March 4th, 2005

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Words
12 Comments »

Epithets for Country Folk

For some strange reason, back at the first or second Vancouver blogger meetup, I started collecting synonyms for ‘hick’. I promptly forgot about them until I was paging through my notebook. Here’s my list, with country of origin (where available):

  • rock spider - South Africa
  • muck savage - Ireland (my personal favourite)
  • bog muncher - Ireland
  • cultchie - Ireland
  • campesino - Spain? Mexico?
  • bumpkin
  • redneck
  • okie
  • pigfucker
  • local yokel
  • moosefucker (one word or two?)
  • billy bob
  • bubba

Do you have other suggestions? Leave a comment.

Comments: 12 Responses so far

Rebecca
March 4th, 2005
7:47 pm

An Australian term I’ve heard used is “yabbo”, which is the equivalent of a redneck.

[Reply]

Vaguely anonymous poster
March 5th, 2005
12:49 am

Ralph Klein?

[Reply]

Ianiv
March 5th, 2005
12:25 pm

I wouldn’t put Campesino in the list, it just means “farmer”.

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Lovewine
March 5th, 2005
5:07 pm

Rebecca is right, but its Yobbo.
Hick

[Reply]

Arieanna
March 5th, 2005
9:41 pm

Here are some options from Thesaurus.com:

rustic
clodhopper
backwoodsman
boor
clod
clodhopper
clown
corn-fed
country boy
country cousin
countryman
farmer
hayseed
hillbilly
jake
mossback
mountaineer
peasant
provincial
rube
rural
wahoo
yokel

[Reply]

Adrian Rossouw
March 6th, 2005
5:46 am

I have heard rock spider being used as a racial slur against the portuguese, due to them being overly hairy.

But I can’t account for all uses of the phrase. =)

[Reply]

Vero
March 6th, 2005
12:05 pm

English words for “hick”:

gippo
pikey

and the ultimate favourite British word of the year: Chav.

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EuroCanuck
March 6th, 2005
2:11 pm

One which we have in Switzerland is:

Bünzli
(Swiss German- Dialect)

http://eurocanuck.blogspot.com/

[Reply]

John Keyes
March 6th, 2005
3:34 pm

Another Irish term is “bog warrior”.

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donna
March 7th, 2005
11:59 am

heehee. I see “pigfucker” and automatically think “fuckpig”. This is not the same thing whatsoever, but amuses me nonetheless.

fuckpig. hee.

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Arwen
March 8th, 2005
4:53 pm

Maybe interesting to word nerds - the word “villain” started out, during the middle ages, meaning rustic or low born hicks… like villa = country house: same roots.

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Bess
March 8th, 2005
7:37 pm

Pigfucker- That’s not a synonym for hick that is a term of endearment at our house. Shitkickers and goatropers on the otherhand are hicks.

[Reply]

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