[Editor's note: Continuing series of word tag clouds as maps.]
Republished from StrangeMaps. Orig published there Jan. 17,
2009. The US goes by the motto In God We Trust (but only since
1956, when it replaced the ‘unofficial’ motto, E pluribus unum).
A motto (from the Italian word for pledge, plural mottos or
mottoes) describes a quality or intention that a group of people
aim to live up to – a mission statement of sorts. As such,
America’s newer motto has invited more controversy than the
older one, since it seems to run counter to the principle of
separation of church and state. Its introduction did seem to
make sense at the time, what with the Cold War against those
godless communists. As demonstrated on this map, the 50 states
making up the US each have their own motto too. The two-and-a-
half score state mottos display a wide variety, of quotations,
languages and underlying messages. English is the favourite
language, but not even by half: only 24 state mottos are
originally in English; Latin, once the la