Wordsmithing

Somewhere in the last month, Dewayne and I had a conversation around language and geography. He noticed that while I refer to my homeland as "Southern Oregon," one would probably say "South Florida," not "Southern Florida." We couldn't seem to determine any sort of regional pattern as to why, either.

I may have stumbled across another. Driving through Lake County's orange groves yesterday, I wondered why they are "groves" and not the "orchards" of my youth (apples, pears, and almonds). Merriam-Webster defines them similarly, so again, no clear pattern (that I can see) as to why you use one word and not another.