[ot] foreign insults for farmers
Englebert Kupatilo
implying crudity and lack of sophistication. Someone once suggested to
me that "yonker" is also an insult for a rural dweller.
There is a similar insult in Slavic languages relating to the proper
name "Seljuk," which actually refers to a people that overran Turkey
prior to the institution of the Ottoman Empire. In some Slavic
languages "Seljuk" and variants of that word are used much as "yokel"
is in English.
Just wondering if anyone knows other words, perhaps in other
languages, that make similar references to farmers in a similarly
pejorative way. (The French "paysan" and the German "Bauer" can have
that import, but don't necessarily. They are words that simply mean
"country dweller" or "farmer.")
Reinhold {Rey} Aman
There are many such terms. Just beginning with English ones:
"bumpkin" and "clodhopper."
--
~~~ Reinhold {Rey} Aman ~~~
Dites-moi pourquoi la vie est merde...
http://aman.members.sonic.net/aman.html
tony cooper
A yokel, in Ireland, is a culchie.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
Reinhold {Rey} Aman
>
> There are many such terms. Just beginning with English ones:
>
> "bumpkin" and "clodhopper."
>
Reinhold {Rey} Aman
>
> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>
>> There are many such terms. Just beginning with English ones:
>>
>> "bumpkin" and "clodhopper."
>>
> And, of course, "peasant."
>
Steve Hayes
<englebert...@gmail.com> wrote:
>The insult in English is "yokel," ostensibly referring to a farmer but
>implying crudity and lack of sophistication. Someone once suggested to
>me that "yonker" is also an insult for a rural dweller.
"Peasant" has sometimes been used as an insult in English, as has "boor" (from
Dutch/Afrikaans "boer"). Churl, but more especially "churlish" (resembling a
churl). Yokel as a term for any rural dweller, not necessarily a farmer, as
also fairly insulting. "Villain", which now means an all-round bad guy,
originally meant a farm labourer.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Reinhold {Rey} Aman
> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>>
>>> There are many such terms. Just beginning with English ones:
>>>
>>> "bumpkin" and "clodhopper."
>>>
>> And, of course, "peasant."
>>
> Not to mention "hick."
>
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
<englebert...@gmail.com> wrote:
There is the phrase "country bumpkin".
"Teuchter" is used in ScottishE.
http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?query=teuchter&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=all
TEUCHTER, n. A term of disparagement or contempt used in Central
Scotland for a Highlander, esp. one speaking Gaelic, or anyone from
the North, an uncouth, countrified person (Cai., e. and wm.Sc.
1972), jocularly also applied to animals. Also attrib. [?tjuxt?r]
....
1962 Scotsman (26 Jan.) 11:
There is ample evidence that she referred to him as a 'teuchter,' a
word which I understand to mean a country bumpkin.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=teuchter
1. teuchter
....
....
Basically the Scottish equivalent of an American hick.
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
J. J. Lodder
Dutch has 'kinkel' or eq. 'boerenkinkel',
which is a good equivalent for English yokel.
The standing of 'boer' itself is ambiguous,
Jan
Pablo
In Spanish "cateto" or "campesino".
--
Pablo
Lanarcam
John Dunlop
> "Teuchter" is used in ScottishE.
I've heard the first line of the song Sam the Skull changed from
I'm a cat, I'm a cat, I'm a Glesga cat ...
to
You're a cunt, you're a cunt, you're a country boy ...
--
John
John Dean
I'd like to say a word for the shit-kicker
He came out here and built a lot of fences.
--
John Dean
Oxford
Christian Weisgerber
> Just wondering if anyone knows other words, perhaps in other
> languages, that make similar references to farmers in a similarly
> pejorative way.
I don't know what the connotations in Spanish are, but when used
in English "peon" isn't all that complimentary.
--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber na...@mips.inka.de
Jerry Friedman
Also "naco", in Mexico. That's the word used to translate and adapt
Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck" jokes. Incidentally, nobody
has mentioned "redneck" or "hillbilly" that I've seen.
"Clown" originally meant a farmer or country person, hence also an
uncultivated person (that's odd), hence the modern meaning, I assume
after comic rustics in plays.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clown
--
Jerry Friedman
Pat Durkin
"John Dean" <john...@fraglineone.net> wrote in message
news:8qqkmr...@mid.individual.net...
Clodhopper. Hayseed.
Evan Kirshenbaum
> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>>>
>>>> There are many such terms. Just beginning with English ones:
>>>>
>>>> "bumpkin" and "clodhopper."
>>>>
>>> And, of course, "peasant."
>>>
>> Not to mention "hick."
>>
> And "rube."
