Porkopolis (1843); Great City of Winds and Fires (1873)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Fri Jul 28 20:25:44 UTC 2006


4 February 1873, Philadelphia Inquirer, pg..4:
CHICAGO has fresh municipal trouble.
(...)
But if these two factions of policemen should fall to and arrest one the  
other, the rascals, who are numerous in the great city of winds and fires, will  
have matters all their own way.
...
..
_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/porkpolis_cincinnati_
chicago_nickname/_ 
(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/porkpolis_cincinnati_chicago_nickname/) 
...
Both Cincinnati and Chicago excelled in the slaughterhouse business, and  
both would be called “Porkopolis.” Cincinnati has the nickname “Porkopolis” as  
early as 1843, and Chicago claimed the title in 1862. The inter-city rivalry  
would result in the “Windy City” nickname a few years later.  



(Oxford English Dictionary) 
-opolis, comb. form  
Forming names or nicknames of cities or towns, in which the first element of  
the noun represents a major export, trade, etc., for which the city or town 
has  become well known (e.g. COTTONOPOLIS n.), or occas. some other 
characteristic  (e.g. PARASITOPOLIS n.). 

1846 Gettysburg (Pa.) Republican  Compiler 22 June 1/3 The gentleman..has 
made himself somewhat famous..in  furnishing some important..facts in relation to 
the social condition of the  inhabitants of ‘Porkopolis’. 


20 May 1843, Brother Jonathan,  pg. 89: 
J. M. FIELD and TOM PLACIDE appear to be great favorites in  Porkopolis. 


3 January 1846, Massachusetts Ploughman and New  England Journal of 
Agriculture, pg. 1: 
CINCINNATI PORK BUSINESS.  

A correspondent of the Traveller, writing from CIncinnati, Ohio, under  the 
date of November 29th, gives the following description of the way they do  
business in the pork line in that great Pork-opolis of America:...  


10 April 1862, Chicago Tribune, pg. 1: 
The Beef and  Pork-packing season in Chicago for 1861-62 is now closed, and 
the result exceeds  the highest anticipations of the trade. We have long held 
the position of  beingthe greatest Beef-packing market in the world; but even 
the most sanguine  of our citizens did not dream of taking from Cincinnati the 
title of Porkopolis,  at least for ten years to come. But the facts show that 
while Cincinnati this  last season has packed 483,000 hogs, there have been 
packed in Chicago by  regularly established packers, no less than 514,118 hogs, 
besides 55,212 beeves.  


24 March 1863, Chicago Tribune, pg. 1: 
In former years  Cincinnati ruled supreme as a pork packing point, and for a 
long time has borne  the sobriquet of Porkopolis, but the season of 1861-62 
demonstrated that  she was no longer entitled to this honorable distinction, as 
this city packed  some 40,000 more than she did. 


28 March 1863, New York Times,  pg. 4: 
THE NEW “PORKOPOLIS.”—Cincinnati has lost her chief glory, and must  
henceforth resign with that the soubriquet of which she has long boasted.  Westward 
the hog wends his way, and over CHicago, the City of the Lake, his star  now 
rises and sets. 

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list