The word Yooper for some who lives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula will be in the new Merriam-Webster dictionary for 2014. What started out as a challenge in a Scrabble™ game, became a ten year mission, proving its use was not just a regionalism, but a widespread word.
Yay. About time.The term for Upper Peninsula residents will be included in the 2014 version of Merriam-Webster set to hit the shelves in April, said Gladstone resident Steve Parks, who began penning letters to the dictionary's editors in 2002.
The word will appear as: yoo-per: noun \ ‘yu-(,)pÉr\: a native or resident of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan – used as a nickname.
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