Hayseed.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
Still with HP Labs |If a bus station is where a bus
SF Bay Area (1982-) |stops, and a train station is where
Chicago (1964-1982) |a train stops, what does that say
|about a workstation?
evan.kir...@gmail.com
Pablo
> Englebert Kupatilo <englebert...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Just wondering if anyone knows other words, perhaps in other
>> languages, that make similar references to farmers in a similarly
>> pejorative way.
>
> I don't know what the connotations in Spanish are, but when used
> in English "peon" isn't all that complimentary.
>
As far as I know, it's one rung down from albañil. Like labourer or hod-
carrier.
--
Pablo
R H Draney
>
>Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>>>
>>>> There are many such terms. Just beginning with English ones:
>>>>
>>>> "bumpkin" and "clodhopper."
>>>>
>>> And, of course, "peasant."
>>>
>> Not to mention "hick."
>>
>And "rube."
Isn't "rube" derived from the given name "Reuben", and means a farmer only
because there were once a lot of farmers with that name?...
And isn't "hey, rube!" also a respectful (given the context) form of address
used by carnies?...r
--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.
R H Draney
>> He came out here and built a lot of fences.
>
>Clodhopper. Hayseed.
Around 1973-4, there was a wave of people in my school asking one another "are
you 'cat' or 'swing'?"...you weren't permitted to ask what the hell they were
talking about before answering, but it turned out that "swing" meant you liked
country music and "cat" was "city" music (whatever that was)...if you refused to
take one side or the other, you were told "then you're a hick"....
Social demographics in southwestern New Mexico in those days broke down into
three groups: country music people, rock and roll people, and "Mexicans" (who
listened to "soul", which was what we called R&B back then; their parents
preferred the likes of Flaco Jimenez)...nobody crossed the rock/country line
until years later....r
Jerry Friedman
> Reinhold {Rey} Aman filted:
>
>
>
> >Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
> >> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
> >>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>
> >>>> There are many such terms. Just beginning with English ones:
>
> >>>> "bumpkin" and "clodhopper."
>
> >>> And, of course, "peasant."
>
> >> Not to mention "hick."
>
> >And "rube."
>
> Isn't "rube" derived from the given name "Reuben", and means a farmer only
> because there were once a lot of farmers with that name?...
Yep. Same with "hick", once a nickname for "Richard", like "Hob" for
"Robert" and "Hodge" for "Roger", all of which show up in surnames and
used to have the same meaning as "hick", according to the OED.
> And isn't "hey, rube!" also a respectful (given the context) form of address
> used by carnies?...r
I thought it was an emergency call to fellow carnies, but I don't know
from this stuff.
--
Jerry Friedman
John Varela
Many urban people seem to think that any rural person is a redneck,
especially if he has a southern accent.
--
John Varela
Jerry Friedman
Heck, many urban people in the north think anyone with a southern
accent is a redneck.
--
Jerry Friedman
Cheryl
I didn't think carnies had a respectful form of address for their customer.s
--
Cheryl
R H Draney
If I have the context right, it's not a form of address for their customers, but
for fellow carnies....r
Adam Funk
> I've heard the first line of the song Sam the Skull changed from
>
> I'm a cat, I'm a cat, I'm a Glesga cat ...
>
> to
>
> You're a cunt, you're a cunt, you're a country boy ...
Cf. about 0:20 ff. of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmsOIjzQ1V8
--
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of
the American public. [Mencken]
Don Phillipson
news:ii9ia...@drn.newsguy.com...
> And isn't "hey, rube!" also a respectful (given the context) form of
> address
> used by carnies?...r
It's 50 years since I worked a cat-rack, but "Hey Rube" was then
the rallying call for a fight between carnies and dissatisfied clients.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
Don Phillipson
news:3a0e98d6-0679-4544...@y3g2000vbh.googlegroups.com...
> The insult in English is "yokel," ostensibly referring to a farmer but
> implying crudity and lack of sophistication.
"Swede basher" was the usual classification for country boys
in recruit training depots of the RAF in the 1950s. "Yokel"
was too literary a term for our drill sergeants.
Mike Lyle
wrote:
Welsh English has "hambo", for "hambone". I've never quite understood
why "peasant" is virtually always pejorative in English.
--
Mike.
franzi
Reuben Starkadder (said to have been played by Brian Blessed in a
palaeolithic television age)?
--
franzi (alias Urk the Barbarian)
Robert Bannister
Years since I read the book, but didn't she think, long before she
actually got there, that the place would full of people called Reuben
and Seth?
--
Rob Bannister
franzi
>On 2/02/11 7:09 AM, franzi wrote:
>> R H Draney <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote
>>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman filted:
>>>> And "rube."
