FLYOVER COUNTRY

(FLY.oh.vur kun.tree)

n.

Pejorative nickname for middle America, most often used by people on the east or west coast. Also: fly-over country.

As the Clinton White House took on the appearance of the Playboy Mansion East, it somehow seemed natural for habitues of the Playboy Mansion West to pose as watchdogs of democracy. In the go-go management language of the era, L.A. and D.C. spotted a "market inefficiency" in their longtime practice of maintaining separate A-lists. Why not join up and make it one big party? So they did, but the public felt a little left out.The folks in flyover country felt overflown by this swinging bicoastal encounter session.

— Walter Kirn, "The End of the Affair," The New York Times, May 26, 2002

The critics of "fly-over" country adored "Hannah and Her Sisters" as much as the official organizations of the L.A. and New York critic associations — both of which groups named "Hannah," with rare concurrence, as the Movie of the Year.

— Pat McGilligan and Mark Rowland, "Consensus!!! Crtitics rate 'Hannah' best, Prince worst," Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1987

antirube

birthplace effect

cultural cringe

hillbillying

hyperflier

left coast

mileage millionaire

penturban

proletarian drift

rube-aphobia

rurban

snowbilly

Insults

Aviation

Geography

flyover country ˈflyover ˌcountry noun [uncountable] informal TRAVEL

the middle part of the US, considered as a place that rich, famous, or fashionable people living on the East or West coast of America would never visit, but which they often fly over on journeys to the other coast:

flyover country UK US (also fly-over country) noun [U] (also flyover states [plural]) INFORMAL

► parts of the United States which many people only see when they fly over them on journeys to the other coast, but which they would never visit: »

Despite being based in fly-over country, the Tribune Group took to the Internet early.