hillbillies
Rural mountain dwellers
Hillbillies is the plural of hillbilly—a person from a remote, rural, mountainous area, especially Appalachia or the Ozarks.
The term carries strong connotations of poverty, lack of education, and backwardness: The Beverly Hillbillies struck oil and moved to California.
It can be affectionate when used by insiders but is often derogatory when applied by outsiders.
The stereotype includes moonshine, banjos, and missing teeth.
Rural Southern laborer stereotype
- yokelNaïve rural person
- hickRural naif, derogatory
- bumpkinUnsophisticated country dweller
- backwoodsRemote, undeveloped rural area
moonshine · overalls · barefoot · banjo · shotgun · outhouse · toothless · ignorant
Eastern U.S. mountain region
- OzarkSouth-central American highlands
- ruralOf the countryside
- hollersShouts or cries loudly
- TennesseeSixteenth state admitted
Kentucky · West Virginia · Arkansas · Southern · backcountry · ridge · hollow · cabin
Community-born acoustic songs
- bluegrassAcoustic Appalachian folk music
- cloggingObstructing a passage
- square danceChoreographed folk gathering
- quiltingLayered fabric stitching
storytelling · oral tradition · fiddle · dulcimer · handicrafts · heritage · Scots-Irish · subsistence
Donkey vocalization, or TV show
- DogpatchRundown rural settlement
- JustifiedHarlan County marshal
- feudBitter ongoing rivalry
- caricatureExaggerated comic depiction
sitcom · parody · exploitation · Wrong Turn
redneck
Rural Southern laborer stereotype
backwoods · moonshine · overalls · barefoot · banjo · shotgun · outhouse · toothless · ignorant · inbred
Appalachian
Eastern U.S. mountain region
Tennessee · Kentucky · West Virginia · Arkansas · Southern · backcountry · ridge · hollow · cabin · homestead
folk music
Community-born acoustic songs
- bluegrassAcoustic Appalachian folk music
- cloggingObstructing a passage
- square danceChoreographed folk gathering
quilting · storytelling · oral tradition · fiddle · dulcimer · handicrafts · heritage · Scots-Irish · subsistence · self-reliance
Hee Haw
Donkey vocalization, or TV show
caricature · sitcom · parody · exploitation · Wrong Turn
- rural peoplefarmer, villagers, farmhand, farmworker, farmers
- easy targetssuckers, dupes, marks, patsies, rubes
- frontier Americapioneers, settlers, homesteaders, homesteading, sodbusters
- rural folkpeasantry, countryfolk, farmers, farmhands, farm workers
- SouthernersAlabaman, Alabamian, Alabamians, Arkansan, Arkansans
hillbilliescity slickers
Urban dwellers, countryside-naive
urbanites · city dwellers · metropolitans · cosmopolitans · Manhattanites
hillbillieselites
Privileged powerful groups
sophisticates · aristocrats · upper crust · bluebloods · high society
- The Beverly HillbilliesRural family strikes oil, moves west
- beverly hillbillies