rube
Easy mark, countrified
A rube is an unsophisticated person, especially one from a rural area who is easily fooled or impressed by city ways.
The word carries condescension—it's what a carnival barker calls the marks, what a con artist sees in an easy target: Those rubes will believe anything.
The term comes from the name Reuben, once stereotypically associated with country folk.
Sovereign state or territory
- hickRural naif, derogatory
- yokelNaïve rural person
- bumpkinUnsophisticated country dweller
- hayseedSlang for rustic person
hillbilly · rustic · provincial · small-town · backwoods · boondocks · backwater · cornpone
Easily deceived
- unsophisticatedLacking refinement or complexity
- naiveInnocently unsuspecting
- credulousProne to blind trust
- trustingInclined to believe others
ingenuous · unworldly · simple · artless · guileless · inexperienced · callow · green
country
Sovereign state or territory
hayseed · hillbilly · rustic · provincial · small-town · backwoods · boondocks · backwater · cornpone · clodhopper
gullible
Easily deceived
- unsophisticatedLacking refinement or complexity
- naiveInnocently unsuspecting
- credulousProne to blind trust
trusting · ingenuous · unworldly · simple · artless · guileless · inexperienced · callow · green · unassuming
con
Argument against
hustle · bamboozle · hoodwink · fleece · deceive · cheat · fraud · flimflam · hoax · grift
dupe
Deceive or victim
pigeon · victim · fall-guy · chump · sap · stooge · pushover · soft-touch · gull · fool
rubesophisticate
Worldly, cultured person
cosmopolitan · slicker · man of the world · smoothie · woman of the world
rubeurbanite
Metropolitan resident
cosmopolite · metropolitan · city dweller · suburbanite · townie
- Rube GoldbergUnnecessarily complicated mechanism
- Rube Goldberg machineNeedlessly convoluted mechanism