ref name='TeachHistory'>Template:Cite web</ref> The modern meaning of term as a geographical area was coined by The Louisville Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times sometime during the 1930s.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This second definition originally referred to only Jefferson County, Kentucky and Clark and Floyd Counties in Indiana- this referring to the geographic center of the Louisville metropolitan area. Since the 1980s the term has expanded to include more counties on both sides of the Ohio River.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Today it refers to an indefinitely large region where Kentucky and Indiana meet,<ref name='TeachHistory' /> usually centered on Louisville, Kentucky.

Further reading

• WPA, Kentucky: A Guide to the Bluegrass State (1939); classic guide from the Federal Writers Project; covers main themes and every town online