redneck

English

Etymology

Compound of red +‎ neck. Compare rooinek.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛdnɛk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

redneck (plural rednecks)

1. (slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A poor, rural, usually white and male, person from the Southern United States or parts of the Midwest and northeast, especially one who has unsophisticated and backward beliefs; sometimes with additional connotations of being bigoted.
   • 1989, “Fight the Power”, in Fear of a Black Planet, performed by Public Enemy:

     Sample a look back you look and find / Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check

2. (historical, slang, US) Any of the miners who wore red bandanas for identification during the West Virginia mine war of 1921.
3. (historical, slang, US) A member of a certain Baltimore street gang, active in 1859.
4. (UK, archaic, 19th and 20th centuries) A Roman Catholic.

Synonyms

• bogan (Australia), cracker, hick, hillbilly, peckerwood, white trash

Derived terms

• redneckish
• redneckism
• rednecky

Translations

uneducated, unsophisticated person

• Bulgarian: селяндур m (seljandur)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 土包子 (zh) (tǔbāozi), 鄉巴佬 (zh), 乡巴佬 (zh) (xiāngbalǎo)

• Esperanto: kamparanaĉo, kampulo
• Finnish: punaniska (fi), juntti (fi)
• French: beauf (fr) m, baraki (fr) m (Belgium)
• Galician: pailán
• German: Prolet (de) m, Proll (de) m, Landpomeranze (de) f
• Icelandic: jói
• Navajo: kʼos łichíʼí

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: redneck m, bondetamp m

• Polish: burak (pl) m
• Portuguese: caipira (pt) m or f
• Russian: дереве́нщина (ru) m or f (derevénščina), неве́жда (ru) m or f (nevéžda), не́уч (ru) m (néuč), лох (ru) m (lox) (slang)
• Spanish: paleto m
• Yiddish: פּויער‎ m (poyer), זשלאָב‎ m (zhlob), העקמענטש‎ m (hekmentsh)