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	Delmarva Peninsula is part of WikiProject Delaware, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Delaware.	Delaware Portal
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	Delmarva Peninsula is part of WikiProject Maryland, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Maryland.
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[edit] An island?

Only technically. If you want to say that the Delmarva is an island, then technically the entire state of Indiana is on an "island", since the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway, combined with the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, made it possible to sail from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico, up the Atlantic Seaboard, and up the St. Lawrence, through the Great Lakes, until you returned to Chicago. Does that make the Eastern US an "island"? Of course not. Islands are not created when canals cross isthmi. Unschool 07:00, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree. With that same logic, that would mean every country in South America and Africa are all "island nations", thanks to canals across their isthmi (the Panama and Suez Canals). That is backward logic and while it's acceptible to reference its existance, nothing more should come of it as it is still a peninsula; manmade bodies of water do not effect or change the status. EaglesFanInTampa (formerly Jimbo) 13:36, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Older name?

If the name Delmarva is less than 100 years old, surely the peninsula must have been called something before that. What was it known as in the 1800s? --Reuben (talk) 05:41, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

There was no collective name for the peninsula, just as there's no special name for the part of southern New Jersey that's essentially also peninsular. The parts of Maryland and Virginia on the peninsula were known as the Eastern Shores of Maryland & Virginia, and the whole east side of the Chesapeake Bay as the Eastern Shore--the rest of the peninsula was Delaware. Pilch62 (talk) 01:22, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

I went through a set of historical maps, and just as you said, none of them give a name for the peninsula. It's very surprising that such a prominent geographical feature could remain nameless for so long, but I suppose it just shows that a few hundred years ago, peninsulas weren't considered objects that needed to be named. Thanks for the information. --Reuben (talk) 03:20, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

My take on it is this: until the 20th century, most travel around the peninsula was done by ship, and was in any case mainly between the two sides of the Chesapeake Bay. To us, today, referring to the "Eastern Shore" seems odd, since we never travel via the Bay. And since the water features were all named, naming the mass of land they (almost) surround was of only secondary importance. Another example of an unnamed peninsula: I live in San Francisco, but the peninsula of land on which it sits doesn't have an aggregate name, except "the Peninsula". And in SF, at least, only the part south of SF is "the Peninsula". Pilch62 (talk) 05:57, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Actually I believe it is properly named the "San Francisco Peninsula," and the name goes back some time. If you search Google Books, you can find it in use in the mid-1800's at least. --Reuben (talk) 07:33, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Whaddya know!! I don't ever remember hearing it called that here, tho' the fact that it's the "San Francisco" peninsula makes it a confusing moniker, at best. I also see that about 1/2 those Google Book cites reference "San Francisco peninsula", with a small "p". The opposing peninsula I see from the same source(s) is called the "Marin Peninsula", tho' again no one here refers to it as such--just "Marin", which is usually taken to refer to the county, not the peninsula. My search for another unnamed peninsula continues . . . Pilch62 (talk) 17:37, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Good point; the names of peninsulas seem to be often in limbo between being proper names and simple descriptions. That made me think of looking in Google books from the 1800s for other names for the Delmarva Peninsula. There were a variety of hits for "Maryland Peninsula," "Delaware and Maryland Peninsula," "Delaware Peninsula," "Chesapeake Peninsula," "Chesapeake and Delaware Peninsula," etc., with variable capitalization and ordering. So it seems like peninsulas often borrow the names of the places on them, and don't have unique or very fixed names, unlike islands. --Reuben (talk) 04:15, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

And I just did the same search, using "Eastern Shore Peninsula", for which there are a number of citations, as well as "Eastern Shore peninsula", small "p". In other places the "Eastern Shore" was said to be the entire peninsula. Paradoxically, the Delmarva Peninsula is made up of many smaller peninsulas, or "necks", between rivers and creeks, and the vast majority of those have names going back to the colonial period, unlike the peninsula as a whole. Very interesting discussion--thanks! Pilch62 (talk) 05:15, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Blend vs. portmanteau

let me just say that, as someone who tries to keep an eye on this article, my initial instincts in light of Ottava Rima's edits screamed "interloper!" but now that i go and look it up, Blend is, technically, correct. - Metanoid (talk, email) 18:24, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, I'm not sure there is truly consensus on whether portmanteau is incorrect, and there are quite a few posters on Ottavo Rima's talk page (and on the portmanteau talk page Pilch62 (talk) 19:21, 21 March 2008 (UTC)) who are objecting to him changing every instance he can find. The other issue is that "blend" is confusing in that it although it may be a term of art in linguistics (and I'm not convinced yet that it's truly more apt than "portmanteau" even in that context), it's also a word that's used in many different ways. "Portmanteau" is not obviously wrong, and is less confusing to the layperson.

What about "acronym"? I know that they're usually just first letters of words, but there are certainly occasions when at least the second letter is included.

PS: Metanoid, you're from the Eastern Shore? Pilch62 (talk) 19:11, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

indeed i am! but i guess that's neither here nor there where this issue is concerned. :) "acronym" seems less ambiguous than the other options (though i really really like the word "portmanteau"!). whoever was the last editor before you, maybe we'll see what s/he thinks, but otherwise, "acronym" suits me fine. - Metanoid (talk, email) 00:16, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, the whole discussion of portmanteau is being taken to a new level (downward, unfortunately), and the initiator of said discussion has been blocked, so for the time being I think leaving it as it is is just fine. I, too, like the word! Pilch62 (talk) 00:25, 22 March 2008 (UTC)