Every day I see somebody posting online about an event in “the tri-city area” or “the tri-county area” or “the tri-State area” as if it gives some kind of clue as to where the event is.
It doesn’t.
That is, unless I happen to know where the poster lives. If I don’t, I have to look it up.
A quick look at a US States map shows over 40 places where three States adjoin. Probably every one of these has local businesses called “Tri State Auto” or such.
(There’s only one place where four States adjoin. Unsurprisingly it’s called “Four Corners”. If you visit, it’s almost obligatory to put your hands and feet in the four States simultaneously.)
How about “tri county area”? A look at a California counties map shows over 70 spots in this State alone where three counties adjoin. There must be over a thousand “tri county areas” across the USA.
And “tri city areas” must number up in the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands.
Yet people use these terms every day as if they have a single and specific referent.
I just looked at a Kansas County map, it’s like a checkerboard with tons of equal-sized square (or nearly square) counties.
So you must have dozens of, what would they be called, “Quad County Areas”? “Four Corners Areas”? Or is that not a thing in Kansas?
California counties vary so much, we have lots of small irregular-shaped counties in the middle of the State, while most of the southeast quadrant of the State is just three enormous counties. San Bernardino County is the largest county in the 48 contiguous States, larger than some States, and even some Nations.
Interestingly enough, we Kansas don’t go down that quad or tri path very often…at least that I can think of. I can think of one bar in KC that’s the Tri-City Tavern, and everyone I know has always thought WTF??? We have no clue what three cities they’re talking about because the darn place is only on a border with two cities.
In Minnesota, every now and then (but seldom) you’d hear mention of “the Tri-State Area”. Nothing ever got specified, but out of 15 possible combinations, I always assumed the other two states must be Iowa and Wisconsin, because we traditionally have a longstanding love-hate relationship that doesn’t seem to apply to North and South Dakota. But there was always that doubt! I haven’t heard the term in quite a while, now that I think of it. Maybe we finally figured out that it’s a lazy and dumbass way to put things.
