Yoopers, rejoice: You are getting the recognition you deserve from the dictionary itself.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary's word of the day today is "Yooper," which it defines as "a native or resident of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan — used as a nickname."

The first known use of the word was in 1975, according to Merriam-Webster, and it comes from the Upper Peninsula's nickname, the U.P.

Yooper is a much friendlier designation than, say, trolls — referring to people under the mighty Mackinac Bridge. "That nickname (trolls) is still at this point too regional for entry in our dictionaries," Merriam-Webster wrote under its entry for "Yooper."

The population of Michigan's Upper Peninsula is about 302,000, less than half of Detroit's population of about 673,000, according to government figures.

But that doesn't mean Yoopers and their impact should be disregarded as nominal, as Mountain Dew did when it included the Upper Peninsula as part of Wisconsin on a map in a tweet. After all, the president of the United States once sued a northern Michigan newspaper.

Teddy Roosevelt, who was running for president in 1912, sued the editor of the now-defunct, Ishpeming-based Iron Ore the year after the election.

"Roosevelt lies and curses in a most disgusting way; he gets drunk, too, and that not infrequently ... he is the poorest loser we ever knew!" the paper published.

Roosevelt won the lawsuit.

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Contact Omar Abdel-Baqui: 313-222-2514 or oabdelbaqu@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @omarabdelb