Yokel

Yokel

Yokel is a derogatory term referring to the stereotype of unsophisticated country people.

Contents

Stereotype

In the US, it is used to describe someone living in rural areas. Synonyms for yokel include country bumpkin, hayseed, chawbacon, rube, redneck and hick.

In the UK, yokels are traditionally depicted as wearing the old West Country/farmhand's dress of straw hat and white smock, chewing or sucking a piece of straw and carrying a pitchfork or rake, listening to "Scrumpy and Western" music. Yokels are portrayed as living in rural areas of Britain such as the West Country, East Anglia, the Yorkshire Dales, the Scottish Highlands and Wales. British yokels speak with country dialects from various parts of Britain.[1]

Yokels are depicted as straightforward, simple and naive, and they are easily deceived as they fail to see through false pretenses.[citation needed] They are also depicted as talking about bucolic topics like cows, sheep, goats, wheat, alfalfa, fields, crops, tractors, and buxom wenches to the exclusion of all else. They don't seem to be aware of, or at least show interest in, the world outside their own surroundings.[citation needed]

Usage

The development of television brought many previously isolated communities into mainstream British culture in the 1950s and 1960s. The Internet continues this integration, further eroding the town/country divide. In the 21st century British country folk are less frequently seen as yokels. In British TV Show The Two Ronnies, it was asserted that despite political correctness, it is possible to poke fun at yokels as no one sees oneself as being one.

Similar terms

Teuchter

In Scotland, those from the Highlands and Islands, Moray, Aberdeenshire, and other rural areas are often referred to by urban or lowland Scots as teuchters.

Origins of "hick"

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the term is a "by-form" of the personal name Richard (like Dick) and Hob (like Bob) for Robert. Although the English word "hick" is of recent vintage, distinctions between urban and rural dwellers are ancient.

According to a popular etymology derives from the nickname "Old Hickory" for Andrew Jackson, one of the first Presidents of the United States to come from rural hard-scrabble roots. This nickname suggested that Jackson was tough and enduring like an old Hickory tree. Jackson was particularly admired by the residents of remote and mountainous areas of the United States, people who would come to be known as "hicks."

Though not a term explicitly denoting lower class, some argue that the term degrades impoverished rural people and that "hicks" continue as one of the few groups that can be ridiculed and stereotyped with impunity. In "The Redneck Manifesto," Jim Goad argues that this stereotype has largely served to blind the general population to the economic exploitation of rural areas, specifically in Appalachia, the South, and parts of the Midwest.

Famous fictional yokels

See also

References

Further reading

  • Goad, Jim. (1997). The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684838648

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • yokel — (n.) 1812, perhaps from dialectal Ger. Jokel, disparaging name for a farmer, originally dim. of Jakob. Or perhaps from English yokel, dialectal name for woodpecker …   Etymology dictionary

  • yokel — ► NOUN ▪ an unsophisticated country person. ORIGIN perhaps from dialect yokel «green woodpecker» …   English terms dictionary

  • Yokel — Yo kel, n. [Perhaps from an AS. word akin to E. gawk.] A country bumpkin. [Eng.] Dickens. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • yokel — bumpkin, hick, rube, clodhopper, clown, lout, *boor, churl …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • yokel — [n] person who is mired in local custom backwoods person, boor*, country cousin*, country person, hayseed*, peasant, rustic; concept 413 …   New thesaurus

  • yokel — [yō′kəl] n. [prob. < dial., green woodpecker] a person living in a rural area; rustic; country bumpkin: a contemptuous term …   English World dictionary

  • yokel — UK [ˈjəʊk(ə)l] / US [ˈjoʊk(ə)l] noun [countable] Word forms yokel : singular yokel plural yokels impolite someone who is not very intelligent or who does not know a lot about the world, usually because they come from a small town or village …   English dictionary

  • yokel —    A contemptuous term for a country bumpkin, in use since the beginning of the nineteenth century. It may derive from the connection of a yoke with a ploughman, though yokel was also a dialect word for a kind of woodpecker. The word is not often …   A dictionary of epithets and terms of address

  • yokel — noun Etymology: perhaps from English dialect yokel green woodpecker, of imitative origin Date: circa 1812 a naive or gullible inhabitant of a rural area or small town …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • yokel — yo|kel [ˈjəukəl US ˈjou ] n [Date: 1800 1900; Origin: Perhaps from yokel green woodpecker ] someone who comes from the countryside, seems stupid, and does not know much about modern life, ideas etc used humorously …   Dictionary of contemporary English

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”