Dictionary

sunbelt en · NOUN

Etymology

Compound of sun + belt. Purportedly coined by American politician Sam Rayburn.

Meanings

1. (US) An area or belt of land that receives a lot of sun; specifically, a zone comprising the southern and western states of the USA where the weather is typically sunny, characterised by an influx of population from the north and often typified as having conservative political views.
   • Lack of water, fertile land, productive mines, and heavy industry made it an unlikely candidate. But the same forces which forged the new west and lured millions of people to the sunbelt, also boosted Las Vegas. 1995, Eugene P. Moehring, Resort City in the Sunbelt: Las Vegas, 1930–1970, University of Nevada Press, →ISBN, page 13:
   • Anglos to whom I talked in Miami […] persisted in the related illusions that the city was small, manageable, prosperous in a predictable broad-based way, southern in a progressive sunbelt way, American, and belonged to them. 1987, Joan Didion, Miami, Granta, published 2005, page 51:

Forms

Relateds

banana belt

Translations (2)

ka მზიანი სარტყელი (region of the US) · pl południowa część Stanów Zjednoczonych (region of the US)