On _hoosier_ as an insult, etc.

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Tue Mar 13 20:00:35 UTC 2012


HDAS 2 explains all (except the etymology of "hoosier").

And there *is* a difference: 'Indianan' is now neutral or affectionate.
'Rural doofus' is not.

JL




On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:25 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: On _hoosier_ as an insult, etc.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 2:48 PM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On the two meanings of "hoosier," you may be making a distinction
> > without a difference. Â  And I say that as an accidental Hoosier. Â  In
> > the 1989 Sean Penn/Robert De Niro film "We're no Angels," the two are
> > escaped convicts approaching a small town on the Canadian border
> > somewhere in the Northwest, I think. Â They're going to impersonate
> > priests and hide out in a monastery. Â Penn doesn't think it'll work
> > and says to De Niro, "They'll think we're hoosiers." Â That meaning
> > clearly goes beyond St. Louis and its county--at least to Hollywood.
>
>
> Now that you've reminded me, I recall that very scene. Youneverknow. Good
> point!
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list