Dictionary

region rat en · NOUN

Etymology

From region + rat. Within Indiana, the northwest of the state is colloquially called the Region, originally short for the Calumet Region. The ‘rat’ appellation apparently derives from millrat as a pejorative term for steelworkers.

Meanings

1. (informal, qualifier:Indiana) an inhabitant of northwest Indiana
   • Gingrich also fired, for no good reason, House Historian Raymond Smock, a former “Region Rat” who first introduced me to In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. 1975, James B. Lane, Steel Shavings, volume 31, page 2:
   • “Ask any region rat,” said Langbehn, referring to denizens of northwest Indiana. “When the wind is off the lake, you can smell it all the way down to Crown Point. It’s like a sulfur compound, clearly a steel-mill smell.” 2004 July 1, Illinois Information Service Press Summary, issue:
   • Paula Evans, author of The Isle of Iona, was born in Gary, Indiana, named for Elbert Gary of judiciary fame (with apologies to Meredith Willson). She has accepted her fate as a lifelong Hoosier and Region Rat. 2013, Paula Evans, Everybody Loves Amy, back cover
   • Tens of thousands of longtime residents here proudly wear the region rat reputation, and they will never see themselves as anything else, until death do them part. 2017, Jerry Davich, Crooked Politics in Northwest Indiana, page 24:

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