>>>
>>> Isn't "rube" derived from the given name "Reuben", and means a farmer
>>> only
>>> because there were once a lot of farmers with that name?...
>>>
>>> And isn't "hey, rube!" also a respectful (given the context) form of
>>> address
>>> used by carnies?...r
>>>
>> Where would be the satire in Cold Comfort Farm if Amos' heir weren't
>> Reuben Starkadder (said to have been played by Brian Blessed in a
>> palaeolithic television age)?
>
>Years since I read the book, but didn't she think, long before she
>actually got there, that the place would full of people called Reuben
>and Seth?
>
They were her cousins of some kind, so she probably knew.
"Big Business" may have come as a surprise.
--
franzi
Jerry Friedman
> On 2/02/11 7:09 AM, franzi wrote:
>
>
>
Previewable at GB:
"'I think if I find that I have any third cousins living at Cold
Comfort Farm (young ones, you know, children of Cousin Judith) who are
named Seth, or Reuben, I shall decide not to go.'
"'Why?'
"'Oh, because highly-sexed young men living on farms are always called
Seth or Reuben, and it would be such a nuisance. And my cousin's name,
remember, is Judith. That in itself is most ominous. Her husband is
almost certain to be called Amos; and if he /is,/ it will be a typical
farm, and you know what /they/ are like.'"
Old Testament names were definitely out of style then. It reminds me
of Harriet Vane and Peter Wimsey both thinking her middle name,
Deborah, was embarrassing. When I was little, Deborahs and Debras
were everywhere, and a girl named "Harriet" would have been
embarrassed. (But, obaue, I've met one woman my age named Harriet,
and her complaint was that her Midwestern friends called her "Hairy".)
--
Jerry Friedman
John Varela
<jerry_f...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Feb 1, 11:38�am, "John Varela" <newla...@verizon.net> wrote:
> > On Tue, 1 Feb 2011 03:44:50 UTC, Englebert Kupatilo
> >
> >
> > Many urban people seem to think that any rural person is a redneck,
> > especially if he has a southern accent.
>
> Heck, many urban people in the north think anyone with a southern
> accent is a redneck.
I used to know a radar engineer who was a manager at the FAA. He was
from Mansfield, LA, up near Shreveport, and he had no Southern
accent. (I myself am from New Orleans and have a trace of a
particular New Orleans accent that doesn't sound Southern.) So I
asked him why he had no Southern accent. He replied that when he
came North to Washington during WWII to work on radar at the Naval
Research Lab he quickly learned that if you have a Southern accent
everybody thinks you're stupid. So he learned to speak differently.
--
John Varela
John Varela
<e9...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote:
> "Englebert Kupatilo" <englebert...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:3a0e98d6-0679-4544...@y3g2000vbh.googlegroups.com...
>
> > The insult in English is "yokel," ostensibly referring to a farmer but
> > implying crudity and lack of sophistication.
>
> "Swede basher" was the usual classification for country boys
> in recruit training depots of the RAF in the 1950s. "Yokel"
> was too literary a term for our drill sergeants.
Did "swede" in that expression mean a kind of turnip?
--
John Varela
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
Yes. People in some strange and mysterious foreign lands call a Swede a
Rutabaga:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
Frank ess
"Robert Bannister" <rob...@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:8qrq56...@mid.individual.net...
> On 2/02/11 7:09 AM, franzi wrote:
>> R H Draney <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote
>>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman filted:
>>>>
>>>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>>>>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>>>>>> Reinhold {Rey} Aman wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> There are many such terms. Just beginning with English ones:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "bumpkin" and "clodhopper."
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> And, of course, "peasant."
>>>>>>
>>>>> Not to mention "hick."
>>>>>
>>>> And "rube."
>>>
>>> Isn't "rube" derived from the given name "Reuben", and means a farmer
>>> only
>>> because there were once a lot of farmers with that name?...
>>>
>>> And isn't "hey, rube!" also a respectful (given the context) form of
>>> address
>>> used by carnies?...r
>>>
WIRI*, "Hey, Rube!" was a call for other carnies to come to battle or to the
aid of the caller.
*(The) Way I Remember It
--
Frank ess
Robert Bannister
Kind of turnip or kind of beet? I'd have thought those softish,
sweetish, orangey things were more like a beet. Compared with the noble,
crisp, spicy, white-in-purple turnip, they are pitiful.
--
Rob Bannister
Donna Richoux
I found my copy (the book is not on-line, being from the 1930s). On page
23, Flora writes to "the unknown and distant relatives in Sussex" and on
page 24, she says to a friend,
'I think if I find I have any third cousins living at Cold Comfort Farm
(young ones, you know, children of Cousin Judith) who are named Seth, or
Reuben, I shall decide not to go.'
'Why?'
'Oh, because highly sexed young men living on farms are always called
Seth or Reuben, and it would be such a nuisance..."
--
Best -- Donna Richoux
Jerry Friedman
> On 3/02/11 4:24 AM, John Varela wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 1 Feb 2011 22:22:11 UTC, "Don Phillipson"
>
> >> "Englebert Kupatilo"<englebert.kupat...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> >>news:3a0e98d6-0679-4544...@y3g2000vbh.googlegroups.com...
>
> >>> The insult in English is "yokel," ostensibly referring to a farmer but
> >>> implying crudity and lack of sophistication.
>
> >> "Swede basher" was the usual classification for country boys
> >> in recruit training depots of the RAF in the 1950s. "Yokel"
> >> was too literary a term for our drill sergeants.
>
> > Did "swede" in that expression mean a kind of turnip?
>
> Kind of turnip or kind of beet? I'd have thought those softish,
> sweetish, orangey things were more like a beet.
The very few rutabagas I've bought in America had no trace of softness
or sweetness.
> Compared with the noble,
> crisp, spicy, white-in-purple turnip, they are pitiful.
According to Wikip, they're the result of a morganatic hybrid between
the turnip and the cabbage. Beets are in a different order.
--
Jerry Friedman
Robert Bannister
> On Feb 2, 5:21 pm, Robert Bannister<robb...@bigpond.com> wrote:
>> On 3/02/11 4:24 AM, John Varela wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, 1 Feb 2011 22:22:11 UTC, "Don Phillipson"
>>> <e...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote:
>>
>>>> "Englebert Kupatilo"<englebert.kupat...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:3a0e98d6-0679-4544...@y3g2000vbh.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>>>> The insult in English is "yokel," ostensibly referring to a farmer but
>>>>> implying crudity and lack of sophistication.
>>
>>>> "Swede basher" was the usual classification for country boys
>>>> in recruit training depots of the RAF in the 1950s. "Yokel"
>>>> was too literary a term for our drill sergeants.
>>
>>> Did "swede" in that expression mean a kind of turnip?
>>
>> Kind of turnip or kind of beet? I'd have thought those softish,
>> sweetish, orangey things were more like a beet.
>
> The very few rutabagas I've bought in America had no trace of softness
> or sweetness.
It's the sweetness that put me off as a child. I can eat them now, but
would prefer yams if I wanted that kind of texture and flavour. I expect
you Americans do unnatural things to the poor Swedes to make them
bitter and hard.
>
>> Compared with the noble,
>> crisp, spicy, white-in-purple turnip, they are pitiful.
>
> According to Wikip, they're the result of a morganatic hybrid between
> the turnip and the cabbage. Beets are in a different order.
I read that and was surprised. Shocked even.
--
Rob Bannister
Evan Kirshenbaum
> It's the sweetness that put me off as a child. I can eat them now,
> but would prefer yams if I wanted that kind of texture and
> flavour. I expect you Americans do unnatural things to the poor
> Swedes to make them bitter and hard.
Nah, Minnesota winters will do that to anybody.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
Still with HP Labs |When correctly viewed,
SF Bay Area (1982-) | Everything is lewd.
Chicago (1964-1982) |I could tell you things
| about Peter Pan,
evan.kir...@gmail.com |and the Wizard of Oz--
| there's a dirty old man!
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ | Tom Lehrer
CDB
>>
> The insult in English is "yokel," ostensibly referring to a farmer
> suggested to me that "yonker" is also an insult for a rural dweller.
>
> There is a similar insult in Slavic languages relating to the proper
> name "Seljuk," which actually refers to a people that overran Turkey
> prior to the institution of the Ottoman Empire. In some Slavic
> languages "Seljuk" and variants of that word are used much as
> "yokel" is in English.
>
> Just wondering if anyone knows other words, perhaps in other
> languages, that make similar references to farmers in a similarly
> pejorative way. (The French "paysan" and the German "Bauer" can have
> that import, but don't necessarily. They are words that simply mean
> "country dweller" or "farmer.")
>>
especially when used as a noun. Cyril, assailed by drunken rustics,
was barely able to escape with his aplomb unplumbed.
HVS
An AmE term was "jay", the root for "jaywalker".
--
Cheers, Harvey
CanEng and BrEng, indiscriminately mixed
Robert Bannister
> Robert Bannister<rob...@bigpond.com> writes:
>
>> It's the sweetness that put me off as a child. I can eat them now,
>> but would prefer yams if I wanted that kind of texture and
>> flavour. I expect you Americans do unnatural things to the poor
>> Swedes to make them bitter and hard.
>
> Nah, Minnesota winters will do that to anybody.
>
<grin>
--
Rob Bannister